Shelley's Stereo & Video

March 19th, 2010

Category: Articles

Vinyl Record Sales Rise – Why?

They are starting to make vinyl records again? When did this happen? Vinyl records never stopped being produced. Production was obviously cut way back, but it never stopped. The fact is vinyl has always been the preferred music format for audiophiles and indie music collectors. Record labels and distributors report that vinyl sales are way up and that one of the largest growth areas is in contemporary country music. With the demand for vinyl on the rise, many record pressing plants are already at capacity with others stepping up production to try to keep up with the demand. Close to three million vinyl records were sold in 2009. But these numbers don’t begin to tell the story. SoundScan only reports sales of new product. The used vinyl market is huge with new independent record stores popping up all over.

So in this age of iPods and digital downloads, why are vinyl records enjoying this resurgence in popularity? Several reasons come to mind. Baby boomers and empty nesters now have time to listen to music again, not just play it in the background of their busy lives. Teens that have grown up only listening to digital are discovering this once thought to be obsolete technology that was first introduced in the late 1800’s by Thomas Edison. Another main reason has to do with today’s economy. With everyone having less expendable income to purchase music, we are rediscovering our record collections and teens are discovering their parent’s record collections. Let’s face it, there isn’t a lot of good music being made today and unless you are waiting for the next Brittany Spears disc to come out, you start looking for other ways to discover music.  And of course the main reason, vinyl records sound better. Though CD’s have wider dynamic range, the audio on CD is compressed to make it as loud as possible. And since the audio on vinyl records can’t be compressed to such extremes, records offer more subtle nuances that transfers to more warmth and richness in the music. No matter how high the sampling rate in the digital process, it can never contain all of the data in an analog record groove.

The debate will always be there. Does vinyl really sound better? If your only experience with vinyl is hearing it on a plastic turntable with a ten dollar needle, CD’s will no doubt sound better.  But as digital technologies constantly change and Hi-Fi manufacturers talk about ceasing production of CD players (Linn of Scotland already has), we take comfort in the lack of technology change associated with vinyl albums. That’s not to say that analog technologies haven’t advanced. The quality of turntables, phono cartridges, phono pre-amps and all associated products has greatly increased over the years giving us the ability to hear vinyl like it’s never been heard before. And record manufacturers are pressing audiophile grade albums on thicker vinyl. Purists argue that analog technology generates the closest thing to near-perfect music reproduction. And in addition to sound quality, records produced on vinyl have a non-mainstream cachet that appeals to recording artists and music fans looking to prove that the emphasis is on music, not just on profit. We all have been suffering with the mediocrity in the music business for a long time now. One song gets a record deal. One song gets digitally downloaded. The rest doesn’t matter. Play song number 1. Skip to track 5. That’s about it. Hopefully the demand for vinyl will return us to the days when an artist turned in a cohesive body of songs where one song led into the next, telling a story and ending at the end of side two, leaving us yearning for the next great musical story. Hopefully musicians will strive to produce their Sgt. Pepper or Dark Side of the Moon.

Finally, I’m happy to see that today’s youth are getting the chance to experience music the way I grew up enjoying music with my friends. Getting together, choosing the album and experiencing the sensation of dropping the needle onto the lead in groove of the record. Then passing the album cover around and discussing the artwork which due to the size of the CD jacket has become a long lost art form and of course, being able to read the liner notes without a magnifying glass. Listening to vinyl is far more involving and social. So take out those ear buds, turn off your computer or i-whatever and listen to pure music. Turntables are cool and vinyl rocks. LONG LIVE VINYL!

Bill Kivinski

Store Manager & Music Lover.

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