One Tiny Czech Village Presses More Vinyl Than Any Other Place in the World

If you've purchased a decent amount of records, there is a good chance at least a few of them were pressed in a tiny village in the Czech Republic.

Lodenice, a town with a population of just 1,800, is the home of GZ Media, which presses something on the order of 14 million records a year, making it the largest vinyl plant in the world. Five million of the 9 million records purchased in the U.S. last year were manufactured at the plant, according to AFP.

"Every Friday, a plane takes off for California, carrying eight to 10 tons of records," the firm's marketing manager Jana Brezinova told AFP.

GZ doesn't specialize in niche or European releases, either. They've pressed some of the highest-selling U.S. vinyl releases, including records by the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Madonna and U2.

So how did Lodenice end up becoming a hub of the vinyl revival? The same way plants on this side of the Atlantic, like those in Nashville and Salina, Kan., rose to prominence -- they were lucky enough to find vinyl record presses. GZ Media, which pressed its first record in 1951, decided to put its vinyl presses in storage instead of selling them off when the vinyl market slowed to a near-stop in the early '90s.

"Someone with foresight decided to save the old vinyl record presses and store them in a warehouse," said Michal Nemec, sales and marketing director for GZ Media. "A good decision."

The plant says its production has risen between 25 to 30 percent every year, with no signs of slowing.