I am drawn to these wonderful stories about vinyl, this one from 'down under':
By Andrew Brown
“This recording is meant to be listened to on vinyl,” states a message emblazoned across the back covers of the CD versions of rock group Slint’s albums, Tweez and Spiderland. The CDs have no labelling, making it difficult to work out which way to insert it into a CD player.
Written inside the gatefold-style packaging of the CD version of Shellac’s 1994 album At Action Park is the statement: “This was not mastered directly to metal or pressed into 165 grams of virgin dye-blackened vinyl. There is, in fact, nothing at all special about the manufacture of this compact disc.”
But what is special about vinyl?
Sales of records are on the increase as a number of articles have purported, including “Vinyl May Be Final Nail in CDs Coffin” at Wired.com, and Time magazine’s “Vinyl Gets Its Groove Back“. I went to three record shops in Sydney to get their view on whether they have seen a noticeable resurgence of the PVC disc, and why this is occurring at a time when music is so easily and readily available off the Internet.
“I think CDs are finished,” says Ian Vellins, store manager at Ashwoods Music and Books.
The store opened in 1932, the same year as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and is now located in York Street. Both Alex Vellins, also a store manager at Ashwoods, and Ian agree that the combination of music libraries like iTunes and listening devices like flash drives, will make CDs redundant. But vinyl will live on.
“When [CDs] first came out, [vinyl] went into a nosedive and now it’s just popped back up again,” says Ian.
“You can’t download a piece of plastic,” says Alex.
Alex, who is 18 years old, says that many of his friends have begun collecting vinyl.
Most album requests at Ashwoods, apart from classical music, are for The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and “punk vinyl” such as Dead Kennedys, The Clash and Sex Pistols, all on vinyl. Then there are the psychedelic garage bands which, according to Ian, “you can’t even have them because they just last about 3 seconds.”
And in the jazz department, Miles Davis and Coltrane are fashionable.
“But the things that don’t sell are things like Red Hot Chilli Peppers and U2,” says Ian. “This sort of popular stuff is not popular.”
While they are hard to come by, rare records can demand high prices. Take the 1967 Casino Royale soundtrack for instance which Ian says can fetch up to 300 dollars, or early Elvis Presley albums, released on the Sun label, which have sold for an amazing 1000 dollars.
But a major issue, according to Ian, is that digital downloads are killing the music.
“Yeah, it’s like everybody’s got it,” he says. “I don’t know if democratic is the right word, but it’s like they put socialism into capitalism as a music form and it doesn’t work. Capitalism drove it, but that’s gone now because [the music] is so easily attainable. So it’s made a different dynamic. The dynamic related to music as a revolutionary force has gone because it’s been emasculated in a weird sort of way.”
“The main increase [that I've noticed] has been in new release stuff,” says Michael Fisher, store manager at Red Eye Shop 3, adding that the price of new release vinyl has dropped over the last five or six years.
He says that it’s difficult to tell whether sales of older vinyl have increased because it has always been the big thing for the store.
“Frequently, I think groups are putting more effort into packaging of the vinyl, actually making it quite a piece in its own right, either through gatefold sleeves, or through extra tracks,” says Michael.
Red Eye opened as one store in 1981. They now have three stores, shop 1 and shop 2 located in the same building on King Street, and shop 3 on Pitt Street.
“Certainly the trend this year seems to be a lot of groups are putting out the vinyl with a code to download, and frequently with a CD also inside the vinyl packaging,” says Michael. “That looks like it might be more of the way of the future really.”
An example of this is Shellac’s most recent album, Excellent Italian Greyhound which included a CD with the vinyl version of the album.
A code was also provided with the vinyl version of Blonde Redhead’s 23 to download the album as mp3s. The note included states: “Only three downloads per each coupon allowed, so if you share this with a friend and they beat you to it, then you lose out.”
In the past year Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails released albums for digital download before releasing any ‘hard copy’ of their music. Michael says that the price of Radiohead vinyl is comparable to the CD version of the album, so “that’s certainly picking up some vinyl sales.” But Nine Inch Nails’ albums on vinyl are still more expensive, so only “diehard fans” buy them.
Two years ago, the predominant vinyl sellers were dance music and punk as they were popular among DJs, says Michael.
“Now it’s actually a little more across the board,” he says as he points to one of the distinctive red walls covered in vinyl. “Even things like Flight of the Concord sells much better on vinyl for us that it does on CD. So it’s really all over the place now.”
The Beatles reissues are also getting sales. “I wouldn’t have expected it was going to go well, because they’re not rare records. But they’re selling great.”
The most expensive album Red Eye has sold in recent times was a Japanese edition of The Beatles’ The White Album on red vinyl. It went for $500.
But does vinyl sound better than CD? An article at Howstuffworks.com claims that with a CD, the listener is not getting the full sound. The debate continues to rage.
One example where vinyl certainly sounds better is the last PJ Harvey album, says Michael. “On vinyl [it] came out on 45 [rpm], rather than 33 [rpm] as it’s only about 28 minutes long. When they’re putting it on 45, they’re stretching the grooves, and so you are getting a really great sound.”
This difference in sound also applies to mp3s. Baz Scott, store owner at Egg Records in Wilson Street, Newtown, says that many people are surprised when they hear for the first time on vinyl, songs that they had previously only heard through their iPod.
“They come into the store and hear something on the big speakers and I’ve had the comment several times; people have come up and said, “What are you playing? Is this a different version or something else?” And I go ‘no, it’s just that you’re hearing a lot of the highs and lows that because of the compression thing with mp3s and what have you, all those sorts of little nuances can be lost.’”
Baz and his brother-in-law opened Egg Records 8 years ago. Baz began working in the store full-time a year and a half ago after his brother-in-law moved to Brisbane and open another Egg Records.
At the moment, Darth Maul from Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace stands guard just inside the door.
While there might be a return to vinyl because the sound is better, the Internet is having an effect on record stores in another way.
“Finding rare stuff is becoming harder and harder, because the ebay factor has killed a lot,” says Baz. “That’s killed a lot of stores worldwide because people think they can get big dollars for it, and all that sort of stuff, but it varies. I tend to keep a lot of the high price stuff, even though I may not get the sales for it, but I’d rather have some interesting things.”
“We sell reconditioned turntables and amplifiers and on average, I might sell one a week,” says Baz. “The thing is, I’m getting younger people coming in and they want vinyl. They’ve got the CD, or they’ve done the download, but they want the vinyl.”
But in the end, the attraction of vinyl records is more than just the sound and music. There’s the aesthetic appeal as well.
“It’s that whole thing of art and music together,” says Baz.
SOURCE: http://andrewbrown.tumblr.com/
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