Vinyl records have over a century of research and innovation behind them, from when Emile Berliner invented the first gramophone in 1887 up until the modern era. Yet today, artists have to wait months to bring their music to life on a record.

In the mid-20th century, next generation research and development labs at Columbia Broadcasting (CBS), Radio Corporation of America (RCA) , the Audio Engineering Society (AES), and the widely acclaimed Bell Labs pushed the frontier of sound recording. Then, progress stalled to a halt as the vinyl record format faded into irrelevance. No one predicted vinyl’s resurgence, but with the convergence of modern electronics, AI/Machine Learning, signal processing, and robotics, we are picking up where they left off in the 1980s.

The crux of vinyl’s comeback includes nostalgia and tangibility, but the bedrock of its resurgence is economic. Streaming pays virtually nothing to the hardworking artists who power those platforms. On the flip side, the profit an artist makes from selling 100 records equals what they’d earn from 300,000 streams. Vinyl isn’t just a format, it’s a path to a sustainable music career, especially for independent artists.

In spite of this renewed demand, the supply chain has failed to keep up. Even before demand surged, the vinyl production market was fragile. In 2020, the burning down of Apollo Masters, one of only two lacquer disc plants in the world, added insult to injury. Since lacquers are essential to the record pressing process, the industry became even more dependent on a complex, brittle network of legacy industrial processes.

At Lead-In Record Co., our mission is simple:

Our first step? Automating vinyl record production—so artists can share their music on the format they love, without waiting months or relying on legacy supply chains.