Sales of vinyl growing

SOURCE: http://bigpondnews.com


Despite economic gloom sales of vinyl records have almost doubled in the United States.

And record companies are not just selling old records to devoted fans, vinyl appears to be as popular with the younger generation as with the old rockers.

'People are realising that vinyl is the collectors' format,' says Chris Carmino, manager of the huge Amoeba records in Hollywood, which many say is the biggest music store in the world.

'CDs are becoming just vessels of information, something to throw into your computer for the purpose of getting that music into your iPod.'

Amoeba has just extended its vinyl selection, eating away at the nearby CD's floorspace.

'There are two types of music fan,' Chris explains, 'the casual fan that is satisfied with having music on their hard drive, and the collectors. And for them vinyl is the ultimate format.'

Overall though comparative sales still put CDs millions of units ahead of vinyl.

In the United Kingdom sales of records last year stayed the same, although there has been a rush over recent years for limited edition vinyl singles.

But it's the changing demographic that is interesting to analysts.

The top-selling LP in the US was Radiohead's In Rainbows.

In the UK it was Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago.

Both albums that have had appeal to both the young and old.

Record companies see small benefits re-releasing older albums on vinyl. They may not sell many, but they do retail for about A$ 40.00 or more.

Just West of London is the Vinyl Factory, a pressing plant thriving on the revived interest.

They also run a busy record shop called Phonica in the heart of the West End.

Tough times have seen a quarter of small music shops close down last year but the owners here say diversity is the key to survival.

'There's never been the same collectablilty about CDs,' says creative director Sean Bidder, who predicts the end may be nigh for the poor little compact disc.

'It will come down to digital music, easy access very cheap, plus something you can collect, and that will be vinyl.

'The boom we've noticed here has been within the vinyl album market, the limited edition release of new albums like Morrissey, The Pet Shop Boys and Damon Albarn and the old classic releases that have been repackaged. That's a growing change in the market place really.'

Phonica has t-shirts stating proudly 'Vinyl Kills The MP3 Industry'.

It's obviously an exaggeration, but even amongst artists we've interviewed recently, you can sense a love of the good old black spinning disc.

'Music sounds better on vinyl, Pet Shop Boy Chris Lowe told me. 'It's just a fact isn't it? And also it's the process of getting it out, putting it on.'

'I actually really love the physical copy, I love the artwork,' said Annie Lennox. 'Although I listen to CDs in my car - I like to listen when I'm travelling.'

'I predicted it! laughed Roger Daltrey when we told him that vinyl is back.

'They're idiots, those record company people - they swapped those wonderful records for those silly little pieces of plastic!'

Next Saturday is National Record Shop Day - a new creation, intended to encourage sales of physical music, both vinyl and CD in stores across the UK.

But somehow, just like the records themselves, the argument about how you listen to yours is bound to go round and round and round and round.

SOURCE: http://bigpondnews.com