In this episode of BESPOKEN, host Scott Pollack sits down with Billy Fields, Warner Music Experience’s self-described “vinyl guy” — the person responsible for making sense of the format’s resurgence at one of the world’s largest music companies.

Billy traces his path from WMX sales rep to the person who, in 2008, was tasked with figuring out what to do with a vinyl market that had sold under a million units the year before. That market now moves close to 49 million units annually in the US alone, and Billy has had a front-row seat to all of it.

Scott and Billy dig into the current state of the physical music landscape, including why independent retail is outperforming the broader market, late-2025 sales numbers (when the episode was recorded), and how labels should think about the price-value proposition, especially as they try to reach a new generation of buyers.

The conversation gets into the details that matter: why packaging decisions, pressing weight, mastering, and inner sleeves all factor into whether a record holds its value with a fan. Billy shares his honest take on 180-gram vs. 140-gram vinyl and why he thinks the weight debate misses the bigger point.

Billy also breaks down WMX’s growing work with PET and recycled vinyl, what’s working, where the industry still has gaps, and why keeping PET and PVC separate in the recycling chain is something the business needs to get right now, while the volumes are still manageable.

Billy closes with a perspective on where the vinyl format goes from here and why 19 straight years of growth, combined with two decades of newly pressed records now entering the used market, sets up something that looks pretty solid for the long haul.

Whether you work in physical music, run a record store, care about sustainability in vinyl manufacturing, or just love records, this one covers a lot of ground.

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