Dance Music Business Resource

Choosing A Plant

Most Pressing plants will do the mastering if necessary, but for quality, it is usual to Master at a lab that specializes in that.
You will see many offers of package deals to do the whole thing. Sometimes these are very good, but often it is just convenient, not cheaper.


Shop around. You will be required to place a deposit, but you can structure it so that you pay the plant after you get money back from the distributor.

All prices quoted in the following as a rough example are from one of the cheap big US plants. Prices change.

He sends the mastering plates to the pressing plant where they make the actual pressing plates. ($135) These plates are good for pressing 1000 records. Then you will need to make another set.

They will press 25 white labels ($41.50) and send them to you.
Plain black or white jackets for records cost 30 cents.
000 labels will cost $70, one color.
Records cost 66 cents each. (this is the cheap route)

The plant ships straight to the distributor(s) you specify.

In the UK you must register a Mechanical Royalties license (Application for Licence form (AFL)) with the MCPS before the plant is authorized to manufacture.

List of Pressing Plants