After the state-run record company Balkanton was closed down in 1994, no gramophone records have been manufactured in Bulgaria. This is going to change in 2025, when the first vinyl factory in the country will open. It will be the only such factory in the Balkans at this time, Ilia Grigorov, one of the people behind the factory project told the Bulgarian news agency BTA. The production capacity near Sofia is for around 20,000 records per month. An attempt was made for such an endeavor in Novi Sad, Serbia but it went bankrupt, Ilia Grigorov says further. There is a record factory in Türkiye functioning on commission for a much bigger European company, but it is difficult to release new recordings there. There are a great many artists, authors and labels in Bulgaria, Serbia, North Macedonia, Croatia, Romania and Greece who want to release vinyl records. We want them to release them here, not in Western Europe, ilia Grigorov says.