Sony DADC's first plant, located in
Terre Haute, IN, opened on May 2, 1983, and produced its first CD,
Bruce Springsteen's
Born in the U.S.A., in September 1984. It was the first CD manufacturer in the United States and serves as the company's principal CD manufacturing facility and its research and development center. When
Sony bought CBS Records in 1988, it acquired the company's manufacturing facilities, some of which later became part of Sony DADC. These included plants in
Pitman, NJ (closed in 2011),
Terre Haute, IN;
Toronto, Ontario, Canada (closed in 2011);
Mexico City (closed 2015);
Salzburg, Austria;
Mumbai, India; and
Manaus, Brazil. These plants were originally manufacturers of vinyl
gramophone records, later transitioning to CD manufacturing: Pitman in 1988, Manaus in 1992, and Toronto and Mexico City in 1994.
LaserDiscs, primarily 12-inch prints of feature films and concerts, were manufactured by Sony DADC in the 1980s and 1990s. Some of the laserdiscs made at DADC exhibit
laser rot more than those from other manufacturers. Sony DADC currently manufactures the majority of CDs sold in the United States. In November 2008, the company acquired the American disc-manufacturing capabilities of
Glenayre Technologies, which manufactured discs for
Universal Music Group. In the summer of 2009, the company assumed the physical distribution of
EMI's North American operations. This left
WEA as the only major label whose discs were not manufactured by the company, as its discs were 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. The warehouse was used by
independent music distributor
PIAS Entertainment Group to distribute CDs, LPs, and DVDs for over 100 European independent labels. The total stock loss in the fire was reported to be between 3.5 million and 25 million units. On January 17, 2018, the DADC plant in
Terre Haute, IN, announced the layoff of 375 employees, shifting US audio disc manufacturing to
Sonopress. It was later determined that most audio discs would be manufactured by CDA Inc. Currently, the majority of audio discs manufactured for
Universal Music Group US and
Sony Music Entertainment US are produced by CDA Inc, while packaging and assembly into
jewel cases are completed in the US.
Technicolor (later
Vantiva, now Conectiv) also sometimes assists in disc manufacturing for Universal Music Group US. In April 2019, Sony DADC Japan Inc. was merged with Sony Music Communications, Inc. to become Sony Music Solutions, Inc., placing the Japanese DADC plants under Sony Music's control. On January 13, 2022, the DADC plant in
Terre Haute, IN, announced the layoff of 100 employees, moving US gaming and disc manufacturing capacity from Terre Haute to
Salzburg, Austria. Assembly and distribution will remain in
Terre Haute, IN. The Terre Haute plant eventually focused its manufacturing capacity towards medical devices, automotive parts, and other electronic devices. ==Manufacturing plants ==