LP revival: Fact or fantasy?
(Credit:
Steve Guttenberg)
I'm not sure why, but there's a never-ending stream of articles cheering on vinyl's comeback. I guess if it's a slow news day, editors can't resist plugging in yet another story about booming LP sales, and they always claim something along the lines of "Kids are digging the grooves, they've seen the light, and now crave analog sound!"
Puh-leeze!
Don't get me wrong; I wish it were true. Maybe in some alternative universe, vinyl is flying off the shelves, and kids are ditching their iPods and buying turntables.
Back here on the Earth we know and love, 2008 sales of LPs were up 89 percent, from 990,000 in '07 to 1.88 million in '08. That's hardly a boom, now that CD sales are in the hundreds of millions. The best-selling LP of 2008 was Radiohead's "In Rainbows," which sold a piddling 28,800 platters. Second-place honors went to another British band, The Beatles, which sold 16,500 "Abbey Road" LPs. If those numbers are accurate, and Radiohead's Thom Yorke and company were trying to live off LP sales, they'd have to get day jobs.
So sure, there's more and more new and reissue vinyl, and that's great, but only a teensy-weensy number of people buy new vinyl. Most of my vinyl-loving buddies regularly score free records on the street, or pay a buck or two for used vinyl to play on their megabucks high-end turntables. Again, no problem there, but it's not the same as a true vinyl resurgence. That's just media hype.
I love vinyl because it looks cool and sounds great. I own around 4,000 LPs. And I'm hoping that the vinyl revival keeps growing. But the market for physical media--CDs and LPs--has nowhere to go but down. More than anything else, people want cheap or free music, playable anywhere they want.
Vinyl doesn't fit that model. Music now serves as background filler, something you have on while you do something else: read, cook, exercise, commute, work, whatever. Vinyl doesn't lend itself to those sorts of activities; it's a listening medium. That's a low priority nowadays.
There's no getting around it; new vinyl is more expensive than CDs or downloads. If you love it, it's worth it. If music is mere background, it's not all that valuable.
Do you buy vinyl? New stuff or just used?
Do you think vinyl will be around in five years?
Steve Guttenberg is a frequent contributor to magazines and Web sites including Home Entertainment, Playback, and Ultimate AV. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. 
We have a great used vinyl shop in town that I frequent about once a week. Nothing beats a classic for 3 dollars. If there is anything new we want, Amazon is great at providing those new LP's whether or not its a new or old band. I hope that people start to realize how great LP's can be and learn to combine their digital world and vinyl world. There is nothing wrong with enjoying the best of both worlds.
Vinyl better be around in five years. If not, I better start buying now.
Thanks for the blog. Love the audiophiliac.
Remember all the reasons we switched to CDs - dust, scratches, the degradation of fidelity as the record condition and/or needle condition declined. Any contact-based medium is a war against time you're destined to lose.
As for sound quality, note that vinyl hasn't been idle since the late 80's. Recording and pressing techniques have improved since then, and likely will continue to improve. Also, I've noticed that some sounds [i]do[/i] actually sound better with an analogue source. Oddly enough, electronic noises are a prime example of this.
In asking your question, you also miss most of the points of why someone would collect vinyl. Yes, the sound quality is a large part, and does rival CDs. But then there's also the vinyl experience. To walk you through it...
When I first get a record, the first thing I do is look at the artwork. For some reason it's more interesting when you can actually see it, and the subtleties.
Next I pull out the lp sleeve, and set the insert aside for a minute.
Then I pull the record out of the sleeve, and look it over. At the very least, usually the sticker is interesting. If it's colored vinyl, then I just sit back and admire it for a minute. Lastly, I check the matrix to see if there's a message, even though I only have one or two that do.
Then I set it down on the slipmat, set the speed and [i]gently[/i] set down the needle*.
Sit back, read and listen. At least for the first few listens I try to not pay attention to anything else, seeing as it's the only time you can hear it for the first time.
Then a side finishes and you do the last few steps over again.
*I will say again GENTLY. Records are like my pets. You have to take good care of them, they age along with you, and despite all the extra work, it's worth it at the end of the day.
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Now to the article. Please stop posting the sales statistics of vinyl. In general, only large chain stores report statistics. However, most of the people actively selling vinyl are small record shops or online stores, such as Vinyl Collective, Interpunk, or the record company online/mail-order stores. Borders has [i]just[/i] started carrying vinyl, and Hot Topic has been the only major retailer I've known of to have vinyl consistently over the last few years.
For more reading, see this post by Virgil Dickerson of Vinyl Collective and Suburban Home Records.
http://vinylcollective.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1693
To quote that post,
"I love the fact that people are talking about vinyl and know that pieces like the one on Wired?s website will create more enthusiasm about this beloved format. I just hope people don?t get the idea that there are riches to be had putting out vinyl and that this is music?s next big trend. I?d like to close with the following LL Cool J lyric, Don?t Call It a Comeback, I?ve Been Here for Years."
The market today is driven by "portability" and "accessibilty". The digital download is here to stay.
I hate it, but that's the way it is....
My personal vinyl collection is pretty modest at a few hundred, on rare occaisons I will pick up a used copy of some obscure recording. I've invested much more on CD's and continue to do so. I've not made the jump to digital downloads and networked storage. Which is probably somewhat strange as I've been a computer programmer/system consultant for the last 22 years. Spending 8 - 12 hours a day at a keyboard making a living is more than enough.....
Sometimes simpler is better..... :-)
This argument overlooks some important changes in the way in which vinyl is being marketed. The vinyl version of "In Rainbows" was initially available only as part of the $90 box set, which sold more than 100,000 copies. So that's a cool $9 million. No need to get a day job, after all. So counting up vinyl sales and multiplying by $20 may not tell the whole story.
I have never owned a record (although I am not a big music listener in general and only own about 12 CD's), but 1.88 million sales is impressive for a format that most people have considered dead for over 15 years.
I long for the days of Tower, where you could flip through huge bins of LPs priced from $4 to $15 and find more great titles than you could possibly afford.... which kept you coming back. And the social aspect of browsing along side music aficionados like yourself, at all hours of the day and late night. Today new LPs just cost too darn much, so I frequent the small shops that stock used vinyl and delight in picking up a great "find" for $3. I also pick up the occasional CD, too... but again I look for used discs or bargain labels or sales. It's insane to pay $17 for a new CD.
I think there will always be some of us who would rather buy a physical product, in a physical store, than to sit at home on the PC and download a file for playback through ear buds. We can only hope that sales of vinyl continue to climb, but I think it unlikely we'll see them return to anywhere near the level experienced during the '70s.
The other 3 LPs I bought were new old jazz recordings.
Dave
2000 Lps
1000 78s
250 open reel tapes
500 CDs
and counting
"the people who are buying the billions of dollars of music are buying 128kbps MP3 files. Very, very few people in my generation and younger care about fidelity or craftsmanship; music now is just, as you say, used as "filler". ... the Music industry of today has shifted far away from quality and on to relentless quantity, which is why LP's are never going to make a significant return."
I think it's also true that the music industry is not the same as it was 30 years ago. Its true that the quantity has gone up while the quality has gone down. It would be a nice change if people started buying vinyl again, or for that matter, actually buying music in the first place, but I don't think that change will be immediate or even happen,
personally Steve i think that test LP should be prepared of the newer music and then allowed for free trial .
Also in India where I live is a second tier city getting a CD is hard and expensive and getting an LP will remain a long dream there is always a lure for free music because free music is better than no music .
And yes, vinyl will DEFINITELY still be around in 5 years, why not? LPs & 45s are *far* less disposable than either cds or - obviously - mp3s. The vinyl format has staying power, especially among people who actually care about music and *don't* just use it as background noise for their commutes or blogging time.
[Editor's note: Spam deleted]
- by pubmat March 12, 2009 6:42 AM PDT
- LPs are dead. There are far too many places where you can develop problems when the platter/tone arm/stylus/record/cartridge, etc interface, along with distortion, inaccurate waveforms from the LP, and loss of fidelity as the record wears. (as much as 3db each time it plays.) Give it up guys. Old school doesn't always mean better. Technology marches on, whether you like it or not.
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- by plasticities March 12, 2009 8:51 AM PDT
- That's great and all if you prefer CDs/digital to LPs but it's just not a correct statement to say "LPs are dead," given that sale of LPs increased sharply in the last year and sales of CDs decreased yet again.
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