Vinyl – The Format That Wouldn’t Die?

Understandably, vinyl is a format that is close to the hearts of many music fans. Aside from the emotional connections it has to an adolescence spent trawling record racks on a Saturday afternoon, many confidently argue it is superior in every way to the CD. They appreciate its tactility, the larger frame afforded to the record’s artwork and the fact that vinyl simply sounds ‘warmer’.

It is easy to dismiss vinyl as an analogue anomaly in a new world of digital music but, while sales are nowhere near what they once were, it does seem to occupy a niche that refuses to cave. This past weekend’s Record Store Day (Saturday 17th April) has been testament to its continuing appeal, with over 100 different titles being sold exclusively through 150 independent stores in the UK. The biggest coup was a one-off press of 1,000 copies of a new track by Blur on a one-sided 7” but there were also similarly limited singles for sale by The Rolling Stones, The Beatles and Lily Allen to name just three. I was in my own local independent store on Saturday – Soundclash in Norwich – and it was heartening to see it so abuzz.

Initiatives like this can only be applauded. While the collectability of some of the releases will inevitably drive demand, vinyl fans are passionate about their music and include in their number many who were not even born when the format was in its heyday. Five 7” releases have sold well over 1,000 copies so far this year – including Paul Weller’s most recent single No Tears To Cry, which sold over 3,000 in one week alone – and last week sales were up by well over 400% on the previous week’s tally. A number of special releases (from artists such as Bruce Springsteen, Nick Cave and Gorillaz) also helped boost sales on the 12” format, which rose by over 300%.

These were the best weeks for 7” and 12” sales since September 2008 and March 2009 respectively. Although LP sales were not up by anything like the same amount, they have risen in each of the last two years. It isn’t just new Rock releases that are selling, either – prestige reissues of classic titles from Michael Jackson and The Stone Roses were among the year-end Top 20 last year.

Here’s hoping that labels and record stores can continue to work together on physical format initiatives such as these. Innovations such as bundling download codes with LPs may make the purists’ hackles rise, but they are probably a price worth paying to keep vinyl alive and well in the 21st century.