The Return of Vinyl

February 10, 2008 by David Kay
Filed under: Home Audio > Analog > Turntables


- Wild Cherry loves their music.

While CDs have been on a continual downward spiral for several years and the high-resolution SACD and DVD-A formats that were supposed to replace the CD instead strangled each other to death, the original music disc, Vinyl, is staging a quiet comeback. Amazon.com's dedicated Vinyl store now carries more than 150,000 titles across 20 genres, the biggest sellers being Alternative rock, followed by classic rock albums.

According to an article in Time Magazine by Kristina Dell, 990,000 vinyl albums were sold in 2007, up 15.4% from the 858,000 units bought in 2006, with even larger gains going to independent music retailers and labels. The big labels are starting to take notice as well, and some are including coupons for music downloads with the purchase of Vinyl LPs, since Vinyl cannot be (easily) ripped to a computer. Stereophile's Michael Fremer was quoted as saying "I'm not saying vinyl will become a mainstream format, just like gourmet eating is not going to take over from McDonald's... But there is a growing group of people who are going back to a high-resolution format."

Interested in getting started in vinyl if you haven't already? Here is a great beginner's guide that can help you out... Turntable Basics: A Beginner's Guide to Turntables and Vinyl Records.

Source: Amazon Vinyl Store
Source: Time
Source: Beginner's Guide to Turntables and Vinyl
Comments (4)
Neil Middlemiss 6 months and 4 weeks ago

A year or two ago, I stopped buying CD's and started buying vinyl. I didn't realize others were doing the same.
joetama 6 months and 4 weeks ago

I know that my vinyl/cd ratio has been going up and up lately.

It is interesting to see that this might actually be a small movement back to analog. WOOT!
todd.brust 6 months and 4 weeks ago

yeah...good to see amazon carrying some LPs...
i think i have more LPs than CDs now...but then again i never had too many CDs...but the vinyl collection is growing fast...
Waltlaw 6 months and 4 weeks ago

I get a knot in my stomach just thinking about going back to vinyl. Carefully removing the record from the separately purchased anti-static sleeve, trying to hold it just by the circumference and laying it on the platter Forgetting to spray the dust from the mat with canned air. Raising up the tonearm and locking it in place before turning on the drive so I can slowly clean the vinyl's surface with an overly soaked DiscWasher. Still worrying about static deciding to go over it again with a carbon fiber brush with one hand as the other hand touches ground at the tonearm's base. Taking out the little stylus brush and gently stroking the underside of the needle towards me. Jumping up and knocking the tonearm bouncing over the record because I forgot to turn down the volume on my amp while cleaning the needle.
In twenty minutes doing this all over again.
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