How Vinyl Got Its Groove Back

CBS Evening News: In This Digital Age, Vinyl Records Are Making A Comeback

(CBS)  Sixteen-year-old David MacRunnel loves his record collection.

"I have approximately 1,200," he said.

They're all vinyl LPs. Scratch the iPod.

"You experience the music versus hearing the music," MacRunnel said.

For 18-year-old Lukas Glickman, LPs have become an obsession.

"I spend all my money on it. It's a problem," he said.

They're true believers in a vinyl revival. Yes, in this digital age, the LP is coming back from the dead, CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason reports.

The group REM released its latest album on vinyl. So did Bruce Springsteen with his album, "Magic." Madonna's "Hard Candy" came out on vinyl and Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" as well. A new LP costs about $20.

"It's a business decision. The major labels are doing it, because there's a lotta demand for it," said Matt Wishnow, president of Insound, an online indie music store.

Vinyl records now account for nearly half of Insound's sales.

"If you're a music fan and you want to have music 'stuff,' this is the most prized 'stuff' you can have in your music collection," Wishnow said.

The vinyl plastic LP was created in the 1940s.

But by the 1990s, CDs had made LPs all but obsolete.

Two years ago, only 850,000 vinyl albums were sold in the United States. This year that's expected to nearly double.

Record Technology, a California vinyl plant, has a nearly 4-month backlog of orders.

"Have you actually played your album on vinyl?" Mason asked Grammy-Award winning vocalist Shelby Lynne.

"Shoot, yeah!" she said.

Lynne was thrilled when her 10th album was her first to come out on vinyl.

"Because look how big that picture is!" she said. "It's just the whole thing. The touchin' it. The puttin' the needle down."

Wishnow calls it the avid music fan's response to the fleeting nature of the digital age.

"This is not a trend. This is going to be there for a long time," Wishnow said.

Believe it. Vinyl is groovy again.

[jaykay3141]

No LP''s in the 1940s ??? Columbia released the first commercial LP in 1948. The technology combined a smaller groove size with the 33-1/3 rpm speed already in use for radio transcription disks. In fact, Bell Labs had experimented with stereo (!) LP recording as early as 1931.

As the saying goes, you can look it up.

[jpbama69]

Music on vinyl sounds great!Ive been collecting just over eleven years now. Thrift stores and yard sales are great hunting grounds. Usually I only pay around a $1 per album. You would be suprised to know how many mint or unplayed records there are out there. 99% of my collection has no pops or scratches and they do sound better than CDs in my opinion. There is more warmth and nuiances you hear in the music that most CDs just dont capture.For example ,I synced up the RUSH album "Moving Pictures" along with the MFSL(audiophile label) CD and the LP blew it away!The lights on the equalizer dont lie kids!Give vinyl a chance! Peace.

[steeepe]

I finally bought a CD player when CDs featured extra songs. Now, many LPs feature extra songs that you don''t get on the CD. My B&O turntable sounds great, and I bought a bunch of cartridges to last years....

[avigil2]

Growing up in the 70''s and 80''s I collected lots of record albums. So many that I had to store them in my parents garage, crates full which are still there. I love vinyl. And I''m glad they''re making a comeback.

[grizzster]

k-n-o-b-s is a prohibited word? Gimme a freakin break, pal! Okay, tuning dials, then. Is that better?
Jeeze!

[grizzster]

ought the Marantz tuner/amp used, twenty years ago, at a garage sale for about forty bucks. I paid about the same amount for the two beater Pioneer speakers and the used Phillips turntable. It was a steal even back then to get so much vintage equipment for so little...dare I say it...a song!

And I''ve played countless songs on them to this day, with almost no problems, except for a brief stay in the shop when one of the *** snapped off.

There used to be a guy in my city who bought, sold, and fixed everything electronic from 1910 Victrolas to radios of all eras and TV''s, tape decks, and hi-fi/Stereo equpment from every decade of the last century. Best of all, he sold needles to customers all over the world, especially US servicemen stationed on every remote outpost on the planet. Sadly, he just closed down. Don''t know if he died or just moved away. As the junkies say "Where''m I gonna get my needles, man?" God only knows.

[grizzster]

No LP''s in the 1940''s, you say?

Well, I have LP''s of the original Broadway cast of South Pacific (Ezio Pinza, Mary Martin) and the original Broadway cast of Kiss Me Kate (Alfred Drake, etc.) from 1949, so there were LP''s in the late 40''s.

Both of them were brought home to our 1-BR apt. by my father. My earliest memories are of sitting in my little yellow rocking chair and singing along as the show tunes played on a turntable that pulled out of a drawer under the screen of our console TV, circa 1950-51-52. I was 3, 4, 5 years old at the time.

My old man was a hi-fi/stereo/music nut all his life, and he built and maintained good equipment for decades. Thanks to his, and my, pack-rat habits, I now own four turntables, including a rare 4-speed. So why SHOULD I junk my vinyl? No reason in the world!

But kudos to the other poster who plays his LP''s on a Marantz, with Pioneer speakers. I have the exact same set up in my DR, and playing LP''s on my Dutch (Phillips) turntable beats CD''s every time. Especially those original mid-Fifties Brubeck LP''s with their priceless cover art. Not just groovy, man...LIKE, COOLSVILLE!

So yeah, I have stuff from the Forties. Some of it is almost as old as I am.

[drea222]

People have been collecting vinyl for years, that never stopped. College students, dj''s, ravers, punks and independent music lovers usually collect a mix of vinyl, c.d''s, downloads... The news media and popular culture have always been slow to pick up what''s been going on for years. Back in the late 70''s the punk look and lifestyle was rebellious. 30 years later it''s no longer rebellious or do-it-yourself, you can buy your rebellion at hot topic and even jc penny. If there''s money to be made then the mass media informs the population of what''s "new and hip and making a comeback." This is no different. It''s not new, but perhaps more of the masses are now "hip" to it.

[rf35]

CD''s do lose the experience of the music, being digital they can''t reproduce much of what we hear on LP''s.
Posted by cmp271

Like the hiss, pops, and skips from scratches? Right. I don''t miss my LPs or the turntable. For those who say CDs can''t match the warmth or depth of sound...buy an equalizer, dimwits! I''ll accept that MP3 loses quality, but the CD is the top medium. And you CAN fix all but the deepest scratches with a simple CD/DVD repair kit, BTW.

[seafang]

Well I''d sure like to see one of those LPs from the 1940s, because I was there in the 1940s and there weren''t any LPs then.
But 1950s yes; in fact I still have my very first LP; a Decca (London) recording of Beethoven''s 5th; and it dates from 1957.

But despite CDs and all that; there''s still no recording of Wagner''s Der Ring Des Nibelungen that can hold a candle to the Georg Solti/Vienna Philharmonic recording on Decca (London). I have both the Original LPs and the CD reprint of the same recording, and the LPs still sound much better than the CDs. The CD is a bit more convenient so I do play it.
So now the Phono Cartridge companies are going to have to come out with some modern cartridges, that don''t ruin the record, the first time you play it.

[barbaram99]

Vince he said* Barbara I miss the old day when things were simple. You had a pocket radio,records,13 ch TV and I can''t understand this new stuff*. He ''d talked about the music on records..I can''t hear the high end. He is not mappy TV changeing..Years ago records were every where. He said records,I say CDs.

[recordweb]

Great story about Vinyl and Records. Forever Vinyl was the first online record vinyl store and has access to two million rare and out of print vinyl records. Best wishes to all the fans.
Scott Neuman - President - Forever Vinyl
http://www.forevervinyl.com

[dedlen]

An artist''s perspective:

http://vinylart.blogspot.com/2008/08/groove-was-gone.html

Peace.

[jaykay3141]

"I still have all my father''''s old 78''''s. Too bad I have nothing to play them on."

Posted by gmond at 10:45 PM : Aug 19, 2008

Hunt around on the Web. There are still 78 rpm turntables being sold. You''ll have to get a compatible cartridge and needle, though - a standard 0.7 mil LP stylus will just bounce from side to side in the wide grooves of a 78. Look for a 3.0 or better yet a 2.5 mil diamond stylus instead. You''ll also need a good sound processing program like Audacity (freeware) to handle surface noise and compensate for the lack of RIAA equalization.

But the good news is you CAN play and restore 78s at home. I''ve copied most of my parents'' collection and have everything from Stokowski to Count Basie. Go for it!

[cmp271]

CD''s do lose the experience of the music, being digital they can''t reproduce much of what we hear on LP''s. I still play my records, I have over 600 albums, and at least a thousand 45''s. Look into the history of the music industry, it is amazing how it has been done.

[shingles1]

Vinyl never really went away. Punk and independent bands continued to cut 45s and LPs all through the 90''s and up through today.

As far as your old vinyl records being worth money - this is only true for certain types of records. The rule of thumb (or the rule of supply and demand) is that anything that was popular will not be worth a dime...too many copies are floating around out there. Likewise, anything obscure, independent, in which less than 50,000 pressing were made, is probably going to be worth something.

Analog DOES sound better, by the ways. But I haven''t picked up a new release in vinyl form in years - digital is just too convenient.

I''m surprised however that no one mentioned one advantage of vinyl - cleaning weed on the inside spine of a double album. You can''t do that with CDs!

Ah, memories.

[trillion1]

From a completely non technical point of view the cover art on an album can never be done on a cd or cassette.

[checkthepast]

analog is analog and digital is digital it is the old apple and oranges argument. I am older and professional sound reinforcement was my first technical job. Nothing in digital can match the echo accomplished with a Fender echoplex nor a sweeter feedback guitar sound can be gotten than when you take the speaker output from a Marshall tube amp (with a rank of 4 80c5''''s tubes) and plug it into the input of another Marshall.

Audio has gotten mathematical what with sampling rates, time shifting, and Fast Fourier Transforms to try and do what can be done in analog tinkering. Nothing doing with audio has fooled me before and I am not fooled now. I have always found the childish joy in playing music with the biggest stereo I can build the best way to enjoy music.

Posted by raskal_2

a BIG AMEN to that raskal!!
I play a ''72 Les Paul thru a ''72 Fender and wouldn''t trade it for all the digits in cyberland! And for apples and oranges... vinyl reproduction gives the closest resemblance to live anyday. (although the old Akai reel to reel does a pretty good job too!)

[johnstossel]

Neil Young has always hated digital music. Amen

[raskal_2]

analog is analog and digital is digital it is the old apple and oranges argument. I am older and professional sound reinforcement was my first technical job. Nothing in digital can match the echo accomplished with a Fender echoplex nor a sweeter feedback guitar sound can be gotten than when you take the speaker output from a Marshall tube amp (with a rank of 4 80c5''s tubes) and plug it into the input of another Marshall.

Audio has gotten mathematical what with sampling rates, time shifting, and Fast Fourier Transforms to try and do what can be done in analog tinkering. Nothing doing with audio has fooled me before and I am not fooled now. I have always found the childish joy in playing music with the biggest stereo I can build the best way to enjoy music.