Vinyl records are not going away if Oxnard's new record-pressing plant has anything to say about it.
Fidelity Record Pressing had its soft opening in January and will hold an invite-only open house for the new LP manufacturing facility on Friday.
“I think people like to have this physical thing,” said Rick Hashimoto, co-founder of the company. “You own it and it’s something to share with everybody. It isn’t like you’re isolated with your earbuds.”
The plant is taking vinyl orders from independent record labels, musicians and other clients. The facility processes and presses both current artists and classic recordings. Some LPs Fidelity has already made include music from Whitney Houston, Santana and Dire Straits.
The operation runs out of a warehouse in the Five Points Northeast neighborhood. The company's materials say the state-of-the-art, 28,000-square-foot facility is California's first record-pressing plant built from the ground up in 40 years. It can produce up to 10,000 LPs a day.
Hashimoto started the company with his son, Edward Hashimoto, along with business partner and co-founder Jim Davis, president of Music Direct, an online retailer of LPs and audio gear.
Fidelity Record Pressing opened as the pressing plant for another of Davis' companies, record label Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab.
Mobile Fidelity, also known as MoFi, was caught up in a class action lawsuit filed in 2022 over accusations its high-end vinyl records, which were advertised as having been made using only analog processes, actually used digital technology in the mastering chain, according to December's final settlement order filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle. In 2023, a federal judge had approved a $25 million settlement, according to a Billboard article. A spokesperson for the company declined to comment on the matter, citing the ongoing legal process, saying the case has been settled but the claims process is ongoing.
In the groove
On a recent Tuesday, Rick Hashimoto and his sons Edward and Alex Hashimoto worked inside the plant, pumping out records, looking over the equipment and making sure everything was running smoothly.
It takes about 30 seconds for the machine to compress the vinyl compound into the shape of a record, Rick Hashimoto said. The entire process to complete a record order, including testing and inserting into sleeves, takes about eight weeks, he said.
“We don't want anything coming out of here that's subpar,” Rick Hashimoto said.
Rick Hashimoto, who used to work at the record pressing plant Record Technology Inc. in Camarillo, said he and his family decided to open a business in Ventura County because they grew up in the area and still live here. The stable climate is conducive for printing records, he said.
Hashimoto, 71, lives in Newbury Park and has been collecting records since he was 11. He’s not a musician but is a big fan of The Beatles and the British Invasion movement.
“I think that I grew up in an amazing time,” Hashimoto said of the 1960s. “I think some of the best music is from the ‘60s and early ‘70s … but there’s been good music every decade.”
Record sales show he is not the only vinyl collector. Consumers purchased 43 million vinyl records in 2023 compared to 37 million compact discs in the same year, according to a Recording Industry Association of America news release. This is the second time since 1987 that album sales have surpassed CDs.
Brandon Salzer, co-owner of Salzer’s Records in Ventura, said vinyl record sales are thriving. Brandon’s father Jim Salzer opened the Ventura record store in 1972. His father’s first record store – now closed – opened in Oxnard in 1966.
Salzer’s had its highest-grossing sales day in 58 years of business on April 20, known as Record Store Day. On that day, Salzer’s and other participating independent record stores sell limited edition records. A line of people wrapped around Salzer’s twice and the first person stood in line for two days, Salzer said.
“I rented port-a-potties to have a bathroom they can use,” Salzer said.
A renewed interest in records makes sense to Salzer because some fans are using records as exclusive, collectible items and others like the superior sound quality. The audio quality of an album is better than streaming services, compact discs or other ways to listen to music, he said.
Salzer doesn’t see vinyl or his business slowing down anytime soon, but he remains cautious.
“Vinyl continues to increase,” he said. “At the same time, the cost of vinyl goes up, as does everything. It is a disposable good.”
Councilmember Bryan MacDonald, who owns some records but said he doesn't listen to them, plans to be at Friday's opening. The record-pressing plant is in his district.
"It's just kind of unique that they landed in Oxnard," MacDonald said.
Wes Woods II covers West County for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at wesley.woodsii@vcstar.com, 805-437-0262 or @JournoWes.
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