Vinyl albums draw wonks of all ages

By Eric R. Danton

Hartford Courant


As album sales plummeted in 2008 for the seventh time in eight years, there was one bright spot for a music industry still in love with physical products: Sales of vinyl records increased by nearly 90 percent.

That’s right, they still make vinyl.

Consumers bought almost 1.9 million new LPs in 2008, the most since Nielsen SoundScan started keeping track in 1991. That’s a mere fraction of the total music sold in 2008 —- 1.5 billion units, which accounts for albums, singles, digital tracks and music videos. But it’s a strong showing for a format thought to have begun its death spiral with the introduction of the compact disc 25 years ago.

Actually, the dominance of digital music is part of what has sparked a resurgent interest in vinyl, say some in the music industry.

“Ultimately, I think in some form it is a backlash against technology,” said Jack Tieleman, who owns the small Canadian label Lance Rock. Tieleman, whose label has put out vinyl editions of CD releases by country-noir singer Neko Case, stopped making compact discs five years ago to focus on LPs.

It’s not just indie labels that are keeping vinyl alive. EMI has been reissuing some of the most revered records on its Capitol and Virgin labels, including albums by the Beatles, Roxy Music and Radiohead, along with new albums by Brian Wilson and Glen Campbell. The full Ben Harper catalog is due out on wax in February, and EMI plans to rerelease albums by the Beach Boys and selections from its Blue Note jazz label later this year.

Each LP is remastered and pressed on 180-gram audiophile-quality vinyl and, in the case of older albums, the label re-creates the original packaging, down to stickers and posters.

The reissues are attracting music fans of all ages, said Jason Boyd, senior director of catalog sales at EMI.

“It’s pretty split between older customers who grew up on vinyl, who think it’s cool and are happy to see some of the classic titles they liked back on vinyl and are dusting off their turntables and getting back into it, and … [the] college lifestyle hipster person that’s going after the right albums because of their cultural or iconic significance,” Boyd said.

Digital music is still the fastest-growing segment of the record industry, with sales of digital tracks up 32 percent to more than 1 billion in 2008, and digital album sales up 27 percent to 65 million.

Vinyl and digital technology aren’t mutually exclusive, however. There are record players on the market that convert songs on LP to mp3s, and some labels include download coupons with the vinyl format.

There’s plenty of vinyl out there for people to buy, and some of it even touches on multiple formats.

But why the sudden interest?

There are a couple theories. One is sonic: Adherents say music on vinyl simply sounds better than its digital counterpart.

“A well-recorded and -mastered vinyl record will sound 10 times better, even with the background noise,” said Michael Deming, a music producer and recording engineer who has made records with the Pernice Brothers, Mike Ireland, the Lilys and Jim White.

Digital technology is based on sampling sound. Commercially released CDs sample at the speedy rate of 44,100 times per second but can’t re-create the stereo image and other technical aspects that give an analog sound recording its warmth.

“Your ears, brain and soul don’t like that,” Deming said. “A tape recording or vinyl record is constantly variable without any samples. It is as analog as our own hearing or eyesight and, therefore, is digested by our ears and brains in such a way that the emotional as well as the audio content is uncompromised.”

There’s a less wonky reason, too: With its larger platform for album artwork and limited editions released in different colors, vinyl is a cool collectible.

SOURCE: http://www.ajc.com