Another option for music fans, artists

The owner of a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based recording and audio production studio plans to begin producing short-run albums made using polycarbonate, offering artists a new way to get physical copies of their music into the hands of fans.

With a background in audio production for live musical events, George Paulin worked as an audio engineer in Chicago and moved last year to West Michigan, where he opened Grand Rapids Voice Over from his home.

Paulin recently invested about $3,500 to buy a T560 record-cutting lathe, which will allow his company to produce lathe-cut albums by hand, one by one.

"It's a very fragile art," Paulin told Crain's Grand Rapids Business. "A hand-cut record cannot be exact every single time, like a pressed record. Because of that, hand-cut records are seen as a rare and sought-after thing. There's less of them and they're all unique."

The traditional method of record-making, such as what's practiced at Jack White's Third Man Records in Detroit, involves pressing a master disc into heated vinyl to mass-produce identical copies.

Lathe-cut records are made by cutting grooves directly into a polycarbonate disc using a special record-cutting machine. When done correctly, the lathe-cut process can produce a record in a matter of minutes from pre-recorded audio.

While lathe-cut records are more popular in Europe among younger listeners, they have been slow to catch on in the U.S.

"Here in the United States, there's no one really trying to manufacture something like this," he said. "With my system, I'm able to do it in a 6-by-6 [foot] room and I can make records all day."

To purchase the machine, Paulin recently traveled to the small German village of Hosskirch, where he met with Ulrich Sourisseau, an engineer who has been building T560 vinyl record-cutting lathes for the last 13 years. While in Hosskirch, Paulin learned in-person how to operate and record on the lathe, which Sourisseau requires before selling the machine to customers.

With his newly acquired skills and record-cutting lathe, Paulin now plans to start his own label, tentatively called Great Lakes Records.

"I've been producing music for a long time," he said. "As a kid, I had records pressed and lathe-cut for bands and my own music, and this was just the next step in my adventure to continuing using vinyl as my platform."

Paulin hopes his company will be able to offer small, independent artists more opportunities to market their music and get in on the LP record craze without the lengthy lead times at commercial record-pressing plants, which extend as long as 12 months, according to an industry report last year. That compares to lead times of four to six weeks as recently as five years ago.

"Having records gives artists a way to make income for their band because it's easier to sell a T-shirt or vinyl than to get a million plays on Spotify," Paulin said.

For more than a decade and a half, vinyl albums have been enjoying a renaissance, especially among younger music fans.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America's 2022 end-of-year report, vinyl records (41 million units) outsold CDs (33 million units) for the first time since 1987. Record sales last year spiked 17 percent to $1.2 billion, the 16th consecutive year of growth for the vinyl format.

Vinyl accounted for nearly 71 percent of physical music format revenues, per RIAA data.

As well, entertainment industry data platform Luminate reported last year that Gen Z music listeners are 27 percent more likely to purchase a vinyl record than the average listener and found the average vinyl listener spends 109 percent more on music monthly than the average listener.

"Do all those people have turntables and listen to the vinyl? Probably not so much," Paulin said. "But it's not just the music. It's the cover art, the label on the record, having information like who was the mix engineer, who was the drummer, what instrument was used. It's something that's missing in the digital Spotify world now."

Noting the endless possibilities that come with lathe-cut records, Paulin has the ability to make albums of all sizes and colors and "they all have their own unique sound," creating one-of-a-kind recordings.

Paulin aims to start producing albums in less than three weeks at a rate of around 50 per day. He's also looking for a new space to move his recording operation, which currently operates out of his home.

"It's definitely our goal to become an actual facility and host people to come watch their records get cut," he said.

He plans to market his service to artists in the Midwest and throughout the Great Lakes region, using his connections as an audio engineer to find signed and independent artists who are looking for individualized albums. He also envisions his label working with independent artists around the Great Lakes region.

Since he will create each record by hand, Paulin has no minimum order for albums, making his service accessible for small artists. By comparison, commercial vinyl production facilities require minimum orders in the thousands of units, a difficult investment for many smaller artists.

"The vinyl machine is another way of giving power back to the independent artist. If you're an independent artist, it's almost impossible to get a record [pressed]," Paulin said. "Grand Rapids has its own vibrant vinyl scene with two big record stores and it'd be nice to see local talent have their own vinyl in there."