2017 Blog
Key at Making Vinyl Conference & Alex Awards Results
On November 6th our MD Karen Emanuel went to Detroit to attend Making Vinyl conference, an event aimed to celebrate vinyl as physical media’s shining star in the digital age.
The conference featured a number of talks with music manufacturing experts and personalities involved in the business like Jack White, co-founder of Record Store Day Michael Kurtz, co-founder of Third Man Pressing Ben Blackwell, CEO Memphis Record Pressing Brandon Seavers and more.
The talks tackled topics as:
- Info about Vinyl manufacturing challenges and opportunities
- Reinforce that Vinyl’s rebirth is not a fad, as proven by 10 years of double-digit growth by Record Store Day over the past decade
- Provide useful state-of-the-art info for mutual interests along the Vinyl supply chain, including retailers, labels, pressing plants, consumable suppliers, packagers, & music brokers.
We're happy to have participated, it was a great occasion to hear facts and opinions from professionals like us on where vinyl manufacturing is headed and how we can all collaborate to offer the best service to artists and record labels.
Key also attended the Alex Awards where physical releases packages were judged by a panel of award-winning art directors.
Among a total of 124 submissions in the 8 categories, we are happy and proud to have come home with some prizes in our pockets!
We won first prize in the BEST GATEFOLD category with UNKLE The Road part.1 limited edition deluxe double heavyweight coloured vinyl, 36-page booklet housed in debossed gatefold sleeve.
• Dead Weather, Live at the Mayan
• Polyvinyl Plays Polyvinyl
• The National, Sleep Well Beast
• UNKLE, The Road, Part 1
• Yaz Ahmed, La Sabouteuse
—Winner: UNKLE
—Runner-up: The National
And had 4 runner-ups in the following categories:
Father John Misty Pure Comedy [Bella Union], front/back covers and gatefold feature a gargantuan original piece (his first ever commission of its kind) by The New Yorker illustrator Ed Steed.
BEST ILLUSTRATED LP COVER
• Aimee Mann, Mental Illness
• Father John Mistry, Pure Comedy
• Gillian Welch, The Harrows and the Harvest
• Queens of the Stone Age, Villains
• Record Store Day Celebrates Leonard Cohen
—Winner: Aimee Mann
—Runner-up: Father John Mistry
Blondie Pollinator 7" boxset, [BMG]
BEST BOXED SET
• Blondie, Pollinator
• Kate Bush, Before the Dawn
• Rolling Stones, Their Satanic Majesties Request
• Voyager, 40th Anniversary Edition
• White Stripes, Vault 33, X, Icky Thump
—Winner: Voyager
—Runner-ups Tie: Blondie & White Stripes
Honorable Mention for Cassette Packaging – White Lies Friends, [BMG]