The deaths of Elvis Presley and Bing Crosby, two of the most successful recording artists in history, have created a commercial bonanza for the nation's record industry. An unexpected surge in demand for new copies of their old records has strained capacity throughout the industry and forced delays in producing new releases.
The industry has discovered that production of some 4 million long-playing records a day is not enough to meet demand, according to trade sources, and capacity cannot readily be expanded. Avid collectors are finding that many new releases promised for 1977 have been put off until next year and that some of the 500 releases originally scheduled for the first half of 1978 will not be coming out.
Even before the demand suddenly increased for such classics as Presley's "Blue Suede Shoes" and Crosby's White Christmas, the industry was enjoying a healthy year. Recovering from a slow growth period that extended through 1975, the industry has experienced a gain in volume of more than 20 percent this year, with total sales exceeding $3 billion, according to most estimates.
The industry was running near capacity when Elvis Presley died Aug. 16. The subsequent run on his records cleaned out the backlog virtually overnight. Fans waited eagerly for the two record set of "Elvis in Concert," the soundtrack of a performance aired on CBS-TV in October. The album sold more than 1 million copies almost the minute it hit the stores and RCA, which usually handles most of its own record-pressing needs, went to outside contractors in October to get millions more of the record sets into customers hands.
At about the same time, MCA Records Inc., which recorded Bing Crosby, rushed into overtime, following his death Oct. 14. Under normal conditions the company can handle all of its own production at its two plants, but the new collection of Crosby's greatest hits required outside help. "Without the help of independent facilities, we would have had great difficulty getting all of our records out," a company spokesman said.