Record labels, stores make room for vinyl

By Jed Gottlieb

Jed Gottlieb writes about music, film and pop culture for local, regional and national publications.

Sound matters.

It’s a slogan every record label should endorse. But in the present digital era of CDs and mp3s, sound quality has tanked as labels crank the volume and wash out the dynamic range audiophiles loved about vinyl. Indie labels kept putting out wax by underground artists long after the majors tried to kill off vinyl, but you were out of luck if you wanted to hear that warm bottom end vinyl gave Led Zeppelin, ZZ Top and countless other classic artists whose LPs went out-of-print during the CD boom.

Now, with the second coming of vinyl, the “Sound matters” slogan has been picked up again by Warner Bros. Records to promote a massive slate of big 12-inch reissues. In a strange everything-old-is-new-again twist, Warners and the other desperate majors are sinking money into the format they couldn’t get rid of fast enough in the ’80s.

Now Warners has launched an online vinyl store (Becausesoundmatters.com) as part of its fresh commitment to re-pressing many of its long-out-of-print catalog albums. Of course, committing to vinyl isn’t hard when obsessive fans are snapping up big-ticket sets: both the $30 double-album package of Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” and $60 three-disc box of Cream’s “Royal Albert Hall: London” sold out their initial pressings.

“Selling 3,500 copies of the ‘Royal Albert Hall’ set is pretty amazing,” said Warner Bros./Reprise Records VP Tom Biery, who’s in charge of the company’s vinyl initiative. “But it’s not about making huge profits, because vinyl sales are still a small fraction of overall sales. (About one percent of current music sales are vinyl). It’s about branding us. People at this big record company are really committed to having things sound right, sound great. And we want people to know.”

Next month the label plans to rollout a 50th anniversary archive series including James Taylor’s “Mud Slide Slim,” the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Blood Sugar Sex Magik” and more.

Following Warner’s lead with two equally impressive re-issue campaigns are Capitol/EMI and Sony BMG’s Legacy records. On Tuesday, Capitol/EMI launches its “From The Capitol Vaults” series with previously out-of-print-on-vinyl titles including the Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds,” Steve Miller Band’s “Greatest Hits 1974-78” and the first six Radiohead studio albums. In mid-September, Legacy rolls out reissued platters by Charles Mingus, Boston, Johnny Cash and more.

“Who knows why people are interested in Blue Oyster Cult again?” asked Legacy A&R director Darren Salmieri. “Maybe it’s Guitar Hero? Who knows? What we do know is that people are craving better sound quality and they want these core classics.”

What began as a fringe trend in small, independent record shops is on the verge of coming above ground. Even Best Buy - which has slashed CD shelf space in the past decade - has started stocking vinyl in some stores. It’s a move that shows vinyl’s 37percent sales spike in 2007 has finally trickled down to major retail chains.

“These stores don’t have extra space for anything,” said Universal/Motown sales VP Wayne Chernin. “So if they’re giving vinyl room, they really think it’s going to be profitable.”

If the world’s biggest record companies and Best Buy are onboard, can it be long before Target and Wal-Mart jump on the LP boom? EMI A&R and Creative VP Jane Ventom says yes.

“I hope (to see vinyl in more chains) but I don’t think it’s going to happen,” said Ventom. “I’m not even convinced this trend will go on much longer. The numbers just aren’t that significant. That said, we’ll happily take the sales we can get. There is that small, steady customer demand for vinyl, and we want to fill that demand whatever it is.”

Because for some people, sound really does matter.

SOURCE: http://news.bostonherald.com/