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Rolling Stone reviews vinyl revival: “It won’t make or break our year”

By | Published on Monday 2 February 2015

Love Vinyl

We all know that the vinyl revival has been rather exaggerated in some quarters, while the fact that CDs sales, although down, remain surprisingly healthy in some markets (including the UK) has gone mainly unnoticed.

But it is true that an uplift in interest in good old fashioned twelve-inch records on both sides of the Atlantic has delivered a welcome cash boost for some independent retailers, while putting the few vinyl presses that remain under pressure to deliver.

And some of those retailers are getting a little stressed with the fact the record industry is struggling to keep up with demand. But because vinyl revenue is – overall – still a tiny part of the recorded music business, and therefore remains a niche premium product for most labels, few are keen to invest in propping up or expanding the UK and US’s vinyl pressing plants.

To prove that fact, Rolling Stone has been talking to various American record industry people, finding a common line: “We love vinyl, we love that sales are up, but it’s still a tiny part of our business and isn’t a priority.

RCA Records’ Tom Corson says: “We welcome [renewed interest in vinyl]. It’s a sexy, cool product. It represents an investment in music that’s an emotional one. [But] it is a small percentage of our business. It’s not going to make or break our year. We devote the right amount of resources to it, but it’s not something where we have a department for it”.

Meanwhile Jonathan Daniel, co-manager of the likes of Fall Out Boy and Sia, told the mag: “On a personal level, I love it. I grew up with vinyl. I have a record player. I buy records. It sounds better to me. On a business level, I don’t think it means anything. It’s so small relative to Fall Out Boy or Sia or any of our artists. It’s still not a meaningful part of their business”.

While Robb Nansel of indie Saddle Creek said of the vinyl market: “It’s always going to be a niche. It’s great, obviously, that people are buying records. Not to be negative about it, but I feel like it’s going to peak, if it hasn’t already”.

So there you go. Consider all that put in perspective before the week has even really started. And now go check out the Rolling Stone article in full.



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