Vinyl still popular with city music fans
Vinyl is still being embraced by Dundee’s discerning music buyers according to the city’s oldest record store (writes Graeme Ogston).
Groucho’s in the Nethergate has reported a huge rise in the amount of records being bought in favour of CDs, with the format now holding its own against its digital rivals.
Although vinyl LPs only accounted for 0.2% of sales for new releases in the UK last year, the local second-hand market for the format is booming.
Groucho’s owner Alastair ‘Breeks’ Brodie said people were returning to vinyl due to its “warmth” compared to the “coldness” of digital formats.
He said, “Vinyl sounds great and there is a richness and warmth you don’t get from CDs and downloads. The artwork is also a selling point and people like the whole package.
“Other customers see vinyl as an investment — you can’t download an artefact.”
Alastair said it wasn’t just former vinyl fans reliving their youth who were scouring the racks for LPs.
He said, “We’re finding classic rock from the 70s is selling very well and it is also selling to a younger clientele. A lot of these records were originally made for guys in their late teens.
“We also get collectors and people who have tried CDs and decided years later to go back to their old record collections and build them back up.”
Big sellers continue to be the old guard, with The Beatles and The Who proving particularly popular.
However, Alastair issued a cautious note to those music fans thinking they were sitting on a vinyl goldmine.
He said, “A lot of it is down to condition and how people treat their records. It’s like a car — if you have a Mini from the 60s and it is a beat up old wreck it won’t be worth the same as one that’s been kept in a garage.”
While there are still fortunes to be made, Alastair said these were few and far between.
He said, “If you were one of the few people to buy the Beatles first album on the day it came out, you might have the original gold label stereo version, which is worth thousands of pounds.
“We do get a lot of people offering us a collection they have inherited from an elderly parent and that’s when we see the Mantovani and Ken Dodd records that have no value whatsoever.”
Alastair said while the store was “feeling the pinch” like most other businesses in the current climate, vinyl was still paying its way.
He said, “Sales of record players are also up, now that you can use them to put your record collection onto your computer.
“I’m glad vinyl is still going strong and that’s why we stuck with it when all the other shops dropped it. The late John Peel said life has surface noise, and I totally agree with that — you don’t want to have everything pristine and crystal clear.”
SOURCE: http://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/
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