Vinyl: In The News

Record Stores: Gone But Not Forgotten

By Raanan Geberer
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BROOKLYN — The news that the Virgin Megastore on Union Square will be closing soon is shocking, but not totally unexpected. Just a few years ago, the equally large Tower Records closed all its outlets. And what of the giant record-store chains of yesterday? There is apparently one Sam Goody’s in New York City, a far cry from the chain in its heyday. King Carol doesn’t exist anymore, and neither does the Record Hunter. And let’s not forget that at one time, every major New York City department store had an active record department.

It appears that in the near future, I’ll do all of my CD buying online, except for occasional trips to specialty, used-CD stores such as the Princeton Record Exchange in Princeton, N.J., or Academy Records in Manhattan.

Read the rest of this interesting article here:

brooklyneagle.com

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ABC Nightline Piece

In a segment titled "Vinyl: The Last Track," the ABC News program Nightline took a look this past Wednesday at the recent and, in many ways, unexpected resurgence of vinyl, an analog format in an otherwise digital world. "Those big old discs are back in a big way," says Nightline anchor Terry Moran.

Moran, who reports that LP sales were up 89% last year, wonders why this vinyl revival is taking place and stops by Washington, DC's Crooked Beats record store, where vinyl makes up 70% of store sales, to talk to some vinyl enthusiasts about the format's appeal and to give a few records a spin for himself.

The shop's owner, Bill Daley, shows Moran Wilco's Sky Blue Sky LP as an example of a recent innovation in the field: the inclusion of the complete album on CD, inside the LP sleeve. Wilco was an early pioneer in offering both formats in a single package with the release of that record in May 2007.

You can watch the complete Nightline segment online here:

Vinyl Video

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For some, vinyl records are the best way to listen to the music

By CHRIS JORDAN

There's something happening in the music industry.

"There are people who are stepping back and trying to reconnect (to vinyl records)," said vinyl man Cory Nyberg of Rahway. "Something has been missing in life and it's the old turntable and the way you'd bring a vinyl record home."

Check the numbers. There were 1.9 million new vinyl albums sold last year, a figure up nearly 90 percent over the previous year, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Groups like the Beastie Boys, Coldplay, Radiohead and Metallica are releasing new works and old favorites on vinyl.

Vinyl also is the choice of hip-hop DJs and indie rockers, like New Brunswick's Thursday, who continually release vinyl versions of their albums.

Nyberg and business partner Mitch Ross of Bridgewater will host their quarterly Greater New Jersey Record & CD Show show from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, March 8, at the Holiday Inn in Springfield.

A big part of the vinyl resurgence has to do with sound quality. Proponents of vinyl say the medium's warmer tones produce a better sound when compared with that of CDs and MP3s. That may be, as each vinyl record has a continual groove carved into it that replicates the original sound. It's called analog. Digital recordings, such as CDs and MP3s, capture soundwaves in parts, not continually. It's a difference that matters to music enthusiasts.

Also, vinyl lovers prefer the packaging of a vinyl album.

"People are using albums as displays," Nyberg said. "I've had teachers come in and they're working on a school project and they buy 30 to 50 copies of records to make displays for dances. Then there are people buying records to decorate dens and gamerooms in their homes."

The Greater New Jersey Record Shows in the Springfield Holiday Inn dates back to 1989, when the late David Lenz of Linden, aka Izzy to area music fans, started holding them there. Nyberg and Ross took over the business when Lenz died in the early 2000s.

The shows attract more then 70 dealers with all kinds of music.

"From classical to speed metal to death metal, every genre of music," said Nyberg, who has about 500,000 records in his collection. "Even Enya and Celine Dion."

SOURCE: http://www.mycentraljersey.com