Resurgence of Vinyl Could Be Just What the Industry Needs
Posted on 02. Jun, 2009 by refe in MUSIC INDUSTRY
A pair of Wired stories recently reported evidence of a significant uptick in the sale of vinyl records, showing that while CD sales have declined 11.7 percent this past year, vinyl sales have increased 36.6 percent. This recent resurgence of vinyl is beautifully ironic. This is the digital age! Music is cheap, convenient and portable. Innovations in technology have propelled us to places no one could have dreamed of a couple of decades ago. 8-Track cartridges came and went. Cassette tapes came and went. We’ll soon be able to say the same thing about CDs. Yet here we are, watching the sale of vinyl records climb like it’s 1976.
There are those who may see this as a step backwards for physical media, but in reality that couldn’t be further from the truth. For the past few years the recording industry has been increasingly commoditized, and listeners have consistently chosen quantity and convenience over quality. The MP3 is the poster child for this idea. You can download, copy and share it almost instantly and carry it anywhere, but it sounds terrible. The result is a glut of recorded music on the Internet and a largely devalued product. Listeners were ok with this for a while, but it seems the masses (or at least an increasingly large subset of the masses) have had enough.
Vinyl could be the perfect answer to listeners’ digital fatigue, and could provide the flailing music industry with something it desperately needs – value. Digital files are nearly worthless as a product. You can’t see them or touch them. They are infinitely reproduce-able and instantly available. If over abundance commoditized a physical product, inite-ness devalues a virtual product completely. Vinyl on the other hand can’t be easily reproduced, and is a much more sensory medium. The sound quality is better, there is more room for artwork. You can see it, hold it, smell it, taste it. It has the ability to foster a much deeper connection between the listener and the music. How many times have you flipped through dozens of songs on your iPod without really listening? You have to work for vinyl – finding the right album, placing it on the turntable, finding the groove, flipping it over when the first side finishes. You can’t just let it play forever in the background. Vinyl has the potential to return some of the appreciation for music as art that this industry has lost.
CDs are not the answer. Digital files have made CDs redundant and obsolete. Why do we need a physical version of a digital file? That makes no sense. We have iPods for that, which better represent the advantages of digital anyway – convenience and portability. MP3 players don’t scratch or skip and you can carry your entire library in your pocket. CDs were always flawed, and now they are finally on their way out.
Of course, we’re talking about vinyl replacing CDs not digital music in general. We have only just begun to realize the potential of digital technology, but digital is still more effective when a physical medium is also available. Labels like Matador Records have recognized this and have begun including coupons in record packaging that can be used to download digital versions of the album’s songs. According to Matador the coupons have been a big hit. Programs like this are a great way of providing fans with the best of both worlds.
I’m not old enough to have any real nostalgia about vinyl records, but the benefits a true resurgence could bring to our struggling industry is exciting. Vinyl provides the artists and labels with a real product to sell again, yes - and that’s great. What excites me, though, is that vinyl has the potential to get listeners to connect to recorded music as an art form again, and that is something we can all get behind.
15 Responses to “Resurgence of Vinyl Could Be Just What the Industry Needs”
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Rick Tuma
02. Jun, 2009
Well, I’m old enough to be able to say that I started on vinyl, bought an 8-track player for my first car (hands-free replaying of the entire album was what sold me), moved to CDs and now almost exclusive digital music from iTunes.
That said, I purchased the vinyl box set of Radiohead’s In Rainbows back when it was offered. I think I paid far too much for it but I have no regrets.
With no reliable turntable to listen to them I’ve kept the entire set in mint condition, but someday I will spring for a new turntable and dig out all of my old albums: Hendrix, Beatles (White Album! Beat-up, but the real deal), Ten Years After, Woodstock live set, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Led Zepplin, Pink Floyd, Allman Brothers (Live At The Leeds! Wow.) the Boss and many, many more – filled with clicks and pops because they all were played countless times.
Eugenia
02. Jun, 2009
Hmm, I don’t agree with this. If the majors go for vinyl to replace CDs, then 99% of us will just go with the indies who would only do mp3s at that point. There’s no way to go back to vinyl. It’s like saying that if we go back to film cameras, people won’t copy away images from FlickR. This ain’t gonna work. Not to mention the quality hit of vinyl compared to modern CDs (and even 256kbps AAC from iTunes). I know my family wouldn’t go for them.
refe
02. Jun, 2009
Eugenia – the indies are exactly the ones who are benefitting from the resurgence that we’re already seeing. The point isn’t to replace digital music, it’s to give fans a physical product that adds value to the digital file. If you look at the Matador example above, they are recognizing that both pieces together provide a much more complete experience for fans. They get the digital files – they don’t have to buy any music twice – but they also get something tangible.
CDs are declining. If (when) they fade out completely we’ll be left with digital files as our only option. And while I don’t think vinyl would ever get as big as CDs did – the digital files are the primary medium now – I do think they could gain a foothold as the primary physical alternative.
As for quality, your opinion is debatable! Both digital and analog have their pros and cons. The great thing about the market today is that you don’t have to choose just one.
Eugenia
03. Jun, 2009
I just find it impossible going back to vinyls. If the industry wants something tangible to replace CDs, that would be another, new, smaller, medium. But definitely not vinyls. People never go backwards. I feel that this article is just wishful thinking, or maybe some summertime daydreaming of the good ol’ days. They usually never come back.
Also, you are missing the point. Seeing the whole thing as CDs==physical, mp3==non-physical, is a mistake. You see, CDs are also digital. Therefore, if you have a CD with some uncompressed WAV songs in there, or an iPod with some mp3 songs in there, it’s the same thing. CD sales are going down because they ARE being replaced by another PHYSICAL mediums that also have some songs in them in digital format (just like CDs do). Such as: mp3 players, hard drives, AppleTV, NAS Servers, etc. That’s CD’s competition, not the mp3 software format itself. And they are tangible just fine, alright!
And I am sorry to say, but analog can’t compete with good digital quality. This is an argument similar to film cameras. Back in 2000-2001 there was a big swarm of trolling on the web between film photographers and digital ones. The film photographers kept saying how nice the film feels like to the eye, even if it has grain and even if it’s not as clear and crisp as the digital look. Fast forward 7 years. Every single one of them owns a digital SLR camera now and their film cameras are collecting dust in their respective closets. Same for music, analog is just analog. It’s a rough approximation of what was recorded. You can argue that you are simply *used to* and *prefer* that sound/look, and I would respect that. But if you judge the whole thing objectively, analog just can’t compete with digital. Analog == approximation.
refe
03. Jun, 2009
As far as your CD/MP3 player comment, I agree that MP3 players have made CDs redundant. That’s one of the main points of the article. That is why for someone who wants to purchase an album (not a storage device to hold hundreds of albums) vinyl is a non-redundant alternative – something that adds to the experience, rather than simply providing another format for the same digital file.
Whatever your own personal preferences may be, I think that this is what is fueling the notable surge in vinyl record sales, and what makes vinyl such a great option for those who want a physical aspect to their album to go along with the digital file that they will dump into their storage device and add to their larger playlists.
SarahCM
03. Jun, 2009
I couldn’t agree more, Refe. There is an ornate pleasure in listening to vinyl that you can’t get from any other medium, and it’s something that’s been missing from our musical experience for a long time. It’s great to be able to freely distribute and find new music online, and mp3s are a fantastic way for bands to promote their music, but the format itself can’t touch vinyl in quality or listening experience.
I know that personally, if I discovered a great indie band and fell in love with their music via free mp3s, I’d be far more inclined to buy a record, rather than a CD, to show my support. The vinyl + digital format is a great idea, and it could work in reverse too (get the digital first, then the record). I love, and I know many others do too, to own something tangible as well as digital music, and I think vinyl replacing CDs is the way to go. Great article!
Susantuma
03. Jun, 2009
I agree Sarah! Something about the aesthetic of mp3 + vinyl pulls the total experience further towards the artistic side. While I love how accessible music has become in the digital age, it’s a much less satisfying as a total experience. (I remember buying my first album, and paging through the liner…it really bonds you to the band, actually) Vinyl is a great way to recapture that!
@Eugenia – I see what you’re saying, but I don’t think this is about limiting access as much as adding more depth and interactivity to fan experience. In the photography world, it’d be a little like doing a photo shoot with Ansel Adam’s first 35mm. What an experience that would be! You appreciate the object for the art it represents, not necessarily it’s superior functionality. =)
refe
03. Jun, 2009
UPDATE: People are talking about vinyl – here are some of the updates on Twitter this morning:
Vinyl Rules! | Snowcrashing
07. Jun, 2009
[...] the words of Refe Tuma at Creative Deconstruction: Digital files are nearly worthless as a product. You can’t see them or touch them. They are [...]
Dedric Moore
15. Jun, 2009
My band, Monta At Odds, decided to put out our latest album on vinyl+mp3 download only to mixed results. We love vinyl and prefer it over a CD so we assumed everyone else would. Sales have been mixed. At gigs we still have people wanting to take home a CD even though the vinyl looks really cool in its clear sleeve and clear color.
At stores, we’ve been selling our older releases on CD with custom packaging and that has sold twice as much as the vinyl. I think vinyl is coming back into the scope of the market as a “rebellious” alternative to mass produced CDs rather than having anything to do with the sound quality.
A local Kansas City magazine did an article on local bands releasing vinyl again and they really showed that it is the indie scene embracing the trend but not really digging into the stats to see if it will be a viable option based on production costs.
refe
15. Jun, 2009
It sounds like vinyl or not you guys are doing a good job of packaging your music in a way that your fans appreciate and that’s the most important thing.
No question about it – vinyl is largely a niche thing right now. The niche is getting a lot broader, though. For examply, Best Buy recently decided to devote a section of about 100 of their US stores exclusively to the sale of vinyl records. Best Buy is about as mainstream as it get’s!
It will be interesting to see if this trend continues, because I really can see it having the potential to get consumers back into a ‘music as art’ mentality.
Olivier
01. Jul, 2009
Hey great Article, totaly agree, CD is transition support. vynil is here to stay. i started a vinyl distribution company 10 years ago just for me and my friends cause everybody droped us on the vynil side. 5 years later we were pressing and shipping vinyl for more than 300 indies plus some majors who got rid of the vynil distribution. up to the point that we were selling 4 Millions LP and 12 ” a year.
But vynil is for passionated peeps, everything is more edgy, even ur A&R politics etc … doubt that majors can stepping back in this game ….
Look at the kids in UK, Japan … they are all about Picture disc right now.
Cheers.
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