| Main Pressing plants Pennyroyal Tea Test pressings Collection |
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SNA pressed the French Nirvana cardsleeve singles (while MPO pressed the maxi singles) back in 1993 and 1994, and some promos and promo samplers in the 90's. Finally, they pressed the European edition of the Unplugged in New York DVD in late 2007. They have an IFPI repertoire which starts on 1A, but many of their discs I've seen do not. First, let's decode their matrix codes without IFPI issues. Heart-Shaped Box (GED 21856) and All Apologies (GED-21897) are, respectively: (logo) SNA GED 21856 08049301 SNA (logo) (logo) SNA GED 21897 01199403 SNA (logo) They start of with the pressing plant logo and name (which they also end on), followed by the catalog number, and a number which tells when the disc was mastered at SNA (and possibly also pressed the same day). Heart-Shaped box was released in August 1993 in UK, which makes sens with the date in the matrix, August 04 1993. All Apologies was released in December 1993 in UK, but according to the matrix it was not pressed in France (at least not the mini single) before January 1994. I don't know what the final numbers, 01 and 03 in these examples, are. I don't have any matrix examples from the same month, so I have no data to base any theories on. They got their IFPI repertiore sometime in 1995. The first Nirvana disc with an IFPI was the Where Did You Sleep Last Night promo (NIRV PRO 1), which has the Laser Beam Recorder (LBR) IFPI L600. This was mastered August 31 1995. So far I have seen SNA discs with two different LBR IFPI codes, L595 and L600. Most likely they also occupy those inbetween. However, they seem to have messed up when it comes to the mould IFPI. As mentioned, their mould IFPI codes should start on 1A. However, the 1995 Polly promo (GEDP 022) has the same mould IFPI as LBR IFPI (image 1). They are both IFPI L600. So the LBR IFPI is correct, but the mould IFPI identify a completely different pressing plant. It is also possible that the extra IFPI L600 was added mechanically to a metal plate, but I see no reason to do that as one was already written by the LBR. Another oddity is a 1998 French promo sampler which has a three-digit mould code, IFPI A98. Clearly they are missing a "1" (image 2). Another 1998 promo sampler has a correct code, IFPI 1A07. Another issue with these exact two promo samplers is that while both have the LBR IFPI L600, their internal LBR numbers are LBR 01 and LBR 02 (these are written in the matrix code). Did they use the same LBR IFPI on two LBRs? Most likely the Polly promo with the mould IFPI L600 was a more or less isolated event, and they simply weren't sure how things were supposed to work back then. I was sure I had seen a recent pressing with IFPI L595 used as mould and LBR IFPI, but I may have been wrong. I thought it was the 2007 Unplugged In New York DVD (0602517506305), but this seems to have a different mould IFPI (hard to see exactly what). SNA has probably taken care of these discrepancies a long time ago, and all their moulds are fitted with 1A** numbers. |
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 1. Polly (1995) matrix with identical mould and LBR IFPI codes  2. Promo sampler (1998) matrix with three-digit mould IFPI Thanks to Enrico Vincenzi (images 1-2). | |||||
| Main Pressing plants Pennyroyal Tea Test pressings Collection |
