| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Zombie |
Posted - 2007/10/30 : 09:09:34
Vinyl May Be Final Nail in CD's Coffin
By Eliot Van Buskirk Email 10.29.07 | 12:00 AM
As counterintuitive as it may seem in this age of iPods and digital downloads, vinyl -- the favorite physical format of indie music collectors and audiophiles -- is poised to re-enter the mainstream, or at least become a major tributary.
Talk to almost anyone in the music business' vital indie and DJ scenes and you'll encounter a uniformly optimistic picture of the vinyl market.
"I'm hearing from labels and distributors that vinyl is way up," said Ian Connelly, client relations manager of independent distributor alliance IODA, in an e-mail interview. "And not just the boutique, limited-edition colored vinyl that Jesu/Isis-style fans are hot for right now."
Pressing plants are ramping up production, but where is the demand coming from? Why do so many people still love vinyl, even though its bulky, analog nature is anathema to everything music is supposed to be these days? Records, the vinyl evangelists will tell you, provide more of a connection between fans and artists. And many of today's music fans buy 180-gram vinyl LPs for home listening and MP3s for their portable devices.
"For many of us, and certainly for many of our artists, the vinyl is the true version of the release," said Matador's Patrick Amory. "The size and presence of the artwork, the division into sides, the better sound quality, above all the involvement and work the listener has to put in, all make it the format of choice for people who really care about music."
Because these music fans also listen using portable players and computers, Matador and other labels include coupons in record packaging that can be used to download MP3 versions of the songs. Amory called the coupon program "hugely popular."
Portability is no longer any reason to stick with CDs, and neither is audio quality. Although vinyl purists are ripe for parody, they're right about one thing: Records can sound better than CDs.
Although CDs have a wider dynamic range, mastering houses are often encouraged to compress the audio on CDs to make it as loud as possible: It's the so-called loudness war. Since the audio on vinyl can't be compressed to such extremes, records generally offer a more nuanced sound.
Another reason for vinyl's sonic superiority is that no matter how high a sampling rate is, it can never contain all of the data present in an analog groove, Nyquist's theorem to the contrary.
"The digital world will never get there," said Chris Ashworth, owner of United Record Pressing, the country's largest record pressing plant.
Golden-eared audiophiles have long testified to vinyl's warmer, richer sound. And now demand for vinyl is on the rise. Pressing plants that were already at capacity are staying there, while others are cranking out more records than they did last year in order to keep pace with demand.
Don MacInnis, owner of Record Technology in Camarillo, California, predicts production will be up 25 percent over last year by the end of 2007. And he's not talking about small runs of dance music for DJs, but the whole gamut of music: "new albums, reissues, majors and indies ... jazz, blues, classical, pop and a lot of (classic) rock."
Turntables are hot again as well. Insound, an online music retailer that recently began selling USB turntables alongside vinyl, can't keep them in stock, according to the company's director, Patrick McNamara.
And on Oct. 17, Amazon.com launched a vinyl-only section stocked with a growing collection of titles and several models of record players.
Big labels still aren't buying the vinyl comeback, but it wouldn't be the first time the industry failed to identify a new trend in the music biz.
"Our numbers, at least, don't really point to a resurgence," said Jonathan Lamy, the Recording Industry Association of America's director of communications. Likewise, Nielsen SoundScan, which registered a slight increase in vinyl sales last year, nonetheless showed a 43 percent decrease between 2000 and 2006.
But when it comes to vinyl, these organizations don't really know what they're talking about. The RIAA's numbers are misleading because its member labels are only now beginning to react to the growing demand for vinyl. As for SoundScan, its numbers don't include many of the small indie and dance shops where records are sold. More importantly, neither organization tracks used records sold at stores or on eBay -- arguably the central clearinghouse for vinyl worldwide.
Vinyl's popularity has been underreported before.
"The Consumer Electronics Association said that only 100,000 turntables were sold in 2004. Numark alone sold more than that to pro DJs that year," said Chris Roman, product manager for Numark.
And the vinyl-MP3 tag team might just hasten the long-predicted death of the CD.
San Francisco indie band The Society of Rockets, for example, plans to release its next album strictly on vinyl and as MP3 files.
"Having just gone through the process of mastering our new album for digital and for vinyl, I can say it is completely amazing how different they really sound," said lead singer and guitarist Joshua Babcock in an e-mail interview. "The way the vinyl is so much better and warmer and more interesting to listen to is a wonder."
- - -
Eliot Van Buskirk has covered digital music since 1998, after seeing the world's first MP3 player sitting on a colleague's desk. He plays bass and rides a bicycle.
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| 13 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Hakan |
Posted - 2007/10/31 : 21:34:07
Hydrahead.com
Southernlord.com
roboticempire.com
Är tre bra bolag om man är ute efter tung metal på vinyl.
glömde conspiracy records de är dock mer distrubution än eget bolag
/H |
| Zombie |
Posted - 2007/10/31 : 19:28:02
Jag svarade på att man inte behöver lyssna på "indie"-musik om man vill ha LP-format. Indie är oberoende (en definitionsfråga) skivbolag som ännu inte totalt kontrolleras av de stora. Musiken som förs på de bolagen och anslutna internetbutiker är inte alltid det man tror.
Hur mycket det säljer eller inte skiter jag i. Och dessutom helgar ändamålet i det här fallet medlen, lite vita lögner så att vi får fler LP att välja bland.
Artikelns huvudpoäng är att vinyl kan bli "tangible"-produkten när alla hoppar över cd och laddar ner till dator istället.
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| byakugan |
Posted - 2007/10/31 : 18:44:09
@asimov66: Det vill jag också, även fast det finns en här i stan som fortfarande gör så.
@Zombie: Nu ska du inte bli sån. Jag har ingenting emot att vinylen skulle ta och komma tillbaka som nr.1 i skivförsäljningen. Men att säga att det definitivt blir så pga att några indie-bolag raporterar om en ökad försäljning av vinyler är bara absurt. Sen så har jag inte mycket att säga om musiken heller, inget jag lyssnar på. Inte Dire Straits heller för den delen. Mjäkig pop är vad jag kallar det.
Visa mig ett bolag som producerar ordentlig Metal som har samma säljsiffror som denna artikel visar. Helst ska bolaget ha fler än tio band i sin avlöningslista. |
| Zombie |
Posted - 2007/10/31 : 15:56:57
Gå in på lite obskyra skivbolags hemsidor (läs: "INDIE") och bli förvånad över hur mycket mer än indie det finns att hitta. Vem vet, kanske vågar du ta steget från Dire Straits. |
| B-200 |
Posted - 2007/10/31 : 14:16:52
Jag vill se vinyl kontra cd skivor brevid varandra i skivbutiken som det gjorde när jag växte upp.
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| byakugan |
Posted - 2007/10/31 : 13:57:39
står det inte så i artikeln? att indie-bolag hellre släpper vinyl än cd? |
| ninja |
Posted - 2007/10/31 : 09:31:52
http://www.nyteknik.se/art/53190
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| Zombie |
Posted - 2007/10/31 : 07:55:59
Det är inte bara indie som ges ut på vinyl numera. En hel del finns att köpa begagnat på t ex eBay, Amazon, Freakemporium eller Musicstack... |
| Toerne |
Posted - 2007/10/30 : 18:53:30
Härligt. Jag vill se större press-serier. Grymt irriterande om man upptäcker musik något år efter vinylen pressades, då får man ju ofta läga hutlösa summor på sitt favoritformat bara för att få tag i skivan. Limiterat är skoj när man har det, men inte när man inte har det. |
| Bubbel |
Posted - 2007/10/30 : 11:28:01
quote:
Another reason for vinyl's sonic superiority is that no matter how high a sampling rate is, it can never contain all of the data present in an analog groove, Nyquist's theorem to the contrary.
"The digital world will never get there," said Chris Ashworth.
Detta har jag hävdat länge och väl att ettor och nollor inte kan återskapa en trovärdig ljudreproduktion.
Har ni tänkt på en sak så fort man läser en recention om någon cdspelare så ofta står det att del låter som vinyl om spelaren, är vinyl en referens varför skall man då hålla på med cdformatet. 
Anders |
| byakugan |
Posted - 2007/10/30 : 10:29:55
så... alla ska börja lyssna på indie??? |
| ninja |
Posted - 2007/10/30 : 10:22:58
 |
| MatsT |
Posted - 2007/10/30 : 09:37:13
Mycket glädjande! |
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