Earlier this month, the storage media manufacturer Sonopress, which is part of Bertelsmann Marketing Services, launched the world’s first sustainable long-playing record for its customer Warner Music. The “Eco Record” version of the joint album by rock icons Liam Gallagher and John Squire has since been available exclusively from Amazon worldwide and from JB Hi-Fi in Australia. Experts are particularly impressed with the sound quality and smoothness of the new PET record, and interest in both the new product and the innovative production process is growing in the cultural and music scene. Last week, Liz Mohn and representatives of the Liz Mohn Foundation took a look at the production process for the innovative new record at Sonopress. The occasion was the first “Experts Meet to Promote Culture” event hosted by Liz Mohn in Gütersloh.
A new chapter in the Sonopress success story
In his welcome address, Sonopress Managing Director Sven Deutschmann briefly outlined the company’s 66-year history and then led Liz Mohn’s group through the production halls on Carl-Bertelsmann-Straße directly to the new injection molding machine on which the “Eco Records” are produced with a contact pressure of up to 300 tons. “The special thing about the new production process, which our engineers have continually fine-tuned over many months, is that we use recyclable polyethylene terephthalate (PET) as the base material instead of polyvinyl chloride (PVC),” explained Deutschmann. The injection molding process used is also very energy-efficient. He said that the environmental impact of the manufacturing process can be reduced by up to 85% compared to conventional methods, as neither natural gas nor water vapor is required to produce the discs. The guests were impressed not only by this figure, but especially by the dedication shown by everyone involved in the project. “It’s great to see how much passion our colleagues at Sonopress are putting into this project,” said Liz Mohn. “I firmly believe that the ‘Eco Record’ marks the start of a new chapter in Sonopress’ long success story.”
