Article for fans of vinyl

[tim]

Back in the groove: young music fans ditch downloads and spark vinyl revival

Katie Allen, media business correspondent
Monday July 16, 2007
The Guardian


The format was supposed to have been badly wounded by the introduction of CDs and killed off completely by the ipod-generation that bought music online.

But in a rare case of cheerful news for the record labels, the latest phenomenon in a notoriously fickle industry is one nobody dared predict: a vinyl revival. Latest figures show a big jump in vinyl sales in the first half of this year, confirming the anecdotal evidence from specialist shops throughout the UK.

It comes as sales of CD singles continue to slide - and it is not being driven by technophobic middle-aged consumers. Teenagers and students are developing a taste for records and are turning away from the clinical method of downloading music on to an MP3 player.
The data, released by the UK's industry group BPI, shows that 7in vinyl sales were up 13% in the first half, with the White Stripes' Icky Thump the best seller.

Two-thirds of all singles in the UK now come out on in the 7in format, with sales topping 1m. Though still a far cry from vinyl's heyday in 1979, when Art Garfunkel's Bright Eyes alone sold that number and the total vinyl singles market was 89m, the latest sales are still up more than fivefold in five years.

For record stores, the resurgence has meant a move from racks of vintage Rolling Stones and Beatles releases to brand new singles and younger buyers. "The student population seem to be loving the 7in," says Stuart Smith, who runs Seismic Records in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. He sells 300-600 records a week and is preparing to launch an online store.

"I'm still not sure about the MP3 generation. You can have a full hard drive and nothing to show for it. Record collections are very personal. You can view into a person's soul really," he says.

The customers rummaging through racks at his store, a small room above a skate shop, are students and DJs.

When Mr Smith opened the vinyl shop in early 2005, digital download sales were rocketing and, amid rampant piracy, global music revenues were several years into their current downward spiral.

A shop selling LPs and 7in singles didn't sound like the most promising business plan. But when his employers at the local outlet of music chain Fopp - now closed down - decided to stop selling vinyl it was something he couldn't resist.

"I just couldn't understand why they decided to turn their backs on it. I saw an opportunity to do something I love doing. I've been a collector myself for years," says the 31-year-old. "It's just one of things. It just felt right."

Two years on, the White Stripes' Icky Thump has just notched up the highest weekly sales for a 7in single for more than 20 years. Retailers and record labels put the rising vinyl sales down to bands rediscovering the format and to music fans' enduring desire to collect. It's not unusual for fans to buy a 7in but have nothing to play it on, says Paul Williams at industry magazine Music Week. "It's about the kind of acts that have very loyal fan bases that want everything to do with that act," he says. "They maybe will buy the download to listen to, but they get the vinyl to own. It's looked at like artwork."

HMV agrees that vinyl is back from the brink, and the chain has been rapidly expanding its record racks to meet rising demand. The group's Gennaro Castaldo cites the huge popularity of "indie" bands, such as Franz Ferdinand and Arctic Monkeys, which enjoy loyal followings among teenagers and students, especially during the summer festival season.

"Labels have realised that it's cool for bands to release their music on vinyl, especially in limited edition form, which makes it highly collectible," he says.

London company Art Vinyl has built a whole business out of the format's visual and tactile appeal by selling easy-to-open frames to display records and their sleeves.

For fans, buying and owning a record can provide a welcome change from the anonymity of online downloads, says Art Vinyl's founder Andrew Heeps. "If you go into a record shop to buy something, you feel part of something," he says. "The fact that last year we sold over 9,000 frames to people says an awful lot about where the market is going."

Cara Henn, a DJ and regular Seismic Records customer says going to the store puts her in touch with her peers and has hammered home the vinyl trend. "I've really been getting back into my vinyl. I love it," she says. "I like to hear crackling, as if it's actually real. Especially with drum'n'bass, DJs are really encouraging fans to buy vinyl."

[magpie]

oooh yeah

maybe one of these days (years) smmd will get around to releasing their album on vinyl, as was originally intended. sure would be sweet...

[Pstehley]

vinyl just has a much better tone than mp3's... it has more of that earthy richness...

[tyler]

i personally am a big fan of paying lots of money for a format that degrades with every listen.

[diesel]

i personally am a big fan of paying lots of money for a format that degrades with every listen.

right, thats why i use all of my scratched cd's as coasters

i thinks its really cool how some labels are distributing limited quality high grade vinyl and including mp3 album downloads for free with the purchase. the new arcade fire for example is like that.

i just picked up a dual cs5000 and the sound is awesome. ipod at work/car, vinyl at home. hifi is back baby.

[Phrazz]

right, thats why i use all of my scratched cd's as coasters

Using CDs as coasters surely will degrade their quality. This goes double with LPs. However, since they are so large, they are harder to use as coasters.

Vinyl is cool, even back into being trendy, but certainly not as convenient as CDs. Sound quality is supposedly better, but vinyl is more susceptible to dust and small scratches -- though CDs get scratched more because "as a rule," people just don't put them back in their cases. Well, I see CDs laying all over in stacks out of their cases everywhere I go, but vinyl albums always seem to make it back into their jackets. Why is that?

Some things are hard (or impossible) to find on CD, and vice versa with vinyl. I think both will be around for a long time, but more because vinyl and a needle playing them is much more tactile and much cooler than some laser hitting microscopic dots (that fade over time of course, maybe vinyl lasts longer after 50 to 100 years...we'll wait and see).

In any case, in the digital world, spinning things will give way to things that fly electrons (or photons) around fixed paths. Spinning things always break or scratch. Solid state is the wave of the now -- if iPod nanos are any indication (and the huge drops in RAM prices). In this sense, CDs are a transition phase and are already obsolete in the convenience department (versus massive iPods, which soon will be all solid-state).

No matter what the future of technology holds, vinyl will never lose its "coolness factor." I don't own vinyl, so therefore I'm not cool.

Frankly, I like vinyl because of the larger artwork on the cover. I can't play the music loud enough now to hear a noticeable difference (maybe due to hearing damage, I'll ask Pete Townshend about that one). When listening casually, I really don't notice the difference between SHN and MP3. If I have headphones on a good system, I can tell (most of the time).

Performing double-blind listening tests will be left as an endeavor for those with adequate time and resources.

[BeatingHippies]

I've always wanted to start collecting vinyl but I just don't have the money. I am lucky enough to have a few excellent resources for it around me. I have always told myself that I would start getting vinyl when I got a good job.

My mom used to have a sick record/8-trac player. It was like a big chest, 3 feet high, 2 feet deep, 5 feet long. The sound on it was just amazing and the record player somehow worked beautifully. I always assumed I would be able to take it with me. Then I came home from college and she had given it away. Twas a sad day.

[tyler]

I don't really despise vinyl as my first post might have made it sound. but I don't know, maybe I'm not enough of an audiophile, but I can't hear the difference between vinyl and anything else on a decent set of speakers. bigger artwork is a plus, and I like how on vinyl artists can break down albums into sides, which creates a whole new dynamic to it. but I take good care of my CDs so they stay in good condition for a long time, as opposed to records which seem to start cracking regardless of what you do to it. and I'm not a fan of the crackling of records. it's no better than a skipping CD, to me. and plus it's so expensive now. I saw Yankee Hotel Foxtrot on vinyl at Pure Pop in Burlington for 40 bucks. I'd rather pay 14 for the CD version and have the added bonus of putting it onto my computer/iPod.

I'll never be a digital-only person because I have a need to have some physical copy of my music in case my computer goes kaput (and it's a Dell laptop so that's a very real possibility). but I can't bring myself to spend extra money for what I see as an impractical, lower fidelity medium just because people tell me that it sounds better. in my experience, it doesn't. I guess I'm just not a vinyl person.