Vinyl LPs See A Rebirth In Modern Market

Music Fans Expected To Buy 1.6 Million LPs In 2008, Citing Desire For A Purer Sound

(AP)  It was a fortuitous typo for the Fred Meyer retail chain.

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.

Other mainstream retailers are giving vinyl a spin too. Best Buy is testing sales at some stores. And online music giant Amazon.com, which has sold vinyl for most of the 13 years it has been in business online, created a special vinyl-only section last fall.

The best-seller so far at Fred Meyer is The Beatles album "Abbey Road." But musicians from the White Stripes and the Foo Fighters to Metallica and Pink Floyd are selling well, the company says.

"It's not just a nostalgia thing," said Melinda Merrill, spokeswoman for Fred Meyer. "The response from customers has just been that they like it, they feel like it has a better sound."

According to the Recording Industry Association of America, manufacturers' shipments of LPs jumped more than 36 percent from 2006 to 2007 to more than 1.3 million. Shipments of CDs dropped more than 17 percent during the same period to 511 million, as they lost some ground to digital formats.

The resurgence of vinyl centers on a long-standing debate over analog versus digital sound. Digital recordings capture samples of sound and place them very close together as a complete package that sounds nearly identical to continuous sound to many people.

Analog recordings on most LPs are continuous, which produces a truer sound - though, paradoxically, some new LP releases are being recorded and mixed digitally but delivered analog.

Some purists also argue that the compression required to allow loudness in some digital formats weakens the quality as well.

But it's not just about the sound. Audiophiles say they also want the format's overall experience - the sensory experience of putting the needle on the record, the feeling of side A and side B and the joy of lingering over the liner notes.

"I think music products should be more than just music," said Isaac Hudson, a 28-year-old vinyl fan standing outside one of Portland's larger independent music stores.

The interest seems to be catching on. Turntable sales are picking up and the few remaining record pressers say business is booming.

But the LP isn't going to muscle out CDs or iPod soon.

Nearly 450 million CDs were sold last year, versus just under 1 million LPs, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Based on the first three months of this year, Nielsen says vinyl album sales could reach 1.6 million in 2008.

"I don't think vinyl is for everyone; it's for the die-hard music consumer," said Jay Millar, director of marketing at United Record Pressing, a Nashville based company that is the nation's largest record pressing plant.

Many major artists - Elvis Costello, the Raconteurs and others - are issuing LPs and encouraging fans to check out their albums on vinyl. On Amazon.com, one of the best-selling LPs is Madonna's latest album, "Hard Candy".

Some artists package vinyl and digital versions of their music together, including offers for free digital downloads along with the record.

"We've definitely had some talks with the major retailers about exclusives on the manufacturing end," Millar said of United Record Pressing, which focuses primarily on independent recordings.

An avid music fan himself, Millar says he has moved to vinyl in recent years.

"Once I got my first iPod ... I'm looking at my wall of CDs and trying to justify it," Millar said. "The things I like - the artwork, the liner notes, the sound quality - it dawns on me, those are things I like better on vinyl." He welcomed back the pops and clicks, even some of the scratches.

"I like that fact that it's imperfect in a lot of ways, live music is imperfect too," Millar said.

Independent music stores, which have been the primary source of LPs in recent years, say many fans never left the medium.

"People have been buying vinyl all along," said Cathy Hagen, manager at 2nd Avenue Records in Portland. "There was a fairly good supply from independent labels on vinyl all these years. As far as a resurgence, the major labels are just pressing more now."

In this game, big retailers aren't necessarily competing head to head with independent sellers' regular clientele of nostalgic baby boomers, independent label fans and turntable DJs.

"I cannot see that Best Buy or Fred Meyer would order the same things we would," Hagen said. "They aren't going to be ordering the reggae, funk, punk or industrial music."

[djberson]

LP''s definitely require delicate handling, extra effort compared with other formats to keep them clean, and temperate storage conditions. That being said, they have a shelf life of hundreds of years when properly maintained, sound amazing when properly cared for, and will always be "readable" long after tapes shed their emulsion, and digital files are no longer machine-readable.

[elkc]

The feeling you experience when you slowly lower the tone arm holding the stylist down onto the L.P. those first few crisp crackles you hear before the song begins. The range of sound control you had from bass to treble. The stereophonic speakers encased in a hardwood stereo console. The day you "upgraded" to the automatic record drop (or changer). Being able to back slip a song, or to que it to begin at a certain part. The day when music sold, American Bandstand and the Day the Music Died all made us aware that at any moment we might have to hit a fallout shelter. Owning a turntable & a few L.P.''s is like owning a Victrola, there is a need, an importance, to document a time & who we were, could have been, and might still can be...by sharing a piece of that time. When it was an artist who we listened to & we were the musicians. Payola was illegal. A.M. stations out numbered F.M. We could see the radio station tower(s)& see the D.J. spinning records that could be heard from boarder to boarder and coast to coast. A wolf man named Jack, a draft wasn%u2019t a cold one and the Nashville Sound was Waylon, Willie, George Jones and the boys making noise.While there is a fondness to the time,we must nudge our self return to trying to figure out how we''re going to pay for gas home tonight.

[erasmus81]

"I used to have to place a small piece of cardboard in one side so I could hear better treble." Posted by republic1776 at 09:15 PM : Jun 10, 2008

Never mind so you could "hear better treble", I used to have to do it just so the stupid thing would play properly. They were really bad. Someone told me that alot of those tapes were actually made in someones basement.

[erasmus81]

"Yah, that ''''better'''' sound of pops, scratches, hiss and skips, I absolutely HATED LP''''d, no matter how careful you were sliding them in and out the dust jacket, the slightes dust leaves scratches, as plastic they have static and attract MORE dust, every time you play them your needle wears a little more off the grooves. It may sound better than digitial the first half dozen plays but then the qualty goes down rapidly."
They will also warp. Posted by newster1 at 09:25 PM : Jun 10, 2008

Yeah, I think we get the picture.:)

[erasmus81]

"I Still Have Many LP`s too
Drunken bros falling into the turntable,..beer onto the records,..But Hey,Those Were The Days!" Posted by neobrian at 07:17 PM : Jun 10, 2008

Hmmm, that sounds so familiar. Of course it wasn''t me falling onto the turntable or spilling the beer.....


"There was a fairly good supply from independent labels on vinyl all these years."

I still have all my LPs and 45s and my kids have been buying them all along. I am glad to hear they are making more.

[greeneyes222]

LPs are great. Ipods may be convenient, but there''s a definite loss of quality.

[gmond]

My old stereo just died, which not only allowed separate equalizer adjustments for dubbing to cassette but also had a 78 rpm setting for the turntable. Try to find a replacement for that! Oh well. And for the "record", analog always sounded better than digital. Those pops and hisses and crackling just meant the record was getting worn out.

[djberson]

michaelt302

You are laughable. You are very likely missing out on some of the greatest pleasures in life, and have no aesthetic taste whatsoever.

[briansgirl2]

My Godfather was a radio DJ back in the ''50''s and ''60''s. When he died back in the ''90''s, I inherited hundreds of his LPs. I never knew what to do with them, so I kept them in boxes in my basement. So glad I didn''t throw them away!

[oneworldusa]

I''m in business, folks.

I have a SLEW of well-protected, bubble-wrapped albums and a 1960s suitcase record player in mint condition that works great!!!