The vinyl record collecting blog - with news about new vinyl record releases, vinyl record sales, new music releases, album cover art and weekly features
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Wow! The Record Store Day Releases keep coming...
This is from the official Record Store Day site (http://www.recordstoreday.com) Everyone help support the artists who release their music via this historical music medium!
Here is a complete list of all of the amazing music that some of your favorite artists have created specifically to celebrate Record Store Day! Like all great art, the quantity and availability of these pieces are very limited so please reach out to your local record store to check on what they will have. Thanks for celebrating Record Store Day with us and check back for more exciting news in the coming weeks.
LIST OF EXCLUSIVE RELEASES MADE ESPECIALY FOR RECORD STORE DAY!
**EACH STORE ON THIS SITE STOCKS THEIR OWN RACKS. WE ARE NOT GUARANTEEING THAT EACH STORE WILL HAVE EACH PIECE. CHECK WITH YOUR LOCAL STORE FOR AVAILABILITY.
**THE MAJORITY OF THESE PIECES ARE US-ONLY. INTERNATIONAL STORES—CHECK WITH YOUR DISTRIBUTORS FOR PIECES AVAILABLE TO YOU. INTERNATIONAL FANS AND SHOPPERS—CHECK WITH YOUR LOCAL STORES.
Akron/Family "Everyone is Guilty" 7" first single from new album; unreleased b-side
Arthur Russell "Love Is Taking Me" 2LP 2LP (RSD exclusive)
Bad Religion Original EP 7" reissue colored vinyl; 6 tracks from 1981
Ben Harper 10" "Shimmer and Shine"/"Spanish Red Wine" B-side, "Spanish Red Wine" is unreleased
Blitzen Trapper "War is Placebo/Booksmart" 7" - two exclusive tracks w/die cut sleeve
Bob Dylan 7"--"Dreaming of You"/"Down Along the Cove" tracks recorded live at Bonnaroo; packaged in clear sleeve with 3x5 photo
Booker T "Warped Sister/Reunion Time" 7" 7"
Brandi Carlile 7" single "Downpour"/"A Promise To Keep" “Downpour” is the live track recorded in Boston
Bruce Springsteen 7" "What Love Can Do"/"A Night With The Jersey Devil" packaged in clear sleeve with 3x5 photo
Camera Obscura "French Navy" 7" 7" (RSD exclusive)
Cold War Kids Live at Fingerprints Live at Fingerprints 5 song EP
Cursive/Ladyfinger Split 10" picture disc four songs, two unreleased and two new
Dandy Warhols Remix CD #2
Death Cab For Cutie T-Shirt exclusive design for Record Store Day
Def Jam 25: Volume 1 and 2 4 LP gatefold history of Def Jam, only physical version of this piece is for indies 4 LP gatefold history of Def Jam, only physical version of this piece is for indies
Depeche Mode 7" "Wrong"/"Oh Well" 7"
Derek Trucks Already Live EP five previously unreleased live tracks from the 2008 tour
Dr. Dog/Floating Action Split 7" 7" - exclusive
Elvis Costello "Complicated Shadows"/"Dirty Rotten Shame" picture disc "Dirty Rotten Shame" is exclusive track--previously unreleased
Elvis Perkins "Lorraine Lookout" 7" two tracks, one unreleased
Flaming Lips/Black Keys split 7" "Borderline"/"Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles" 7" Borderline/Her Eyes Are A Blue Million Miles
Flight of the Conchords "Pencils In The Wind"/"Albi The" 7" - two exclusive tracks w/die cut sleeve
Gaslight Anthem Live from Park Ave 10" Live from Park Ave 10" - 6 tracks
Grateful Dead T-Shirt exclusive design for Record Store Day
Grizzly Bears Live on KCRW 7" two tracks, "While You Wait For The Others"/"He Hit Me"
Guided By Voices Hold On Hope LP Three bonus tracks
Heaven & Hell 7" "Bible Black" / Neon Knights (Live) Created exclusively for Record Store Day
Iron and Wine Norfolk 6-20-05 Live 18 track CD recorded on the Woman King tour
Jane's Addiction 7" "Mountain Song" / "Standing in the Shower…Thinking" 7" Mtn. Song/Standing In The Shower- Packaged in original replica picture sleeve
Jason Mraz T-Shirt exclusive design for Record Store Day
Jenny Lewis/Elvis Costello 7" --"Carpet Baggers"/"Go Away" Never before available in the US
Jesus Lizard 9 x 7" pack A pack of nine 7"s
Leonard Cohen 7" "The Future/"Suzanne" tracks recorded live in London, packaged in clear sleeve with 3x5 photo
Loney Dear/Andrew Bird 7" split 7" 7" - hand-silk screened covers; tour & mail order item
Lykkie Li/El Perro Del Mar 7" "After Laughter (Comes Tears)" / "At Your Best (You are Love)" Made exclusively for Record Store Day featuring two unreleased cover songs.
Magnolia Electric Co, "It's Made Me Cry" 7" Jason Molina's first 7" in years
Mastodon T-Shirt exclusive design for Record Store Day
MC 5 7" "Kick Out The Jams"/"Motor City Is Burning" Packaged in the original rare picture sleeve, first time available since 1969
Metric "Help I'm Alive" 7" Picture disc "Help I'm Alive"/"Help I'm A B-Side"
Modest Mouse 7" --"Satelite Skin"/"Guilty Cocker Spaniels" both tracks are brand new
My Morning Jacket - CelebraciĆ³n De La Ciudad Natal Celebracion De La Ciudad Natal CD & 2 x 10" Vinyl - 4-14 Street, Vinyl one time shot. Recorded LIVE in LOUISVILLE (at Ear X-tacy, and Waterfront Park), includes classic tracks and selections from the band's most recent GRAMMY nominated album EVIL URGES. PLEASE NOTE: double 10 inch will be a limited edition, ONE TIME pressing - We shall manufacture only what is ordered. Once it’s gone, it’s gone folks.
New Order 7" (live) "Temptation" / "Hurt" - as and A&B side.
Oasis Falling Down Remix LP Falling Down Remix LP
Obits "I Can't Lose/Military Madness" 7" 7" - two exclusive tracks w/die cut sleeve
Paramore T-Shirt exclusive design for Record Store Day
Pavement "Live in Germany 1988" LP unreleased show from 1988
Poison The Well Six track CD 6 track CD, taken from 2 7" singles that the band sells on the road, and an upcoming 7" single that will be out later this spring
Pretenders "Break Up The Pavement"/Love's…" 7" 7" - one unrelased track, and track from new album on red vinyl
Queen EP Queen's First EP Limited Edition, Numbered CD for the first time in the US
Radiohead 10" vinyl series (see list of titles in NOTES) THESE ARE BEING RELEASED EARLY FOR RSD: Drill, Creep, My Iron Lung, High & Dry, Fake Plastic Trees, Just, Street Spirit, Paranoid Android, Karma Police, No Surprises, Pyramid Song, 2+2=5
Rivers Cuomo Live @ Fingerprints CD and CD/DVD Combo Live @ Fingerprints CD and CD/DVD Combo
Silversun Pickups Pikul 12" exclusive release ahead of their new album
Slayer 7" single "Psychopathy Red" packaged in special X-Files-style, "confidential" packaging
Sonic Youth/Beck split 7" split 7" (RSD exclusive)
Sonic Youth/Jay Reatard split 7" split 7" (RSD exclusive)
Sublime "Superstar Punani"/April 29, 1992" 7" 7" single with 2 live tracks, first time on vinyl
Taking Back Sunday 7" "Carpathia/Catholic" (live) 7" Carpathia/Catholic (live)
The Black Kids Wizard of Ahhhs 10" first time on physical format
The Color Fred The Intervention CD EP six acoustic tracks--four new
The Decemberists 7" "The Rake's Song"/"East India Lanes" B-side, "East India Lanes" is unreleased
The Smiths 7" "The Headmaster Ritual" /"Oscillate Widly" Never before available in the US as a 7" single.
The Stooges 7" "1969"/"Real Cool Time" Packaged in the original rare picture sleeve
Thermals/Thao Get Down Stay Down split 7" split 7" Get Down Stay Down (4 tracks unreleased)
Tift Merritt Buckingham Solo CD recorded live at a church; Tift solo with piano and guitar
Tom Waits "Live from the Glitterdome" 7" 7" - live tracks from Atlanta & Edinburgh
Underoath T-Shirt exclusive design for Record Store Day
Various Artists--THIS LP CRASHES HARD DRIVES Super deluxe gatefold LP (Limited to only 1,500 copies) with exclusive tracks from 10 of the finest crate digging labels out there! Includes a mix of sampler cd's, zines, catalogs, stickers, and posters, from all of these fine labels.
1) Los Destellos - “Guajira Sicodelica” (Vampi Soul)
2) P.E. Hewitt Jazz Ensemble - “Bada Que Bash” (Now Again)
3) Group Doueh - “Waya Waya” (Sublime Frequencies)
4) Noor Jehan - “I Am Very Sorry” (Finders Keepers)
5) Hypnotic Brass Ensemble - “Marcus Garvey” (Honest Jon’s)
6) Pisces feat. Linda Bruner - “Sam” (Numero Group)
7) The Monks - “Pretty Suzanne” (Light In The Attic)
8) Myron & E with The Soul Investigators - “Cold Game” (Timmion)
9) John Heartsman & Circles - “Talking About My Baby” (Jazzman)
10) Naomi Shelton & The Gospel Queens - “What Is This” (Daptone)
Various artists Records Toreism LP tracks from Mountain Tortoise, Trans Am, White Hills, Double Dagger
Vetiver "Wishing Well"/"Pay No Mind" 7" 7" - two semi-exclusive non-album tracks w/diecut sleeve
Whiskeytown 7" single - San Atone b/w Great Divide (unreleased tracks) 7" single - San Atone b/w Great Divide (unreleased tracks)
Wilco Ashes of American Flags DVD DVD is released with an exclusive window of two weeks for indie stores and mail order
Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs It’s Blitz LP vinyl version of forthcoming Yeah Yeah Yeahs CD
This Date In Music History- March 29
Birthdays:
Chad Allan, Guess Who (1943)
Evangelos Papathanassiou- Vangelis (Chariots of Fire 1943)
Terry Jacks- singer, songwriter, (1974 UK & US #1 single “Seasons In The Sun”) (1946)
Bobby Kimball- vocals, Toto (1947)
Patty Donahue- Waitresses (1956)
Perry Farrell- Jane's Addiction (1959)
M.C. Hammer (1963)
John Popper - Blues Traveler (1967)
They Are Missed:
Pearl Bailey was born 1918.
Mantovani (orchestra leader) died in 1980 (age 74).
History:
In 1964, the Beatles held down the top five positions on Billboard's Hot 100 chart (with seven more records in the bottom 70).
"The King and I" opened on Broadway in 1951.
In 1976 Bruce Springsteen jumped a fence at Graceland in an attempt to see his idol, Elvis Presley.
Dr. Hook appeared on Rolling Stone's cover in 1973 shortly after making a splash with their hit "The Cover of Rolling Stone." Just like the lyrics in the song, the band members buy five copies of the magazine to give to their mothers.
In 2004, Janet Jackson told TV talk show host David Letterman that her breast-baring Super Bowl stunt was "an accident." "It was supposed to kind of happen like that, but I wasn't supposed to come out of it the way I did," she says, confusingly. Uh, OK, an accident…
Blood Sweat & Tears went to #1 on the US album chart in 1969 with their self-titled album.
Working at Abbey Road studios in 1967, the Beatles finished recording “Good Morning Good Morning.” They then started work on a new song “With a Little Help From My Friends,” (originally titled “Bad Finger Boogie”), recording 10 takes of the rhythm track, then had Ringo overdub a double-tracked lead vocal.
Pink Floyd's “Dark Side Of The Moon,” spent it's 303rd week on the US album chart in 1980, beating the record set by Carole King's album “Tapestry.”
Rolling Stone Mick Jagger was injured during a gig in Marseilles in 1966 after a fan threw a chair at the stage, Jagger required eight stitches in the cut.
Neil Young was treated for a brain aneurysm at a hospital in New York in 2005. Doctors expected the 59 year-old to make a full recovery. The aneurysm was discovered when Young's vision became blurred after the induction ceremony for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last month.
“Umbrella,” by Rihanna featuring Jay-Z was released in the US in 2007. The track went on to reach #1 in various countries, including the US. A #1 in the UK for 10 consecutive weeks making it the longest running #1 single since Wet Wet Wet's “Love Is All Around” in 1994, and the longest running #1 by a female artist since Whitney Houston's “I Will Always Love You.”
In 2004, French rock star Bertrand Cantat, lead singer with Noir Desir, was found guilty of killing his girlfriend, the actress Marie Trintigant, and sentenced to eight years in prison.
Led Zeppelin had all their six albums in the US Top 100 chart in the same week in 1975 with their latest album “Physical Graffiti” at #1.
Austrian singer Falco started a three-week run at #1 on the US singles chart in 1986 with “Rock Me Amadeus,” also a #1 in the UK.
Chad Allan, Guess Who (1943)
Evangelos Papathanassiou- Vangelis (Chariots of Fire 1943)
Terry Jacks- singer, songwriter, (1974 UK & US #1 single “Seasons In The Sun”) (1946)
Bobby Kimball- vocals, Toto (1947)
Patty Donahue- Waitresses (1956)
Perry Farrell- Jane's Addiction (1959)
M.C. Hammer (1963)
John Popper - Blues Traveler (1967)
They Are Missed:
Pearl Bailey was born 1918.
Mantovani (orchestra leader) died in 1980 (age 74).
History:
In 1964, the Beatles held down the top five positions on Billboard's Hot 100 chart (with seven more records in the bottom 70).
"The King and I" opened on Broadway in 1951.
In 1976 Bruce Springsteen jumped a fence at Graceland in an attempt to see his idol, Elvis Presley.
Dr. Hook appeared on Rolling Stone's cover in 1973 shortly after making a splash with their hit "The Cover of Rolling Stone." Just like the lyrics in the song, the band members buy five copies of the magazine to give to their mothers.
In 2004, Janet Jackson told TV talk show host David Letterman that her breast-baring Super Bowl stunt was "an accident." "It was supposed to kind of happen like that, but I wasn't supposed to come out of it the way I did," she says, confusingly. Uh, OK, an accident…
Blood Sweat & Tears went to #1 on the US album chart in 1969 with their self-titled album.
Working at Abbey Road studios in 1967, the Beatles finished recording “Good Morning Good Morning.” They then started work on a new song “With a Little Help From My Friends,” (originally titled “Bad Finger Boogie”), recording 10 takes of the rhythm track, then had Ringo overdub a double-tracked lead vocal.
Pink Floyd's “Dark Side Of The Moon,” spent it's 303rd week on the US album chart in 1980, beating the record set by Carole King's album “Tapestry.”
Rolling Stone Mick Jagger was injured during a gig in Marseilles in 1966 after a fan threw a chair at the stage, Jagger required eight stitches in the cut.
Neil Young was treated for a brain aneurysm at a hospital in New York in 2005. Doctors expected the 59 year-old to make a full recovery. The aneurysm was discovered when Young's vision became blurred after the induction ceremony for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last month.
“Umbrella,” by Rihanna featuring Jay-Z was released in the US in 2007. The track went on to reach #1 in various countries, including the US. A #1 in the UK for 10 consecutive weeks making it the longest running #1 single since Wet Wet Wet's “Love Is All Around” in 1994, and the longest running #1 by a female artist since Whitney Houston's “I Will Always Love You.”
In 2004, French rock star Bertrand Cantat, lead singer with Noir Desir, was found guilty of killing his girlfriend, the actress Marie Trintigant, and sentenced to eight years in prison.
Led Zeppelin had all their six albums in the US Top 100 chart in the same week in 1975 with their latest album “Physical Graffiti” at #1.
Austrian singer Falco started a three-week run at #1 on the US singles chart in 1986 with “Rock Me Amadeus,” also a #1 in the UK.
Rarities now common target at vinyl show
As vinyl records resurge, rarities become focus of today's show in Toronto
GREG QUILL
ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST
Record shows used to be gathering places for boomers buying back their past and geeky collectors looking for a priceless score.
But these days, says Akim Boldireff, co-promoter of the Toronto Downtown Record Show, one of Ontario's biggest bi-annual vinyl-heavy record markets – it's taking place today at the Estonian House Banquet Hall, 958 Broadview Ave. – they're attracting a new generation of vinyl virgins who are discovering the hi-fi delights of analogue recordings, vintage and new, and rare music that never made it to digital formats.
"Sales of vinyl recordings last year were 85 per cent higher than in 2007, and this year we'll see a 150 per cent increase over last year's sales," says Boldireff, a rare records and music paraphernalia dealer/collector since 1992. He puts together the Toronto Downtown Record Show – staged in March and November – with fellow dealer Aaron Keele.
British music trade journals reported recently that single-song 45-RPM discs – the mainstay of the industry half a century ago – are now outselling CD singles there. And with high-end turntable sales hitting pre-CD levels (attributable to a small degree to their use by DJs), vinyl pressing plants in Quebec unused for nearly two decades now run 24 hours a day to meet the demand in North America. Contemporary artists are shunning the CD format or augmenting their merchandise with value-added, premium-priced 12-inch discs, so it's not surprising that Boldireff and Keele are seeing more dealers, and customers of varied ages, at their shows.
Today's show, a themed celebration of the 40th anniversary of Led Zeppelin's first appearances in Toronto – twice at the Rock Pile at Yonge St. and Davenport, and once at Massey Hall, all in 1969 – will showcase the collections of more than 100 selected, high-quality dealers from across the country, and some from overseas. As many as 100,000 items, including ephemera, memorabilia merchandise, vintage photographs, posters, CDs, DVDs and, of course, LPs and 45s, will be on display and up for grabs.
"I suspect the increase in demand for vinyl started when young music fans, raised on CDs and MP3s, started plundering their parents' old record collections," Boldireff says. "With a half-decent turntable, vinyl recordings offer an entirely different listening experience."
Younger buyers are also finding something more intrinsically valuable in a vinyl recording with aesthetically pleasing, full-sized covers, Boldireff says. CDs, he says, "seem disposable by comparison" and he points to the increasing amounts of vinyl in the city's few remaining independent music stores – Rotate This and Play De Record, in particular – as evidence of the vinyl craze.
That's good for his business, but the new appetite for vintage vinyl (served very effectively by Internet markets such as eBay and Gemm, where rare records fetch the highest prices) mean Boldireff, Keele and their colleagues have to travel father afield to get the goodies they used to find in abundance in neighbourhood basements and attics when music fans were ditching their old vinyl for CDs.
"There are more collectors and more buyers now, and they're sucking up the vintage market or hanging onto their old records," Boldireff says. "We spend more time in the U.S. because there's a greater volume of material, and with the recession hitting so hard there, more people willing to sell."
Apart from Beatles, Rolling Stones and Elvis originals, and almost any 1970s indie punk recording, the most collectible vinyl these days, he says, is jazz and blues from the 1950s and '60s – "it holds its value" – and progressive, psychedelic and European rock from the 1960s and '70s.
"Reggae, particularly poor quality Jamaican pressings, and British folk from the 1960s, are also very valuable – almost anything from that period is worth buying," says Boldireff, who counts among the most valuable recordings in his collection Rush's first, privately released, self-titled album on the defunct label Moon Records – worth $1,000 or more.
Lately he and Keele have been scouring the northern U.S. for Northern Soul, a sub-genre comprising small independent labels established in the 1960s and 70s in African-American urban centres outside Detroit.
"They were pressed in small batched and sold as less expensive alternatives to major label product," Boldireff says. "Now they're extremely rare and very valuable."
There's much novice vinyl collectors can look forward to as well, says Keele, who once owned a test pressing of the first Who album (value: $2,000).
"All new-release vinyl on limited edition pressings by popular bands stands a good chance of being collectable," Keele says. "If the band itself stays popular, the LP itself should hold a strong value."
SOURCE: http://www.thestar.com
GREG QUILL
ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST
Record shows used to be gathering places for boomers buying back their past and geeky collectors looking for a priceless score.
But these days, says Akim Boldireff, co-promoter of the Toronto Downtown Record Show, one of Ontario's biggest bi-annual vinyl-heavy record markets – it's taking place today at the Estonian House Banquet Hall, 958 Broadview Ave. – they're attracting a new generation of vinyl virgins who are discovering the hi-fi delights of analogue recordings, vintage and new, and rare music that never made it to digital formats.
"Sales of vinyl recordings last year were 85 per cent higher than in 2007, and this year we'll see a 150 per cent increase over last year's sales," says Boldireff, a rare records and music paraphernalia dealer/collector since 1992. He puts together the Toronto Downtown Record Show – staged in March and November – with fellow dealer Aaron Keele.
British music trade journals reported recently that single-song 45-RPM discs – the mainstay of the industry half a century ago – are now outselling CD singles there. And with high-end turntable sales hitting pre-CD levels (attributable to a small degree to their use by DJs), vinyl pressing plants in Quebec unused for nearly two decades now run 24 hours a day to meet the demand in North America. Contemporary artists are shunning the CD format or augmenting their merchandise with value-added, premium-priced 12-inch discs, so it's not surprising that Boldireff and Keele are seeing more dealers, and customers of varied ages, at their shows.
Today's show, a themed celebration of the 40th anniversary of Led Zeppelin's first appearances in Toronto – twice at the Rock Pile at Yonge St. and Davenport, and once at Massey Hall, all in 1969 – will showcase the collections of more than 100 selected, high-quality dealers from across the country, and some from overseas. As many as 100,000 items, including ephemera, memorabilia merchandise, vintage photographs, posters, CDs, DVDs and, of course, LPs and 45s, will be on display and up for grabs.
"I suspect the increase in demand for vinyl started when young music fans, raised on CDs and MP3s, started plundering their parents' old record collections," Boldireff says. "With a half-decent turntable, vinyl recordings offer an entirely different listening experience."
Younger buyers are also finding something more intrinsically valuable in a vinyl recording with aesthetically pleasing, full-sized covers, Boldireff says. CDs, he says, "seem disposable by comparison" and he points to the increasing amounts of vinyl in the city's few remaining independent music stores – Rotate This and Play De Record, in particular – as evidence of the vinyl craze.
That's good for his business, but the new appetite for vintage vinyl (served very effectively by Internet markets such as eBay and Gemm, where rare records fetch the highest prices) mean Boldireff, Keele and their colleagues have to travel father afield to get the goodies they used to find in abundance in neighbourhood basements and attics when music fans were ditching their old vinyl for CDs.
"There are more collectors and more buyers now, and they're sucking up the vintage market or hanging onto their old records," Boldireff says. "We spend more time in the U.S. because there's a greater volume of material, and with the recession hitting so hard there, more people willing to sell."
Apart from Beatles, Rolling Stones and Elvis originals, and almost any 1970s indie punk recording, the most collectible vinyl these days, he says, is jazz and blues from the 1950s and '60s – "it holds its value" – and progressive, psychedelic and European rock from the 1960s and '70s.
"Reggae, particularly poor quality Jamaican pressings, and British folk from the 1960s, are also very valuable – almost anything from that period is worth buying," says Boldireff, who counts among the most valuable recordings in his collection Rush's first, privately released, self-titled album on the defunct label Moon Records – worth $1,000 or more.
Lately he and Keele have been scouring the northern U.S. for Northern Soul, a sub-genre comprising small independent labels established in the 1960s and 70s in African-American urban centres outside Detroit.
"They were pressed in small batched and sold as less expensive alternatives to major label product," Boldireff says. "Now they're extremely rare and very valuable."
There's much novice vinyl collectors can look forward to as well, says Keele, who once owned a test pressing of the first Who album (value: $2,000).
"All new-release vinyl on limited edition pressings by popular bands stands a good chance of being collectable," Keele says. "If the band itself stays popular, the LP itself should hold a strong value."
SOURCE: http://www.thestar.com
Vinyl In The UK
Found a couple of great articles about the 45 rpm record and record collecting from the UK and thought I would share them.
Seven inch single’s struggle to stay alive as it celebrates its 60th anniversary
Mar 29 2009 by Tim Lewis, Wales On Sunday
As the seven inch single celebrates its 60th anniversary this week, Tim Lewis looks at how it changed the music industry and its continuing struggle to stay alive.
Texarkana Baby by Eddy Arnold may not be a song many people remember or have ever heard of, but to a loyal band of followers, it is very special.
On March 31, 1948, it was the first commercial seven-inch single to be released, on bright green vinyl and also featuring a track called Bouquet of Roses.
In those days, all vinyl was colour coded, red for classical, yellow for children’s, cerise for rhythm ‘n’ blues and green for country.
As demand increased and vinyl singles began to take off, the colour coding scheme was scrapped in favour of a uniform black, which had previously been used only for pop singles.
The 45rpm disks caught the public’s imagination and at their peak in 1979, more than 89m were sold in the UK.
For years they were the number one choice for the music industry and fans, but their dominance was soon tested.
When compact discs (CDs) were introduced in the 1980s, it represented the start of a decline in the seven inch.
By the turn of the millennium, sales figures for the seven inch were only a fraction of the staggering numbers of the previous two decades.
Large record labels such as EMI got out of the vinyl game altogether in 2000, and some felt that was a signal of its days being numbered.
In 2001, sales had dropped below 180,000 and many people prophesied the death of the “45” within a couple of years.
But seven inch as a format has been as tough as the vinyl it’s made from and latest figures show a rise in its popularity once more.
Last year, more than one million seven-inch disks were sold and bands such as the Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand and the White Stripes have helped to make them popular again.
Bands continue to produce limited collector’s editions of their new albums costing anything up to £20, and they have proved to be extremely popular.
“Your first seven-inch single is one that you will always remember"
Allan Parkings, 59, owner of Kelly’s Records in Cardiff, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, said: “Vinyl will never die. There are plenty of vinyl junkies out there who live and breathe the whole scene.
“They enjoy the whole experience of buying the disks, the sleeve design, the feel of the disks, the inserts and putting it on a record player.
“Your first seven-inch single is one that you will always remember. Mine was a song called the Poetry in Motion by Johnny Tillotson in the early 1960s.
“To some people, they are like antiques. I have a friend who would buy a single, take it home and play it once before sealing it and putting it into storage.”
Over the years vinyl has faced competition from a number of different formats such as cassette tapes and later CDs but they are now also facing extinction thanks to digital downloads.
“Tapes came and went and now CDs look as if they could go the same way,” added Allan Parkings.
“Youngsters now think vinyl is cool again and there’s something trendy about having the latest band’s music on a seven-inch disk.
“I honestly believe vinyl will still be around in another 60 years.”
Legal, and illegal, downloads have become the option of choice for many younger listeners over the last decade.
Apple’s iTunes music store has been a huge success since its launch and reached the one billion download mark 114 weeks after it started.
Sites such as www.isohunt.com and www.thepiratebay.com have turned into the Mecca for illegal music sharers, although The Pirate Bay’s recent high-profile court case against the music and entertainment industry could soon spell the end for such portals.
Websites such as www.pandora.com and www.spotify.com also allow music lovers to listen to the artists and bands of their choice free of charge.
Pandora gives users the chance to create their own radio station based on their old and current favourite artists.
With Spotify – which has the backing of four major music labels – fans can listen to music for free as long as they don’t mind putting up with the occasional advert.
To remove all adverts from the stream costs 99p a day or £9.99p a month. It has more than 10,000 new songs added every day and now boasts a database of more than eight million songs.
It is difficult to tell whether there is enough room for all of the different formats of music for them all to survive, but after seeing off a number of rivals in its 60-year history, you wouldn’t bet against vinyl being around in another 60 years.
---------------------------------
I’ll never sell my vinyl records, says John Mccarthy
Mar 29 2009 by James McCarthy, Wales On Sunday
I LOVE vinyl. I’ve a whole roomfull of the stuff.
A small room, but a room nonetheless.
“When are you going to stick that on eBay?” my old man says every time he visits. I don’t think that’s often, but it might just be I can’t hear the doorbell, what with the stereo being turned up to 11.
Well, dad, I’m not. Ever. No way. Not even if they stop making turntables.
I can’t get my head around the idea other formats are better. They’re clearly a music industry con designed to bleed cash from punters.
No-one needs to replace their record collection every few years.
Take CDs. “They can’t be scratched,” they said. Yes they can. I tried. I caused irreparable damage to Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway with a screwdriver.
I would have done that whatever the format, but the point still stands.
And where is the romance in an MP3? Sifting through webpage after webpage can’t compare to laughing at other people’s taste in some trendy record shop.
Will people really be recalling misty-eyed what their first download was?
Of course they won’t.
Their computers will all be broken for starters.
But I’ll still have my record collection.
If it hasn’t fallen through the floor and killed the people downstairs.
SOURCE: http://www.walesonline.co.uk
Seven inch single’s struggle to stay alive as it celebrates its 60th anniversary
Mar 29 2009 by Tim Lewis, Wales On Sunday
As the seven inch single celebrates its 60th anniversary this week, Tim Lewis looks at how it changed the music industry and its continuing struggle to stay alive.
Texarkana Baby by Eddy Arnold may not be a song many people remember or have ever heard of, but to a loyal band of followers, it is very special.
On March 31, 1948, it was the first commercial seven-inch single to be released, on bright green vinyl and also featuring a track called Bouquet of Roses.
In those days, all vinyl was colour coded, red for classical, yellow for children’s, cerise for rhythm ‘n’ blues and green for country.
As demand increased and vinyl singles began to take off, the colour coding scheme was scrapped in favour of a uniform black, which had previously been used only for pop singles.
The 45rpm disks caught the public’s imagination and at their peak in 1979, more than 89m were sold in the UK.
For years they were the number one choice for the music industry and fans, but their dominance was soon tested.
When compact discs (CDs) were introduced in the 1980s, it represented the start of a decline in the seven inch.
By the turn of the millennium, sales figures for the seven inch were only a fraction of the staggering numbers of the previous two decades.
Large record labels such as EMI got out of the vinyl game altogether in 2000, and some felt that was a signal of its days being numbered.
In 2001, sales had dropped below 180,000 and many people prophesied the death of the “45” within a couple of years.
But seven inch as a format has been as tough as the vinyl it’s made from and latest figures show a rise in its popularity once more.
Last year, more than one million seven-inch disks were sold and bands such as the Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand and the White Stripes have helped to make them popular again.
Bands continue to produce limited collector’s editions of their new albums costing anything up to £20, and they have proved to be extremely popular.
“Your first seven-inch single is one that you will always remember"
Allan Parkings, 59, owner of Kelly’s Records in Cardiff, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, said: “Vinyl will never die. There are plenty of vinyl junkies out there who live and breathe the whole scene.
“They enjoy the whole experience of buying the disks, the sleeve design, the feel of the disks, the inserts and putting it on a record player.
“Your first seven-inch single is one that you will always remember. Mine was a song called the Poetry in Motion by Johnny Tillotson in the early 1960s.
“To some people, they are like antiques. I have a friend who would buy a single, take it home and play it once before sealing it and putting it into storage.”
Over the years vinyl has faced competition from a number of different formats such as cassette tapes and later CDs but they are now also facing extinction thanks to digital downloads.
“Tapes came and went and now CDs look as if they could go the same way,” added Allan Parkings.
“Youngsters now think vinyl is cool again and there’s something trendy about having the latest band’s music on a seven-inch disk.
“I honestly believe vinyl will still be around in another 60 years.”
Legal, and illegal, downloads have become the option of choice for many younger listeners over the last decade.
Apple’s iTunes music store has been a huge success since its launch and reached the one billion download mark 114 weeks after it started.
Sites such as www.isohunt.com and www.thepiratebay.com have turned into the Mecca for illegal music sharers, although The Pirate Bay’s recent high-profile court case against the music and entertainment industry could soon spell the end for such portals.
Websites such as www.pandora.com and www.spotify.com also allow music lovers to listen to the artists and bands of their choice free of charge.
Pandora gives users the chance to create their own radio station based on their old and current favourite artists.
With Spotify – which has the backing of four major music labels – fans can listen to music for free as long as they don’t mind putting up with the occasional advert.
To remove all adverts from the stream costs 99p a day or £9.99p a month. It has more than 10,000 new songs added every day and now boasts a database of more than eight million songs.
It is difficult to tell whether there is enough room for all of the different formats of music for them all to survive, but after seeing off a number of rivals in its 60-year history, you wouldn’t bet against vinyl being around in another 60 years.
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I’ll never sell my vinyl records, says John Mccarthy
Mar 29 2009 by James McCarthy, Wales On Sunday
I LOVE vinyl. I’ve a whole roomfull of the stuff.
A small room, but a room nonetheless.
“When are you going to stick that on eBay?” my old man says every time he visits. I don’t think that’s often, but it might just be I can’t hear the doorbell, what with the stereo being turned up to 11.
Well, dad, I’m not. Ever. No way. Not even if they stop making turntables.
I can’t get my head around the idea other formats are better. They’re clearly a music industry con designed to bleed cash from punters.
No-one needs to replace their record collection every few years.
Take CDs. “They can’t be scratched,” they said. Yes they can. I tried. I caused irreparable damage to Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway with a screwdriver.
I would have done that whatever the format, but the point still stands.
And where is the romance in an MP3? Sifting through webpage after webpage can’t compare to laughing at other people’s taste in some trendy record shop.
Will people really be recalling misty-eyed what their first download was?
Of course they won’t.
Their computers will all be broken for starters.
But I’ll still have my record collection.
If it hasn’t fallen through the floor and killed the people downstairs.
SOURCE: http://www.walesonline.co.uk