We at GGR were saddened to learn of the fire that destroyed the Apollo/Transco manufacturing facilities on February 6, 2020.  The vinyl manufacturing industry is a relatively close-knit community.  We have had many dealings directly with Terry Carlson (president of Apollo/Transco Masters) over the years.  We hope that he, Apollo/Transco’s employees, as well as the many pressing plants and mastering providers around the world who relied predominantly upon Apollo/Transco will all weather this storm and successfully land on their feet.

How this situation affects Gotta Groove Records:

Gotta Groove Records provides lacquer mastering services – 12” orders are cut by Clint Holley and Dave Polster, and 7” orders are cut by Greg Reierson. 

• GGR does not rely upon Apollo/Transco for master lacquers used in making 12” records.  Therefore, as of today, it does not appear that 12” orders will be affected by the Apollo/Transco fire. 

• 7” orders will be affected to some degree – moving forward, all 7″ jobs cut by GGR’s lacquer engineers will need to be cut on the larger lacquers typically used for 12″ jobs.

• Reference lacquers will be temporarily unavailable.  This applies to both 12” and 7” orders – the supply of reference lacquers, at least in the near future, will be disrupted.  In some situations, 12” customers will be offered the option to do test cut samples instead of reference lacquers. 

We will continue to provide updates on this matter, should anything materially change from the statements made above.  Of course, please feel free to contact us at either [email protected] or via phone at (800) 295-0171 if you have any specific questions.

We are devoted to the vinyl format, and will continue to do everything within our powers to make vinyl manufacturing as accessible and consistent as it can be to musicians, labels, and anyone else wanting to make a record.  We want to press your next record.