Vinyl gets its groove back

Posted by Daniel Stout on Mon 14 Jan 2008 at 6:36 AM

I’ve written previously about how we’ve entered a new golden age for vinyl records. And this seems to be truly the case. Record companies are releasing and re-releasing lavish editions of albums on vinyl. Gatefold sleeves, which were relatively uncommon in the ’80s, now appear on many releases. The quality of the vinyl itself has improved as well. Many ordinary releases are coming with 180 gram vinyl. And the sheer quantity of new releases and re-releases is astounding.

Time Magazine has an article in their latest issue about the resurgence of vinyl. They put some hard numbers onto what, for me, has been a general impression.

… 990,000 vinyl albums were sold in 2007, up 15.4% from the 858,000 units bought in 2006. Mike Dreese, CEO of Newbury Comics, a New England chain of independent music retailers that sells LPs and CDs, says his vinyl sales were up 37% last year, and Patrick Amory, general manager of indie label Matador Records, whose artists include Cat Power and the New Pornographers, claims, “We can’t keep up with the demand.”

That’s amazing. Nearly a million vinyl records were sold last year. The ’90s were a disappointing time for vinyl, but the last couple of years have been truly stunning.

So if you’re looking to get into vinyl – or get back into vinyl – now is a great time. Independent record stores are the best places to find vinyl, or as I’ll write about in another entry, there are some large online stores for vinyl as well.

Tags: resurgence · time magazine · vinyl

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