As musicians across the globe seem to be having a much harder time selling CDs, and, record sales seem to be once again going up, one musician is doing his best to evolve with the times. The man known by some as the most influential musician during Generation X, Jack White, has recently announced he’ll be opening a record pressing plant in his native city of Detroit,
The record complex is located in Jack’s old stomping grounds of the Cass Corridor neighborhood and should be fully operational this spring. Until then, a record store connected to the plant was opened to the public this past Friday, November 26th. The record store features memorabilia from vinyl albums to hockey jersey with his company’s, Third Man Records, logo. In addition to merchandise, there is a concert space and windows in the store that allows patrons to see what’s going on inside the plant right then and there.
On Thanksgiving night before the shop opened, Jack had a soft opening of sorts for about 200 of his friends and family. His bandmates, Brendan Benson and Dean Fertita, showed up for the preview party to show support for his new venture. Standing outside the venue, thousands of diehard fans were also there to show their support as they eagerly awaited the doors to open Friday morning at 10AM.
With a following like Jack has in his second of home of Nashville, it makes perfect since to open a store in Detroit. Not only with this complex create jobs, but it will also add to the hype and rise of vinyl records. The Nashville store welcomes 200-300 people per day; it’ll be a nice treat to see what kind of support his hometown brings when the Third Man Records complex is fully up and running.
It may be a difficult feat to bring records back, but with a world record of his own under his belt, Jack White, may be the right person for the job. Only a short time ago, Jack got the title for fastest released record when he dropped Lazaretto on 8” vinyl just a brief time ago; beating out John Lennon’s Imagine album. If he was able to get a record for accomplishing something of that magnitude so fast, it will be interesting to see what he can do with no time limit, at all.