From ABC News Online:

While music formats like CDs are falling victim to the digital era, latest figures show vinyl sales are back in the black.

In Australia, vinyl album sales increased by more than 70 per cent last year while single sales were up more than 50 per cent on 2011, according to the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) data.
ARIA chief executive Dan Rosen says it is a big turnaround and the format is gaining
momentum.

"Well it's been an interesting phenomenon that vinyl sales doubled last year, admittedly from a low base, but it went from approximately $1 million in sales to almost $2 million in sales in 12 months," he said.

"I think there's a great romance about putting something on a turn table and dropping down the needle and hearing the little crackles and squeaks.

"A lot of new artists are using vinyl as a way to give their fans a physical product and a lot of artists will give the vinyl but you'll get a digital download as well when you buy the vinyl."

Rocking Horse Records in Brisbane's CBD has been a Mecca for music lovers for almost four decades. Owner Warwick Vere has seen his share of fads come and go but says vinyl has had a renaissance.

"Towards the end of about 2009-10 there was a real vinyl resurgence. Which was just in time to save us."

And the new generation is embracing the old format with enthusiasm. Mr Vere says now the store is often packed with under 20s digging through vinyl crates.

"We were lamenting the fact we had lost Gen Y. Lunchtime was a sea of lanyards and grey
hair but vinyl has reinvigorated the Gen Ys coming in."

Shannon Logan used to hold a weekend market stall to sell her favourite records but she became so busy, she opened her own shop Jet Black Cat Music in Brisbane's West End.

"CDs are non-existent any more. Everyone of all ages is getting into vinyl and starting to collect and really appreciate that so it's great.

"There are lots of teenagers coming in now, especially in the last sort of year-and-a-half, because there is an MP3 download with a lot of the records so they get what they want digitally then they get a vinyl which will last them a long time."

Ms Logan prides herself on her collection of rare, limited edition and bootleg vinyl imported from overseas.

"They're pieces of art, even just looking at the artwork on them.

"I'll have them when I'm really, really old and I think that's really nice. I can look back at my life and hand them down to my grandchildren."

The increase in demand is also music to the ears of those working at Australia's last vinyl pressing plant, Zenith Records in Melbourne. Paul Rigby got into the vinyl industry after years of working with CDs.

"A lot of people want to put their stuff on vinyl and yeah there's no shortage of enquires at the moment," he said. Zenith Records has just expanded by employing twice the number of staff and buying two new machines.

And Mr Rigby says far from only appealing to underground music fans, vinyl has hit the mainstream.

"We've done a number of runs for artists on labels who you wouldn't pigeonhole as the hipster vinyl type of act, but they've done very well out of vinyl.

"We are just doing what we love and not making any money but covering our costs, but look, early days yet, we may be here for another five years, we may be here for another 10 years, but it is all in the hands of the taste makers out there."

Griffith University associate professor Ian Woodward is writing a book on the resurgence of vinyl records which is due to be released next year. He says the return of vinyl is associated with a number of factors.

"There's the perception that vinyl is a superior sound carrier," he said.

"It is, but of course not all listeners can tell much difference between a CD, digital or vinyl.

But there is a widespread perception that vinyl sounds warmer and is more human."

He says vinyl has become becomes a cooler, hipper alternative to the ubiquity of the digital download.

"To buy and listen to vinyl sometimes demonstrates a political commitment against the global download industry but is more often about demonstrating that one is a serious music listener.

"In this sense, vinyl is a material carrier of music heritage."

And store owners say that can only be good news, as fans ride a wave of nostalgia and the embrace the warm sounds of vinyl.

And in the United States sales are surging too, according to the senior vice president of Nielsen's entertainment division, David Bakula.

"One format that I think continues to do shockingly well is the vinyl format. We are in our seventh straight year of growth in vinyl and projected to have a record-setting year in vinyl."

He says they started tracking vinyl in 1991 and were on course this year to have their biggest year since then. While CD sales were down by 14.2 per cent in the first half of this year, vinyl LP sales increased 33.5 per cent. So far this year more than 4 million vinyl copies have been sold in the US. Mr Bakula says the sales spike is nothing short of amazing.

"It's just unbelievable. When the consumer seems to be going towards more portability and ease of use and things like that, to have vinyl doing as well as it is doing is very surprising.

"I think the vinyl buyer is speaking very loudly, that they love the sound quality, they love the richness of the sound of vinyl, whereas with the digital format you don't get quite the audio quality."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-23/surge-in-sales-music-to-the-ears-of-vinyl-lovers/4975862

Well looks like I am going to go vinyl

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"I'd rather have a CRT than nothing" - me
"people just throw working CRTs out, it is NOT FUNNY!" -me

I knew if I kept them long enough they'd come back into fashion! I've still got all my Cold Chisel, Jimmy Barnes and AC DC vinyl and still play them regularly. The kids thought I was weird until recently but now they love it. They've also taken to my collection of AWA mantle radios, although my eldest reckons they all look like toasters!

It'd be nice if pressings of today's mainstream music was available, meaning at JB HiFi or another popular shop. I have a ten valve AWA radiogram in my office at work and when I get around to getting a turntable for it I will want to use it.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

It'd be nice if pressings of today's mainstream music was available

Is there such a thing as "today's mainstream"? I don't listen to contemporary radio so I'm not sure what you mean. Can you give an example or two?

Not sure, as I never bother to connect with the finer details like who's singing the song, etc. I determine 'mainstream' as to be anything that doesn't include opera or headbanger/house/rap/gutterfilth/ghetto type music.

I usually listen to 2CH at work, if this helps.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

I usually listen to 2CH at work, if this helps.

Okay, so in my experience, that spans the 50's through to the 80's.

A lot of that stuff has been still available in good playable condition on original vinyl in second hand record shops, although those shops have been disappearing rather rapidly over the last 5 years or so. Ashwoods (the biggest vinyl dealer in Sydney -- if not Oz) pulled stumps a while back.

Red Eye Records in York St usually has a good range.

Collections frequently pop up on eBay. I bought a collection of about 30 albums for 99 cents because it contained one album that I wanted (a stereophonic demo record) and I gave the rest away. All of the albums were in excellent almost unplayed condition.

45s are always in demand from juke box fans. And jazz aficionados are always trawling for classic vinyl.

Latest figures show vinyl sales are back

Hi All,

Well I have certainly felt the impact over the last few months with the younger generation buying radiograms and vintage record players.

They have been coming to get them serviced and I add an ipod dock to them, that way they listen to there music through tubes.

The demand for radiograms has helped my local record shop, I have been restoring them him and he can't keep up with demand some weeks.

Long live records

Vic

Father in law has a couple of juke boxes. A lot of 'modern' (i.e. crap) are available on 45's from a place in Tasmania.

I have a couple of milk crates full of 78's. Even one by Slim Dusty. Now the radio room is up and running I can use my Rexonola more often.

What I do enjoy is playing my Red Gem (1909) phonograph for visitors.

I have certainly felt the impact over the last few months with the younger generation buying radiograms and vintage record players.

Interesting to hear that because the ones that I notice appearing on eBay seldom sell. Admittedly, the sellers often set unrealistically high starting prices and there's the problem of collecting and transporting them.

There's the problem of collecting and transporting them.


Hi GTC,

I have had a few young women bring in there radiograms stuffed into the boot of and Audi , in the back of a Peugeot.

When I delivered back to one , she lived 3 storeys in a city block appartment on the top floor . We had to carry this thing up the stairs because the lift was broke, I asked her how she got it down , reply , I carried and dragged it down on my own then shoved it in the back of the Peugeot.

A lot of the ones I see are local deceased estates or gumtree.

Vic

Some kids have rarely listened to music except through little bud earphones, which cuts them off from the world (part of the attraction for them) and drives them to early deafness.

It must be a novelty for them to hear music coming out of a paper cone.

I bought a lot of pre-loved vynil records from school fetes and the like, often deceased estates, and often "easy listening" music I would never have bought for full price. Also quite a lot of quality music that would have cost a fortune on CDs at the time. Then I ran out of cupboard space.

Maven

There certainly is a lot of interest in vinyl, in Bathurst the local music shop has a whole section devoted to vinyl.

As well sells a few Rega and Audio Technica turntables as a sideline.

In this day of sqawky mobile phones and ear buds it good to see.

I have noticed recently quite a few turntables appearing in shops (other than Jaycar) equipped for transfer to digital via USB port.

It had me wondering why all of a sudden there would be so much renewed interest. I guess the article that I quoted goes some way to explaining that.


PS: Brad, would you kindly fix my typo in the thread subject index. I fixed it in my post but I see that didn't flow onto the index. Thanks.

Okay, so in my experience, that spans the 50's through to the 80's.

Mostly, though on the odd occasion the music can go back to the 30s and 40s, particularly when Bob Rogers is on and at times today's songs make it into the fray - not anything too raucous though.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...