The vinyl hype continues
More stories about how old-fashioned LPs are coming back. A blip last year is said to be continuing in 2008. According to this story in Rolling Stone, as many as 1.6 million albums may be sold in 2008, about double what were sold in 2006. Cnet uses that story as an excuse to visit an LP-pressing plant, saying “the format has made a big comeback, with sales skyrocketing and turntables moving off store shelves like they haven’t in years.”
The trouble is that instead of labeling the phenomenon as a fad, we’re told it’s that full-on comeback. And what the stories don’t supply is a direct comparison to the rest of the industry’s sales. Consider that compared to the 1.6 million LPs that might be sold last year …
… 1.1 million digital albums are sold each week …
… plus 20 million digital tracks, the equivalent of two million more.
In other words, if the trend holds, LPs might edge up to a level that would equal one percent of digital sales.
(Except that digital sales themselves are increasing 50 percent a year.)
And then you can add in the other seven or eight million hard-copy CDs sold—again, each week.
The stories are doubly dopey because they purport to be about a quest for better sound. On a nice stereo system with a good turntable, a decent needle and a new disc, fine, the sound is good. In the other 99.9 percent of the cases, it’s a lot crummier. The digital age (along with cheap equipment, notably speakers) has democratized fine sound, even taking into account the compression (which will be temporary) of mp3s.
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Many years ago, during the early CD era, Hitsville traveled to the Sony CD-pressing plant in Terre Haute to learn about how CDs are made, a process that remains technologically amazing. That story is here.
Previously in Hitsville:
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I’m seeing the aggressive growth of what will ultimately, and at best, only be a niche. I say this as a person who is paying the way for a host of new vinyl pressings in the coming year. There’s certainly a strong vinyl culture in the punk and garage underground, but I don’t see it getting too far out of that world (I don’t know anything about the hip-hop side of the vinyl scale).
However, the recent sales are amazing. I personally believe it’s driven by an emerging youth market seeking a type of authenticity (Hank woulda done it that way) that hasn’t existed since they were buying music. That’s why you see Floridas Dying selling out of misprint King Khan and Jacuzzi Boys split sevens the day they’re released, and why Matador’s Jay Reatard series is strictly limited and treated as collectible art, and why Goner Records lives and thrives in Memphis.
Because these little hunks of plastic–often accompanied by screenprinted covers or other prizes–are collectible art, and there is a niche for that market. I know a lot of the vinyl folks out there also make digital files available for free to those that purchase the vinyl. You’re getting an analog souvenir to your digital, formless music file, and a certain segment will pay a premium for that. (I know I do).
I’m still working this out in my head, so please excuse the double comment. I think you are accidentally stumbling over the fallacy of excluding the middle. Vinyl is coming back–but not as a holder of dominant market share or as the primary medium of music. Music is now “digital,” or physically formless, abstract–and it will stay that way from now on.
However, vinyl coming back as a physical artifact for lovers of music–a piece of art that physically represents a song or band. A host, if you will, for that abstract notion of a song. For a century we were forced to have these–either as wax cylinders, or shellac, or magnetic tape, or plastic circles–but we can store millions of songs now on something a fraction of the size and weight of a Victrola disc.
That doesn’t eliminate the longing for the physical form; indeed, in some, in may heighten it. It reminds me of the many Star Trek jokes based around Kirk insisting on reading “books.” There was no longer the need for the physical form of millions of words–inconvenient in the extreme, those compilations of information–but some folks just like the way they feel and look.
I love vinyl and I’m glad it’s around, though I got rid of my albums a few years ago. I should perhaps make better clear this is press criticism. Further down in these stories there is a caveat or two and a little bit of context, but the thrust of the ledes is always preposterous.
A half a billion CDs are sold each year; the percentage change of vinyl sales is in his context is statistically insignificant, and becomes utterly meaningless when you talk about either percentage of time spent listening or, more importantly, if you were to include the music consumed from illegal downloading.
But I know from my previous jobs there is something about the idea of “LPs coming back” that just gets the juices flowing amongst boomer journos, so the cranky tone has a lot to do with that.
Which is so weird. I’m post-vinyl (born ‘75), and I love it, but: the emphasis on burgeoning sales and “sound quality” (a ridiculous red herring that, in these days of perfect digital recording, is just about silly) mostly baffle me.
I think you’re right, though–they’re casting about for a reason, and miss the fundamental premise: for the majority of today’s music consumers, music is abstract/digital/physically formless. It’s a curiosity to have (individual) music repositories (as opposed to physical libraries, like iPods), not the norm.
I’m with you on that. Something about the static makes the music feel more authentic. I grew up listening to old albums of my parents, but missed the fad myself. My kid brother has taken to collecting them, without owning a turn table. SO perhaps there is some truth to the fad.
I like vinyl, and I still have maybe around 50 albums in that format. But I wouldn’t buy any more, mainly because it’s so difficult to store. (I also don’t even have my turntable hooked up to a stereo. It’s actually connected to my mixer, which is attached… to the computer!) Anyway, I enjoyed reading your thoughts about the “resurgence” of vinyl.
I own an all vinyl store in Chicago and even I agree with your point about the “hype”. However, I think the focus of your piece should be more on the lazy journalism about doing an easy story about old things are new again. I can’t wait for the story about CB radios making a resurgence. I also think your article could address the arbitrariness of RIAA numbers. I think most of their figures are based on Soundscan. Also, are the figures units shipped or units sold? Independent stores like mine are not linked in. Since the majority of vinyl is sold in this manner, it was most likely underreported for years. The resurgence only accounts for major chain stores adding vinyl to supplement lost CD sales. Vinyl has made a resurgence simply because the major labels have finally noticed it going on. In my store, New Vinyl outsells Used Vinyl 60%-40%. 5 years ago the reverse was true. We are also on pace to have our biggest year despite the tough economic times. The market has grown because of a younger demographic embracing vinyl and the increase in the amount of new and reissue titles being produced. It is and will always be a niche market but one that won’t be snuffed out. As far as the superior sound question, I think it’s up to an individual’s ears. I know people who are on both sides of the fence. I personally think it’s equal but I prefer vinyl because of the whole package. In ten years, I know I will still be answering my 2 favorite questions-Do they still make records? and “Who still buys records?
I’ll still be here.
http://www.myspace.com/davesrecordschicago