Fidelity presses forward in a surging vinyl record industry

A new record pressing plant has opened in Southern California focused on niche content rather than vinyl volume.
"We don't want to do every color of Taylor Swift's records," said Rick Hashimoto, owner of Fidelity Record Pressing. "We don't want to do the records that sell millions and millions of copies. We just wanted to the little niche audio file records that really have a good sound."
Six machines, clones of a record press from Southern Machine and Tool (SMT), are in place at the plant in Oxnard. SMT makes a hydraulic press with modern controls, modern handling, stepper motors and the latest PC controls.
"It's really nice; the old machines relay logic, timers and micro switches. They were good, but they were prone to mechanical breakdowns because they were old," Hashimoto said. "The technology today is so much easier to troubleshoot."

Fidelity uses a proprietary vinyl blend with an ultralow-noise floor. The company had the compound specifically designed for its machines and audience.

Hashimoto said it could double capacity to 12 presses within its existing facility.

Currently, Fidelity is pressing four days a week and producing 6,000-10,000 records a day. By mid-summer, the company hopes to be up to 40,000 records a week.

Hashimoto admits that starting a plant in Southern California brought some extra manufacturing rules, but he did it there because it is where he and his family live. The extra steps meant Fidelity Record Pressing had its building for a year before it could start construction or move in machines.

Finally, in February 2024, the company was able to start the record presses and shipped its first job out in March.

Before opening Fidelity Record Pressing, Hashimoto worked at another pressing plant, Record Technology in Camarillo, Calif., for 40 years. He has continued a business relationship, with Record Technology handling Fidelity Record Pressing's plating.

During Hashimoto's time at Record Technology in the 1990s, when vinyl saw very low demand, the company continued to push forward. It developed a180-gram record for a customer when most records at the time were 120 grams. It took the company five years to figure out how to go into production for 180 grams, which led to more customers and labels.

In the early 1990s, Record Technology was pressing about 100,000 records a year. By the early 2000s, the number jumped to around 2 million records per year. By 2016, Record Technology was producing 4 million records a year.

"The people that want a really good record are willing to pay a little bit extra for that little bit of extra care, and that is who we want to cater to," Hashimoto said.

In 2022, Hashimoto left Record Technology to pursue Fidelity, opening it with his two sons, Edward and Alex, along with their partner Jim Davis, who owns a record label, Mobile Fidelity.