Profile: Vinyl - the format they couldn't kill

It’s an incredible turnaround for vinyl which only a few years ago appeared to be heading for extinction.

First hit by CDs and then digital downloads, vinyl was at its nadir in 2007 when it accounted for less than 1 per cent of album sales.

However, just as doom-mongers were predicting its demise, a revival began, boosting sales so much that the Official Charts Company has decided to reintroduce weekly charts for albums as well as 7in and 12in singles.

The announcement of the official Top 40 is a recognition that vinyl sales have surged by 23 per cent this year while the vinyl-only album chart reflects British Phonograph Industry (BPI) figures that show sales – 1.3 million last year – are at their highest since Nineties Britpop.

“With sales of vinyl albums at their highest level since the heady days of Britpop – and growing – the introduction of an official vinyl chart at this time makes perfect sense,” said the BPI’s Gennaro Castaldo.

“The chart will not only help us to better understand which artists and type of music are driving this resurgence, but will also help guide a new generation of younger, but emotionally engaged, fans as they contemplate the vinyl delights that await them.”

BOOST

FITTINGLY, the vinyl charts were launched yesterday just before Record Store Day on Saturday.

Celebrated globally on the third Saturday of every April, Record Store Day was introduced seven years ago in an attempt to preserve vinyl and independent record stores. Special vinyl releases and other promotional products available on the day have helped boost vinyl sales, as have appearances from recording artists at the stores.

“Independent record stores in particular have driven the vinyl revival, stocking and supporting the format when much of the world had written it off,” said Kim Bayley, chief executive of the Entertainment Retailers’ Association which runs Record Store Day.

Arctic Monkeys, Led Zeppelin and David Bowie all feature as vinyl best-sellers for the first three months of the year but it is not just ageing rockers who are nostalgically dusting off their turntables and playing classic releases: Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ Uptown Funk is the fourth best-selling single so far this year.

Noel Gallagher is among the top sellers on vinyl

Noel Gallagher has three of the top sellers in the singles chart for the first quarter of 2015 but it includes new bands like Scottish post-punk outfit The Twilight Sad with their single I Could Give You All That You Don’t Want. It also features Slaves, a two-piece punk band from Tunbridge Wells with their single The Hunter, and Blossoms, a psychedelic rock band from Stockport, with Cut Me And I’ll Bleed.

Kings of this week’s main Official Albums Chart and also responsible for Britain’s best-selling vinyl record of the week are American band All Time Low.

Frontman Alex Gaskarth said: “What’s been going on with vinyl at the moment is really cool. What I love is that there are different worlds of vinyl fans – there’s the audiophiles who swear by the sound of vinyl, the people who like owning it as a collector’s piece, and then groups like our fans who buy a vinyl of our record simply so they can hang it on their wall.

“Back in Baltimore there’s this incredible record store called Sound Garden, which I can regularly be found in. What I love about vinyl is that it makes a real event out of music; you go into a record shop and have to search out what’s there. The world is in music overload at the moment, so it’s great to see more people honing in on certain artists by buying a vinyl and showing loyalty to their favourites. It makes the whole experience of listening to an album special.”

UK vinyl retailer Phil Barton of Sister Ray Records, Soho, added: “The resurgence in vinyl sales has been a great boost for the independent trade. The launch of the Official Vinyl Charts tells the world that a format that is loved and revered is more relevant now than ever. Far from being a curiosity, vinyl is the go-to format for many music fans.”

DECLINE

FROM the 1950s until the advent of the compact disc in the Eighties, vinyl was the main vehicle for the commercial distribution of music.

However, in order to boost CD sales, distributors began charging retailers more for new product if they returned unsold vinyl, and then they stopped providing any credit at all for returns.

Retailers, fearing they would be stuck with anything they ordered, only ordered proven, popular titles that they knew would sell, and devoted more shelf space to CDs and cassettes.

Record companies also deleted many vinyl titles from production and distribution, further undermining the availability of the format and leading to the closure of pressing plants. This rapid decline in the availability of records accelerated the format’s decline in popularity, and was seen by some as a deliberate ploy to make consumers switch to CDs, which were more profitable for record companies.

Digital downloads this century were supposed to be the final nail in vinyl’s coffin with no-one predicting the resurgence of sales that has taken place over the last eight years.

Martin Talbot, chief executive of the Official Charts Company, said: “With vinyl album sales up by almost 70 per cent already this year, vinyl junkies could well have snapped up two million units by the end of this year – an extraordinary number, if you consider sales were one-10th of that just six years ago.

“This growth underlines the continuing resurgence of this much-loved format, whether you’re a fan of Arctic Monkeys, Noel Gallagher, Led Zeppelin or David Bowie.”