The Vinyl Precedent

The dawn of the digital age has altered permanently all forms of mass media. Struggling to adapt to the growing world of online journalism, newspapers and magazines have attempted the move to the web with varying degrees of trepidation, desperation and resignation. Yet “tactile news” readership continues to decline, forcing news corporations across the nation to rethink and reorganize their business plans.

Similar trends have transformed the music industry, as well. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the market for digital music has consistently grown over the past seven years. In the first half of 2009, digital sales reached up to 35 percent of the entire market, up from around 30 percent last year. Of these, the popular music platform iTunes accounted for a 69 percent share.

However, according to a 2009 press release from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the vast majority of music downloading—as much as 95 percent—is done illegally, with no reward for artists and producers.

Due to its relative ease and widespread availability, the illegal downloading of music from online sources like blogs has hurt musicians and the music industry in much the same way free news blogs have hurt news-people and the newspaper. The RIAA reported a 24.7 percent decrease in CD sales last year, with music sales overall down 8.3 percent.

Amidst all the negative statistics, one trend in the music market may hold promise for the offline news industry. As CD sales plummet and illegal MP3s cripple the digital market, the sale of vinyl records has increased exponentially in recent years.

Since 2007, vinyl record sales have grown at a rapid rate. In 2008, the RIAA estimated an overwhelming 124 percent increase, with more than 1.88 million new vinyl LPs sold. Predictions for 2009 put total record sales at well over 2 million. While vinyl’s share of the total music market is still very small at about 1 percent, the nostalgic medium seems to have found its new niche—and that niche is growing.

The culture of vinyl is easily discoverable at many of the small, local stores in downtown Athens, Ga. Now a town staple, Wuxtry Records has carried vinyl since it opened 33 years ago, cashier Mike Turner says. Upon first glance around the store at the record collection accrued over so many years, this makes for an intimidating shopping experience. Rows of boxes filled with albums line the floors, the walls and everything in between. Spanning across generations of eclectic musical styles and genres, the record prices vary anywhere from $3 used copies of Fleetwood Mac to $40 reissues of Radiohead.

The differences between the somewhat luck-based, haphazard process of finding and buying an album at the Wuxtry and that of the instantly-gratified music download are immediately discernable. Mike Turner believes the vinyl record listener has an entirely different mindset than an online music consumer.

“The problem with blogs is that they don’t have any original critical thought,” Turner says. “They just post a picture and a press release and then a free song. They recycle other blog posts, constantly update with new music.”

When he’s not behind the desk at Wuxtry, Turner also runs his own local record label, Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records, and has organized the annual Athens Popfest since 2003. Owning an independent label for ten years has informed his opinions about illegal music sharing and the music industry as a whole.

“I deal with a lot of banks. I know how hard it is. I was raised with morals, I guess. I mean—I wouldn’t steal a car either,” Turner says. Truly an exception to the rule, he doesn’t “clog up” his computer with any digital music files. Instead, Turner maintains his lifelong collection of vinyl records.

“You get to feel like you really know and own an album that way. With blogs it’s too easy,” he says. “It’s a different time.”

While hesitant to attribute much credence to the much-hyped “vinyl resurgence”, Turner says he’s seen a consistent stream of vinyl customers over his 5 years working at the Wuxtry, and acknowledges a recent increase.

“Even Best Buy is stocking vinyl now,” he says. But despite new media, fads and fluctuations in popularity, Turner believes the niche market for vinyl has always been there and always will be.

Vinyl will never hold the share of the marketplace it once did, nor will the printed news industry ever be again what it once was. But newspaper presses might take hope and direction from the precedent of vinyl, which continues to be pressed at increasing rates for an increasingly marginalized customer base.

When asked if he plans to continue releasing vinyl records on his label, despite the added time and cost, Turner answers reasonably, “Yeah, if people keep buying it.”