Ak record fair this saturday

The Record Collectors Fair returns to Freemans Bay Hall this saturday, 9.30am to 2pm. Entry is $5 per person (cash only). Children up to 12 are free if accompanied by an adult.

Top-selling vinyl albums of 2013…

Via Digital Music News - two of the top ten best selling vinyl are Mumford and Sons. Yes, people buy that on vinyl. Sigh.

"So, vinyl is popular… but what records are people actually buying? Here are the top selling vinyl albums in the US for 2013 based on Nielsen Soundscan data. Just for context, the top selling album sold 49,000 units.

[the top selling album across all formats was Justin Timberlake's "The 20/20 Experience" which sold 2.43 million in 2013 and is the only album that sold more than 2 million copies this past year. "20/20" is also the smallest-selling year-end No. 1 album since SoundScan began tracking music sales in 1991. Source: Billboard]

Interestingly, #5 was released in 2010 and #7 was released in 2008.

1. Daft Punk – Random Access Memories
2. Vampire Weekend – Modern Vampires of the City
3. Arcade Fire – Reflektor
4. Mumford & Sons – Babel
5. Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More
6. Queens of the Stone Age – …Like Clockwork
7. Bon Iver – For Emma Forever Ago
8. Lumineers – Lumineers
9. The National – Trouble Will Find Me
10. Justin Timberlake – 20/20 Experience

ADDED: Via Mashable - vinyl album sales up 32% for 2013 in the US, while CD sales declined 14.5%. In units thats 165 million CDs, 118m digital, 6.1m vinyl.

"The 6.1 million U.S. LP sales still represent only about 2 percent of total album sales, versus 57 percent for CDs and 41 percent for digital albums." Source

Daft vinyl comeback

Daft Punk like vinyl. Photo: Wax Poetics/ Nabil Elderkin with Warren Fu

This story has been getting a ton of coverage online... NME: Daft Punk's 'Random Access Memories' becomes Amazon's best selling vinyl album ever [well, since 1999]

Which is hardly surprising, since it has probably has had the biggest vinyl production run of any recent contemporary release, at a guess.

Engadget came up with this delightful headline... Amazon vinyl sales up 745 percent since 2008, 8-track mulling comeback. Shot, Engadget.

The Independent ran a vinyl comeback story recently (picked up here by the Weekend Herald last Saturday) which has the usual huge percentage rise, but gives them some much needed context with solid numbers, something often missing from these vinyl comeback puff pieces...


Independent: Why vinyl is Top of the Pops... thanks to Daft Punk, Bowie and Led Zeppelin

"... independent record shops, which account for 50 per cent of all vinyl sales, saw a 44 per cent increase in album sales in the first half of 2013.

Paul Firth, the head of music at Amazon.co.uk, said: "There's the obvious impact of one very big release this year – Daft Punk – but beyond that there's a general support for vinyl amongst the labels right now. Most big releases come with a vinyl edition now, which hasn't always been the case.......What's perhaps most incredible about vinyl sales is their outperformance of CDs. While sales of the format surged 15 per cent last year to reach their highest level since 2004, CD sales declined nearly 20 per cent.

It's the same in the US, where sales of the format rose 33.5 per cent in the first half of the year.

But despite the figures, vinyl is still a niche product. UK album vinyl sales last year were 389,000, compared to CD sales of 69.4 million. Amazon did not disclose specific sales numbers but Mr Firth indicates sales on the site are still in the thousands.

Mr Castaldo admits vinyl is still less than 2 per cent of all music sales, but adds: "The industry feels there could be very optimistic times."

And while we're on the vinyl comeback...I've run this previously, but here you go....

Attention media types: How to write the 'vinyl is making a comeback' story

1. Find a young person to say something 'cool' about vinyl.

2. Quote some statistic on the increase in vinyl sales with absolutely no context for what that means for overall sales for the music industry.

3. Find a local record shop with a crusty old owner who can talk about the joys of LPs and the tangible experience you don't get with MP3s. Also, get them to describe their clientele and how young they are these days.

4. Highlight that it's not just vintage vinyl that is undergoing a resurgence, but new vinyl is being released too, from 'modern artists' like Adele and Justin Beiber.

AND YOU'RE DONE. Nice way to cover 'a passing fad', as one acquaintance put it recently.....

Oh. And this: Whole Foods Markets Selling GMO-Free Vinyl Albums In Southern California.

Because HIPPIES.... ugh.

Vinyl is making a comeback #264

Rustic fruit crates containing vinyls. Photo: Sofi Donuts.

From East London Lines: "Vinyl making a comeback: Women open vinyl library"

"... The Vinyl Library is a place to share, experience and borrow second-hand records. Located in Stoke Newington, with a growing team of enthusiastic volunteers, a rapidly expanding catalogue and records donated from as far as Brazil, The Vinyl Library is set to become the first of its kind. But it is no trend; the concept is routed in the community and aimed at youngsters and well-worn enthusiasts alike.

The not-for-profit enterprise, set-up by mod librarians Sophie Austin, 29, and Elly Rendall, 27, relies on donations from members of the public. Anyone can join and get access by donating vinyl or paying a membership fee. “We want to create a sharing space for people to learn from one another by exploring vinyl”, says Austin and Rendall..."

And from California.... Vinyl comeback going strong at Southern independent record stores

At Torrance's P.M. Sounds, where owner Erving Johnson has the phrase "specializing in vinyl" emblazoned on his business card, records never truly went away.

He opened the doors of his modest Old Torrance storefront on Sartori Avenue in 1997, specializing in 1950s- and 1960s-era jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock, just as compact discs began to swamp the once flourishing vinyl industry....

..."A lot of younger kids are getting into vinyl," Johnson said. "I'm getting a lot of younger customers. Older customers are bringing in their kids, the kids getting into their parents' record collections and wanting to get into vinyl. I find that interesting because they've got downloads, everything is instant, but they come in and want vinyl."