Digital Music News reports on a great article in the Boston Globe on the resurgence of vinyl records. The format continues to attract interest from both nostalgic buyers as well as curious teens and twenty-somethings.
At present, the format remains a growing niche, and an interesting trend. According to shipment figures supplied by the RIAA, sales of vinyl LPs and EPs moved to 1.3 million units in 2007, up 36.6 percent from 2006 figures. That represents a dip from 1997, which featured a total of 2.7 million units.
“Right now, we’re selling about $100,000 a month worth of vinyl,” Boston indie music store Newbury Comics cofounder and chief executive Mike Dreese recently told the Boston Globe. Dreese pointed to annual gains of 20 percent over the past five years, and an 80 percent surge this year. It’s a throwback to something that’s tangible,” he says. “The CD was a tremendous sonic package, but from a graphic standpoint, it was a disaster. People still want a connection to an Artist, and vinyl connects them in a way that an erasable file doesn’t.”
Josh Bizar, sales director for musicdirect, a company that specializes in analog products ranging from new and reissued vinyl to turntables adds,
“It’s unbelievable how much vinyl’s coming out. We’re seeing this explosion of young people under 25 who never even saw an LP as a child running toward a format that was pronounced dead before they were even born. If a title has any kind of mass appeal, it’s coming out on vinyl today.”
“Owning a record album is certainly a lot cooler than owning a digital subset of zeroes and ones on a computer. And the simple act of playing an LP takes a certain single-mindedness that seems to go beyond today’s culture of multitasking. It’s not as easy as just pushing a button.”
Sales of albums and accessories like needle cartridges and record cleaners have jumped 300 percent in each of the past four years. Sales of turntables have spiked 500 percent annually during the same time span.
Indie label Merge Records founder Mac McCaughan estimates that for every 10 albums his label puts out as a digital download or CD, eight get a vinyl release. “It’s not going to come back and replace CDs or MP3s,” he says. “If you do it right and make the vinyl heavy and make the packaging nice, it’s everything that people liked about music in the first place.”
Newbury Comics: Vinyl Selling $100,000 Monthly — Digital Music News
Vinyl Goes From Throwback To Comeback — The Boston Globe
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