Aussie artists face a seven-month wait for vinyl records due to global supply crisis

Angus Stone and Cold Chisel are local artists suffering from an issue that is causing havoc for the global music scene.

Australian artists have had their album release plans and future chart positions thrown into chaos as Adele, Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, ABBA and Coldplay monopolised the world’s vinyl pressing plants for their latest records.

Adele may have sent Sheeran a “go easy on me” message after the Equals chart slayer recently suggested the world’s biggest pop star had monopolised vinyl pressing plants to produce a mammoth 500,000 copies of her new record 30, which is out next week.

Ed Sheeran sent his Equals album to the vinyl pressing plants in July. Picture: Getty.

But the reality is the vinyl revival has become a victim of its own success, compounded by the global supply chain disruption which has affected consumer goods from cars to wetsuits.

Sheeran submitted the masters of his latest chart-topper Equals in July so the LPs would be manufactured and shipped in time to fulfil fan pre-orders on its October 29 release date.

“So you have to do it like really upfront — and Adele had basically booked out all the vinyl factories, so we had to get a slot and get our album in there,” Sheeran said during a recent interview.

“It was like me, Coldplay, Adele, Taylor, ABBA, Elton (John), all of us were trying to get our vinyls printed at the same time.”

There is huge demand for the ABBA comeback album Voyage on vinyl. PICTURE: Supplied

It’s not just the long queue of artists slowing down manufacturing as vinyl sales surge worldwide.

Shortages in raw materials including PVC and paper are also hampering the global vinyl production lines.

And with only a few pressing plants in Australia, most major local artists wanting to order anywhere from 200 to 5000 LP copies of a new release have to get it done overseas.

Liberation Records have already placed orders for their new artist releases scheduled for July 2022 to be pressed now in the hope they will arrive in time, while Remite Control Record were advised they faced a seven month wait for re-pressing some back catalogue albums in Europe.

Cold Chisel were forced to push their Ringside album release back two weeks. Picture: Supplied.

Cold Chisel has had to push back the reissue of their Ringside live record, due on Friday, because of the vexing vinyl backlog.

“We’re reaching out to let you know that unfortunately, the release has had to move from November 12 to November 26 – like so many artists, we are suffering from our vinyl running later than we had planned,” Chisel informed fans last week.

Just three days out from the release of his new Dope Lemon record Rose Pink Cadillac, Angus Stone told fans on Tuesday that they would now have to wait until January 7 because of “physical product delays”.

The new Dope Lemon record from Angus Stone won’t be out until January now. Picture: Supplied.

“We have had to push back the record for a month and a bit due to Covid kicking up dust,” Stone told fans via Instagram.

“The vinyl, that is animated, there’s only one place in Europe that presses it. It’s all good … 2022 coming out with a bang with Dope Lemon doing its thing.”

The good news for fans of Taylor Swift and Courtney Barnett is the vinyl versions of both their new album releases – Red (Taylor’s Version) and Barnett’s Things Take Time, Take Time – will be available on Friday.

Swift learned the supply chain lesson the hard way with months-long delays in fulfilling fan orders for last year’s Folklore and Evermore records and this year’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version).

Barnett and her team acted months ago to press her new record in Melbourne. Picture: Ian Laidlaw

Barnett’s team sprang into action four months ago, getting their vinyl pressed locally at Program Records in Melbourne.

Vinyl sales have been rising in Australia consistently over the past decade – ARIA reintroduced a vinyl chart in 2019 – and they are projected to finally overtake the value of CD sales here this year.

ARIA reported a whopping 32 per cent revenue rise in vinyl sales in 2020 year to $29.3 million from 1.14 million copies bought as locked-down music fans rediscovered their turntables.

Because vinyl has greater weight than streams when ARIA calculates album “sales”, Australian artists who don’t have their LPs ready to rock when the record drops will inevitably debut lower on the top 50 chart than expected.