music fans ditch downloads and spark vinyl revival

[Bernie]

Who would have thought that the vinyl record is making somewhat of a comeback in the UK?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/st...127345,00.html

[QUINNY]

What a LARGE market there is for vinyl....NOT. 1 million total sales for the year is hardly anything to write home about, is it? However, if it gives some students a warm glow buying vinyl and hearing all the crapola that goes with it.....who am I to deny them?

So, students, who for years have driven the rush to everything digital and free are suddenly making a U-turn 'cos they've realised that there's more to life than a hard disk crammed with ripped off sounds and software. Doh!!!!

Now, when for example, are their student forebearers (who are now the guys making corporate decisions) gonna learn that call centres (especially in foreign lands) might save the company XXXX in monetary terms , BUT pisses off every single customer that has to use 'em, and do a U-turn on that?

[BrunoRepublic]

I dunno... it seems to me that a lot of these people buying vinyl aren't actually playing the records; they just view it as a collectable like a concert t-shirt or a poster.

[Videoskooter]

Originally Posted by Graham_Start

it seems to me that a lot of these people buying vinyl aren't actually playing the records

I can't place the articles since they're in Flemish but the turntable market is exploding in Belgium. More and more people are buying 'em again, even the expensive brands. A lot of stores are offering vinyl again and the 2nd hand shops are doing great business. Too great coz' prices are going up rapidly.

Maybe not a landslide but yes good ol' vinyl is making a modest comeback. One of our leading radiopresenters even states that vinyl will survive all of the new digital stuff and cd's will be in cellars very soon

[Simon White]

I hate to seem like an old cynic, but how many times have they tried to tell us that vinyl is making a comeback? Maybe it's a fashionable student thing but in real terms, no it isn't making a comeback.

The Soul collectors market in the UK for instance always has been, and still is very interested in vinyl, yet a new issue of an unreleased track on single or 12" will still struggle to sell a couple of hundred copies.

There's a great track from the early 70's released next week from Rozetta Johnson. It's been in the vaults 'til now and anyone here who likes early 70's Philly styled Disco will love it.
If it sells 400 copies it will be lucky. And thats with WORLDWIDE availability..anyone will be able to get it via the internet. Add to that similar recent releases from the vaults from Bobby Cutchins and Jimmy Ruffin..who here has them or has even heard of them?

Rozetta Johnson is played on this weeks 'Metropolitan Soul Show' by the way, and has been for the last three weeks.

[SandraDee]

Originally Posted by Videoskooter

coz' prices are going up rapidly.

I've found this recently. Vinyl's getting more & more expensive.

[Prof.Factor]

Laser Turntable dropped 25% to $10,000. Maybe in 10 more years it will become affordable? Then we'll see a huge vinyl revival!? Maybe now's the time to buy up all that cheap vinyl.
-Prof.Factor

[Mixmachine]

I'm an avid watcher of the Late Night Shows in the USA, David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan, Craig Ferguson, etc, one reason is that I get to see live musical performances (instead of slick promo videos) and try to tape (now to HDD) as many as I can.

For quite a while now the host has been introducing many of the acts (not all) flashing a vinyl copy instead of CD, I remember Letterman asking David Bowie about the "old vinyl" to witch Bowie reply something like this , "I don't know really, this crazy kids today are buying this stuff again"..

[BrunoRepublic]

Originally Posted by Prof.Factor

Laser Turntable dropped 25% to $10,000. Maybe in 10 more years it will become affordable? Then we'll see a huge vinyl revival!? Maybe now's the time to buy up all that cheap vinyl.
-Prof.Factor

Why would low cost spur a revival, when people today can get the music for free?


Most of this talk about the "vinyl revival" comes from two sources: people who think that a few novelty purchases constitutes a revival, or people who still astonished that vinyl exists at all. It's true, sales of new vinyl are up fivefold over the past few years. But five times nothing is still... nothing. For every hip indie store that's selling a dozen copies of a new title on vinyl to kids who already have the MP3s on their iPods, a major record store that once sold hundreds of copies is closing. Where I am, the used stores (for both CD and vinyl) are rapidly disappearing. Nobody buys music anymore, so nobody has any to re-sell either. Yes, used prices on vinyl are going up and up, the days of me going into a place and walking out with 60 12"s at $1 each are long over. But that's because it's been 20 years here since it was the dominant format, and there's less and less resold every year. You can't get decent mid-fi turntables anymore; it's either DJ tools or esoteric audiophile gear. If you want a decent listening cartridge or phono stage, you'll probably have to order them online, with only the opinions of other people to guide you.

Vinyl has become the equivalent of a hard-cover book: cherished by a few collectors, but the majority of people just borrow the paperback from the local library.

[dfc99bb]

A passing mini-fad. Since roughly 1990 I've been reading numerous "vinyl comeback" articles. So a few people in the UK and US are "rediscovering" vinyl records. Once they see what a pain in the ass vinyl is, they wil "undiscover" vinyl real quick. Until a few years from now when once again we will read "vinyl comeback" articles.