Oregon's Only Vinyl Plant: Inside Object Permanence Records

Object Permanence Records began pressing vinyl in Salem, Oregon, in June 2026, running a single automatic press out of a space its founders set up after relocating from Brooklyn. Within weeks, it had become Oregon's only vinyl manufacturer, after Cascade Record Pressing in nearby Milwaukie closed the month before, according to OPB. Its first run, 500 records split among five Oregon bands, is a useful contrast to the vast, multi-plant operations that press most of the vinyl collectors buy.

From Brooklyn to Salem

Co-owners Carrie Morrissey and Adam Philips, together with a third partner, Jason Wojciechowski, all previously lived in Brooklyn. Morrissey had run a laser-cut acrylic jewellery business, I Still Love You NYC, for 15 years, with a store in Chelsea Market, while Philips spent around 20 years working in advertising, according to the Salem Reporter. None of the three came from a vinyl-manufacturing background.

Why the move made sense

New York real estate and factory costs ruled out setting up a pressing plant in Brooklyn. "Financially, it was just gonna be an astronomical expense," Morrissey told OPB. Wojciechowski's existing connections to Salem pointed the group toward Oregon, and a meeting with Jason Carter of Atomic Disc, Oregon's second-largest CD manufacturer, sealed the decision: Carter had pending vinyl-pressing orders going overseas because there was no local plant to handle them, and wanted a nearby vendor to partner with.

Inside the pressing process: pellets, pucks and 300 tons of pressure

Object Permanence runs an Allegro M-Tech press, which the Salem Reporter describes as an Allegro II, one of the newer designs available for record manufacturing. The process starts with PVC pellets, heated into a soft disc known in the trade as a "puck," which the press then stamps between two metal stampers under about 300 tons of hydraulic pressure to form the finished record's grooves. The stampers themselves are made off-site through partner cutting engineers and plating plants, and OPB reports that each stamper is good for roughly 1,000 records before the audio quality it produces starts to degrade.

Oregon's only plant, after Cascade closed

Cascade Record Pressing, based in Milwaukie, closed the month before Object Permanence began operating, leaving Oregon without a vinyl manufacturer at exactly the point a new one was getting started. That timing is largely coincidental rather than cause and effect, but it means Object Permanence currently holds a title, Oregon's only pressing plant, that has more to do with a gap in the market than with scale.

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The contrast with the industry's largest operator is stark: GZ Media, marking 75 years in business in 2026, presses close to 75 million records a year across ten sites, while Object Permanence started with 500 records on one machine. Between those extremes sit pilots like Warner Music and GZ Media's recycled-vinyl programme and Universal Music Germany's switch to BioVinyl, all part of the same year in how records get made.

A different scale of pressing

For local bands, a plant like Object Permanence means a pressing order does not have to travel overseas and wait in a queue behind releases from much larger labels, though it also means trading away the unit pricing and turnaround that come with a much bigger plant's scale. Atomic Disc's Jason Carter, whose overseas backlog helped bring Object Permanence into being, is a reminder that even a state with a functioning CD manufacturer had no local option for vinyl until this single press started running.

For collectors, small regional plants are also where a lot of small-run, hyper-local releases originate, records that may never show up outside a specific city's scene until they turn up, years later, in a crate somewhere else entirely. A first pressing of 500 copies split five ways, as Object Permanence's was, is the kind of run that rewards a collector who happened to be in the right record shop at the right time.

Frequently asked questions

01Where is Object Permanence Records located?

Object Permanence Records is based in Salem, Oregon, and began pressing vinyl there in June 2026. It became Oregon's only vinyl manufacturer after Cascade Record Pressing in nearby Milwaukie closed the previous month.

02How does a record press turn PVC into a vinyl record?

PVC pellets are heated into a soft disc called a puck, which is placed between two metal stampers in a hydraulic press. Object Permanence's Allegro M-Tech press applies about 300 tons of pressure to stamp the puck into a finished record's grooves.

03How many records can one stamper press before it wears out?

According to OPB's reporting on Object Permanence Records, a single metal stamper can press roughly 1,000 records before the audio quality it produces begins to degrade, after which a new stamper has to be made.

Sources

• Oregon's only vinyl record pressing plant takes root in Salem — Salem Reporter, 26 June 2026
• Vinyl record pressing plant opens in Salem (Think Out Loud) — OPB, 8 July 2026