Maybe it’s the warmer, more realistic sound. Maybe in this age of increasing digitization, people want something they can touch, something not on a screen. Whatever the case, vinyl record sales are on the rise. Recent reports indicate that the public are buying records in increasing numbers as a higher fidelity alternative to mp3s.
CNN reports:
This spring, an employee intending to order a special CD-DVD edition of R.E.M.’s latest release “Accelerate” inadvertently entered the “LP” code instead. Soon boxes of the big, vinyl discs showed up at several stores.
Some sent them back. But a handful put them on the shelves, and 20 LPs sold the first day.
The Portland-based company, owned by The Kroger Co., realized the error might not be so bad after all. Fred Meyer is now testing vinyl sales at 60 of its stores in Oregon, Washington and Alaska. The company says, based on the response so far, it plans to roll out vinyl in July in all its stores that sell music.
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This is what my apartment looked like in the 1980s when I was a DJ (another lifetime ago). I was more cinderblock and plastic milk cartons (you never stack records like in that picture! Warpcity.).
A simpler time…why spend money on furniture when you could spend it on records? It was a bitch when you had to move but they, like books now, covered every free wall. Not terribly attractive but at least it was a personal style.
CD pillars just aren’t the same…CDs are cold and plastic instead of paper (album covers) and vinyl. And album cover art just doesn’t translate on a CD.
June 14th, 2008 at 11:22 am
I just realized I am SO out of “it” that most people don’t even buy CDs, they download their music on their computers. Color me Steampunk.
June 14th, 2008 at 11:24 am
That’s something I’m always saying when talking about downloading music for free. MP3 files are the tangible thing, but where is the emotional part? Live music or cool merchandise (like the vinyl version) are some examples.
The music industry has to understand that the music is like the ad, the money is elsewhere.
What about this idea? Buy the vinyl, fill your bookcase, show to your friends how cool are you and, for the tangible stuff, download for free the songs at the band’s web site with the code you can find inside the record.
You have the music and the vinyl for your bookcase, while the industry (labels and retailers) makes some money from record sales and “the band” has your e-mail as well as an impact on you via website.
By the way, in Spain FNAC is starting to sell vinyl records, and the ads are great using the Sleeveface trend: http://www.joando.com/2008/04/monitorizar-tendencias-una-va-de.html
June 14th, 2008 at 11:43 am
I randomely found out on google about this nice software you can use to get people find you and be attracted to your headlines in search engines. I think it was called glyphius…
You pretty much type a headline and it gives you a score. You keep editing it and changing few words until the score gets higher and higher and i guess next thing you know, you have a catchy headline ;) I think I’ll try it to advertise my coming up business.
June 14th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
According to my local dealer of trust over at http://groove-city.com/ new releases esp. in the fields of Hip Hop 12″ singles and LPs have been constantly shrinking within the last year. The record stack of new arrivals has been shrinked to half its size.
It’s not only about less people buying vinyl but also the label’s decision to move on to more distribution via CDs (than can be easily transferred to a laptop) and digital distribution. Especially Hip Hop Deejays have moved to digital tools such as Serato. The emerge of sites such as http://www.beatsource.com that directly aims towards the Hip Hop heads and traditional retailers such as http://www.turntablelab.com have shown that the demand for digi-hiphop Deejaying has definitely grown.
In terms of the bespoke local record store- if the sales and releases of new titles keep on declining, this issue is getting one of existence.
June 16th, 2008 at 7:59 am