For a few years, Denver looked like it was about to become one of the most important vinyl manufacturing cities in America.

At the center of that story was Vinyl Me, Please — better known to collectors as VMP — the record-of-the-month subscription service that helped fuel vinyl culture during the modern resurgence of LP collecting.

What started as an ambitious plan to build a state-of-the-art pressing plant in Denver’s RiNo district eventually became one of the most talked-about stories in the vinyl world: part music-industry dream project, part business controversy, and part sign of just how massive vinyl’s comeback has become.

And now? The plant is finally operational — just not exactly in the way many VMP subscribers originally expected.

By the early 2020s, vinyl demand had exploded.

Major artists were selling huge numbers of LPs again, independent labels were struggling with manufacturing delays, and pressing plants around the world were backed up for months. In some cases, artists reportedly waited close to a year for records to be manufactured.

VMP saw an opportunity.

In 2022, the company announced plans to build a 14,000-square-foot “audiophile-grade” vinyl pressing plant in Denver’s RiNo neighborhood near Mission Ballroom.

But this wasn’t supposed to be just another industrial manufacturing facility. The vision was bigger:

• vinyl pressing
• mastering and plating
• public tours
• listening spaces
• events
• a bar and café
• community experiences centered around analog music culture

The idea fit perfectly with Denver’s growing reputation as a vinyl city.

For vinyl collectors like me, this sounded like a huge, awesome thing. Not only would Denver gain a world-class pressing plant, but VMP hinted the facility could become one of the few plants in America capable of handling plating and metalwork in-house  an increasingly rare capability in modern vinyl production.

But then it Stalled

Behind the scenes, things apparently became far more complicated. In 2024, reports emerged that volatility amongst the company brass were causing issues, delays and problems.

The situation sparked intense debate within the vinyl community. Some collectors argued the pressing plant was ultimately the right long-term move but poorly executed. Others believed the project became too ambitious, too expensive, or too focused on creating a “cool” experiential space instead of simply manufacturing records efficiently.

For longtime VMP subscribers, the news felt especially dramatic because the company had built such a strong reputation among collectors during vinyl’s resurgence years.

Introducing Paramount Pressing & Plating

Interestingly, the story didn’t end there. The facility itself appears to have survived and evolved into a new operation known as Paramount Pressing and Plating. Discussions across the vinyl community indicate the plant eventually became operational under new ownership structures involving Gary Salstrom and musician/producer David Rawlings.

And by 2025, reports suggested the plant was actively pressing records and gaining traction in the industry. So while the original VMP vision changed dramatically, Denver still appears to have gained something important: a functioning, high-end vinyl manufacturing facility tied directly to the city’s growing analog music culture.

I’ll be seeking out interviews with folks who are running the plant now, so stay tuned to learn more about the future plans.