Sony Digital Audio Disc Corporation

Sony Digital Audio Disc Corporation (Sony DADC) is a manufacturer of CDs, DVDs, UMDs, and Blu-ray Discs. The company has many plants worldwide. Although it primarily services Sony Music Entertainment-owned record labels, it also manufactures discs for other labels.

Sony DADC's first plant, in Terre Haute, Indiana, opened May 2, 1983,[1] and produced its first CD, Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A., in September 1984.[2] It was the first CD manufacturer in the United States, is the company's principal CD manufacturing facility, and is the company's research and development center.[1]

The plant was initially a subsidiary of CBS/Sony Group, but Sony bought out CBS's stake in October 1985.[3]

When Sony bought CBS Records in 1988, it acquired that company's manufacturing facilities, some of which later became part of Sony DADC. Among these are the plants in Pitman, New Jersey (closed in 2011); Terre Haute, Indiana; Toronto, Ontario, Canada (plant closed in 2011); Mexico City (plant closed 2015); Salzburg, Austria; Mumbai, India; and Manaus, Brazil—all of which were originally manufacturers of vinyl gramophone records. These plants began manufacturing CDs later: Pitman in 1988, Manaus in 1992,[4] and Toronto[5] and Mexico City[6] in 1994.

LaserDiscs, primarily 12-inch disc prints of feature films and concerts, were manufactured by Sony DADC in the 1980s and 1990s. Some of the laserdiscs currently show laser rot, more than those from any other manufacturer.[7]

Sony DADC now manufactures the majority of CDs sold in the United States. In November 2008, the company bought the American disc-manufacturing capabilities of Glenayre Technologies, which manufactured the discs of Universal Music Group.[8] In the summer of 2009, the company assumed the physical distribution of EMI's North American operations.[9] This left WEA as the only major label whose discs are not manufactured by the company, as its discs are manufactured by the operations of the former WEA Manufacturing that were sold to Cinram.

On August 8, 2011, a Sony DADC distribution center in Enfield was destroyed during the 2011 England riots.[10][11] The warehouse was used by independent music distributor PIAS Entertainment Group to distribute CDs, LPs, and DVDs for over 100 European independent labels.[12] The total stock loss in the fire was reported to be between 3.5 million[13] and 25 million units.[14]

On January 17, 2018, the DADC plant in Terre Haute, Indiana, announced that they would be laying off 375 employees, and shifting manufacturing of audio discs to another manufacturer, Sonopress. It was later determined that manufacturing of most audio discs would be facilitated by CDA Inc. The majority of audio discs manufactured for Universal Music Group US and Sony Music Entertainment US are presently manufactured by CDA Inc, while the discs are packaged and assembled into jewel cases in the USA. Technicolor sometimes also assists in the facilitation of disc manufacturing for Universal Music Group US.