The vinyl record collecting blog - with news about new vinyl record releases, vinyl record sales, new music releases, album cover art and weekly features
According To Nielsen SoundScan 2011 Midyear Report
Music sales, which include singles, CD's and digital tracks are at 821 million units sold versus 756 for 2010, which is an 8.5 percent increase.
Broken out by genre, rock still leads the way with sales of 52.3 million, up 2% compared to 2010. Alternative music, the second most popular genre with 26.9 million, was off 1% compared to last year, while R&B, third with 26.5 million sales, has dropped 8%. Rap sales are less than a quarter of rock titles, but show an increase over 2010 of 1%, up to 12.5 million.
The biggest gainers are classical music, up 13% to 3.8 million, and electronic music, showing a 9% gain to 5.2 million.
However, the most impressive gain was the Vinyl Record LP category which saw vinyl records increase from 1.3 million sales last year to 1.9 this year. That's a 41 percent increase folks!
Keep vinyl alive, buy vinyl!
The top 10 vinyl records of 2011 so far, are:
1. Abbey Road, The Beatles (20,200) 2. Helplessness Blues, Fleet Foxes (20,200) 3. King of Limbs, Radiohead (15,400) 4. Sigh No More, Mumford & Sons (14,800) 5. Tomboy, Panda Bear (11,500) 6. Bon Iver, Bon Iver (10,900) 7. The King Is Dead, The Decemberists (8,300) 8. Chinese Democracy, Guns 'N Roses (8,200) 9. Angels, The Strokes (7,900) 10. People's Key, Bright Eyes (7,900)
The cover artwork for "Jerusalem", the new album from Swedish melodic metallers ASTRAL DOORS, can be seen below. Due in October, the effort was mixed by Daniel Bergstrand, who has previously worked with BEHEMOTH, MESHUGGAH, DIMMU BORGIR, STRAPPING YOUNG LAD and SOILWORK, among others.
ASTRAL DOORS previously stated that the upcoming album will "be something special. This time around we deal with religion, and all the shit it has brought to the world, once and for all."
Sundowner is an acoustic project of Chris McCaughan of The Lawrence Arms, also featuring Jenny Choi, Neil Hennessy, and Eli Caterer. Their debut album, 'Four One Five Two,' was released on Red Scare Records on March 13, 2007. They are extremely excited to announce 'Four One Five Two' will be reissued on vinyl for the first time!
The release is an extremely limited run with an official street date of August 9th
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Roger Waters Tops World Concert Grosses for June
Roger Waters' The Wall tour far out-grossed all other treks in June with a take of $29,362,701 from 17 sold-out shows with total attendance of 203,763.
According to Billboard's Box Office, Taylor Swift came in second for the month with a gross of $15,726,19
The New York-based announced details of their next single and will release 'My Machines', a collaboration with electronic pioneer Gary Numan, on August 15. It will be available for download as well as a limited edition silver-colored 12" vinyl.
The song appears on their second album Gloss Drop, which reached number 48 in the UK album chart last month. The single will also feature brand new track 'A.M. Gestalt'.
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HELL MILITIA RELEASE NEW ALBUM ON VINYL
Hell Militia, the band that comprises a virtual who's-who of French black metal, are preparing for the vinyl release of their most recent record, 'Last Station on the Road to Death'.
The vinyl release is scheduled for release on 29th July, complete with a 29cm, 16-page booklet and brand new artwork.
Formed in 1999, Hell Militia is made up of Persecutor (otherwise known as Torturer from Arkhon Infaustus), Hellsukkubus (AKA LSK from Antaeus and Secrets of the Moon), Dave Terror, Arkdaemon (also of Temple of Baal) and Meynach from Mutiilation. The band promise that this album is "more subtle, darker and still more necro."
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Milk Carton Kids Announce Vinyl Release of 'Prologue'
Produced by The Milk Carton Kids (Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan) and Eric Robinson, 'PROLOGUE' contains nine new songs recorded live and mixed over four days at Marlay Studios in North Hollywood.
A limited run will be printed on CD and vinyl for purchase. CD and vinyl copies of PROLOGUE are available for pre-order now thru July 18th. After July 18th physical copies will only be available at live shows.
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New Beady Eye Vinyl Coming
A new Beady Eye song "In The Bubble With A Bullet" has emerged online.
The track, which is set to feature as a b-side on their forthcoming single "The Beat Goes On", has been posted on the net ahead of its release on July 18. The single will available for download and on limited edition 7" vinyl.
Chris Burland over at chartattack.com has put togther a list of Thirty-Two Banned Album Covers. yes, we have seen lots of these lists, however, this particular list has a few that i have not seen before, some are instantly recoginzable, but will shock you!
follow up to a story several weeks ago, i sure hope they reach their goals!
Baldwin-Wallace College students plan to set the record straight in vinyl's popularity
By Joanne Berger DuMound, Sun News
BEREA -- Baldwin-Wallace College students Owen M. McCafferty II and Ben Meadors are old school when listening to music.
They were raised on “black wax” — record albums.
“Vinyl records have been part of my and Ben’s life since we were kids. My mother and father listened to them. When I was at my grandmother’s house, she would listen to them. We both grew up with a passion for them,” said McCafferty, a North Olmsted High grad. “Now, as we’ve grown older, we’ve noticed vinyl is becoming more popular with those our age.”
That vinyl resurrection begs the question — why.
Meadors and McCafferty plan to ask young record collectors, store owners and vinyl-lovers in Cleveland, New York City, Chicago, Portland and San Francisco that question. Their travels will lead to “The New Face of Vinyl: Youth’s Digital Devolution” project. It will be a 180-plus page, full color photo-documentary-book that explores the vinyl comeback as they share their experiences along the way
In 1957, "Teddy Bear" became Elvis Presley's eighth US number one hit in the past fifteen months.
In 1958, the first Gold record album presented by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) was awarded to the soundtrack LP, "Oklahoma". The honor signified that the album had reached one million dollars in sales. The first Gold single issued by the RIAA was "Catch a Falling Star" by Perry Como in March of 1958. A Gold single represented sales of one million records.
Also in 1958, Hank Ballard recorded a self-penned tune called "The Twist" at Vee-Jay Records' studios in Gary, Indiana. A re-recorded version released by King Records would make a modest splash on the R&B charts in 1959, but it would take Chubby Checker to make a giant hit out of it in 1960.
In 1963, Freddie And The Dreamers record "I'm Telling You Now", which would climb to number 2 in England. When it was released in the US the following year, during the height of the British Invasion, it made the Top Ten.
In 1965, the Dave Clark Five followed the Beatles onto the silver screen with a movie of their own called Catch Us If You Can. The film was renamed to Having a Wild Weekend for its US release and featured the group performing "Catch Us If You Can", "Having a Wild Weekend" and "I Can't Stand It".
In 1968, Pink Floyd opened their North American tour in Chicago.
In 1971, a small riot occurred at the Mott the Hoople show at London's Royal Albert Hall, causing a short ban on rock shows at the venue.
In 1978, after a six month stay, the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever is finally knocked out of the top spot on the Billboard album chart by Gerry Rafferty's "City To City", which contained the single "Baker Street".
Exile's "Kiss You All Over" was released in 1978.
In 1979, after signing with Island Records, the B-52s make their live debut at London's Lyceum Ballroom.
Nude photos of Madonna, taken early in her career, are published by Playboy and Penthouse in 1985.
In 1998 - Nancy Sinatra announced that her father, Frank Sinatra's archive would be donated to the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institute.
birthdays today include Chuck Negron (Three Dog Night) (69), Jaimoe "Johnny" Johanson (Allman Brothers Band) (67), Carlos Cavazo (Quiet Riot) (54), Toby Keith (50), Joan Osborne (49), Beck (41) and Jamie Cook (Arctic Monkeys) (26), to name a few....
