By Walt Hickey Pressed Vinyl sales have grown for the past 16 years, up 17 percent year over year to $1.2 billion in 2022, outselling CDs on a unit basis to become the single most popular format of physical media as of last year. The band Metallica is a pretty big player in vinyl, pressing 902,500 pieces of vinyl for 620,000 packages last year alone, and holding as the sixth-bestselling act on vinyl in the United States with 387,000 albums sold last year alone. Therefore, it makes some sense that Metallica decided to seize the means of production, and has purchased Furnace Record Pressing, a 70,000-square-foot vinyl pressing plant in Alexandria, Virginia. Besides guaranteeing a reliable supply of vinyl for the band — the market has been somewhat spotty amid supply chain challenges — it also buys them in directly to one of the most booming parts of the music industry.