Studer Community Institute

In the face of technology, vinyl makes a comeback

December 5, 2014
/ Mike Ensley
/ training-development

As the way people get their music has raced toward downloads, streaming and satellite, one relic of the past is making a comeback – the vinyl LP. According to Nielsen SoundScan, approximately 6 million LPs were sold in 2013, an increase of nearly 600 percent in the last five year. Vinyl records, which dominated music sales for nearly 50 years from their consumer introduction in the 1930s to the their decline in the face of the compact disc in the 1980s, are experiencing the rebirth of cool. “I think part of it is that people want something for their money,” said Eric Jones, who owns independent record shop Revolver Records in downtown Pensacola. “People are very visual creatures and the tactile feel of a gatefold album cover is a part of the whole experience.” Record fan Lemmie Crews agrees. He buys both vintage and new vinyl. “I love the feel of it in my hand,” Crews said. “I also love the large medium for the artwork.” Crews love of vinyl isn’t just aesthetic; there’s a nostalgia factor as well. “If I’m going to listen to Brian Eno or David Bowie, I want it hear it how the generation that first heard it experienced it,” Crews said. Jones hears this from customers often. “There are people that used to go through their parents record collections when they were 3-, 4-, 5-years-old and saw The Beatles, Bob Marley or KISS,” Jones said. “That sticks with people and as they get older they want to regain that connection to their childhood and parents.” Local DJ Ed Spencer loves vinyl and thinks for a lot of people, it’s response to the ephemeral nature of today’s music. “A lot of today's music is meant to be disposable — meaning you buy it digitally, listen to it digitally, and then when you get tired of it, you replace it with the latest, new disposable music,” Spencer said. “When you put something on a fragile medium like vinyl, you have to appreciate the music in a completely different way because it's no longer disposable. "You have to store the music properly. You have to take care of it properly. And it's a process to listen to.” He says the booming popularity of the DJ culture has helped keep vinyl alive as well. “The DJ culture becoming more mainstream, and the push by many DJs to use vinyl for a myriad of reasons has helped to bring vinyl use to the forefront of consumer buying as well,” Spencer said. Buying habits have definitely changed. Most consumers do buy their music digitally now. “My customers that come here and pay their money for an album, they are definitely a minority,” Jones said. Jones has seen the change in the music retail business first hand. He owned the popular East Hill CD Exchange for 13 years from the mid-90s into the 2000s and said that primarily his business’ main focus of sales was new and used CDs, though he always had a vinyl presence. In his new store, vinyl is king. “Ninety-five percent of my sales now are vinyl,” Jones said. “CDs, which used to dominate, are on about the same level as cassettes. People are rarely buying them.” One factor, Jones says, in the renewed interest stems from the Record Store Day events that are held annually on the third Saturday in April and a smaller event on the traditional “Black Friday” shopping day after Thanksgiving. Originally conceived in 2007 as way to showcase independent record stores, artists and labels have come on board to produce special releases for the events. This past Black Friday included limited vinyl releases from artists as diverse as The Flaming Lips, Chvrches, Waylon Jennings and St. Vincent. “Record Store Day has really been a boon for me – the press, the limited releases that you can’t get anywhere else – it’s great exposure for Mom and Pop stores like mine,” Jones said. “I had a kid that camped out starting at 5:30 a.m. this year just to get exclusives.” And while nostalgia may play a part in vinyl sales, it’s not just reissues that are selling. Many new artists are putting out their work on vinyl as well as digital. “Taylor Swift’s new album is out on vinyl. There’s a Justin Bieber limited picture disc that is selling for hundreds of dollars now,” Jones said. “Really, any artist worth their salt is putting their work out on vinyl.” The way we get music may change, but Jones doesn’t see the LP ever going away. “I think the longer that something has been around, the more likely it is to last,” Jones said. “Twenty years from now, records will still be around, while iPods, iPhones and MP3 players will have been replaced by some new technology.”

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