By Will Flannigan Spin! Spin! Spin the black circle! I’m talking about those little vinyl gems called records. Yes ladies and gents, vinyl records are still around and they’re coming back in a big way. We, at Buzzbin, aren’t the only ones noticing. I caught up with Vince Slusarz, owner of Gotta Groove Records, Cleveland’s very own vinyl record manufacturing plant, last week to talk about how those little vinyl gems are made. When I asked him, “Why vinyl?” Vince simply responded, “I’m a big proponent of manufacturing… you have to have a manufacturing base to be healthy as a country.” Vince then took me into the heart of the operation, a large room with several record presses. These presses are the size of Volkswagens. Huge. Industrial. The presses look like something out of some Tim Burton dream world. Pipes and moving parts everywhere. Vince explained the process from beginning to end. First a metal negative of the record is made, a “master copy.” Then the “master copy” is sent to Vince who sets that in his presses and begins pressing the vinyl records. The labels on the records are then literally baked on the surface of the record. Gotta Groove Records is also capable of designing the record sleeves, for those bands who don’t have a graphic designer handy. In 2008, vinyl records sales doubled, equaling the sales of vinyl in 1991, even as the sales in the music industry, in general, dropped 14%. Cleveland now has reason to be interested in vinyl, Gotta Groove Records.