Browsing through Von's Records rack of vinyl records in Lafayette, Kokomo resident Mae Kingery looks for a good deal. Beside her, two other college students wander and browse through the section, eagerly hoping to find something new.
"I like to sit and read the lyrics while listening to the album," she said, flipping past Magnolia Electric Co. and Mogwai vinyls. "Plus, you usually get an MP3 code [to download the album online] too, so why not?"
Meanwhile, in Indianapolis at Indy CD & Vinyl, Purdue University student Austin Fleming seeks out something by Why?, a band from Los Angeles.
"Having this huge physical copy, it's rewarding," he said, pulling up the album he was looking for. "There's just this satisfaction to adding a record to your collection - it's different from owning a CD. You hardly need the original CD since you can just burn it onto a blank one. But with vinyl, you have a hard copy, and a lot of bands don't release things on vinyl. So it's unique. It's like your own."
Austin unearths a common debate: what value do CD's hold now? The difference between a vinyl collection and a CD collection can be strikingly different. Everyone has seen a stack of CD's piled up in some corner of a room, half of the discs not even in the case and a thin sheet of dust forming on the top album. With vinyl, however, things are different. Things are in order, neatly organized. The only album not in the sleeve is the one under the needle. Any record collector will probably say the same things as Kingery and Fleming, showing an appreciation for the format.
There's just something about the size and nature of vinyl's that sets them apart. In the 1982 film "Diner," directed by Barry Levinson, Daniel Stern's character shared a connection with other music aficionados when he said, "Every one of my records means something! The label, the producer, the year it was made. Who was copying whose style - who's expanding on that, don't you understand? When I listen to my records they take me back to certain points in my life."
With this resurgence of music lovers coming out to buy vinyl, record labels are taking notice. Secretly Canadian, a small label based out of Bloomington, usually releases albums on vinyl as well as CD's.
"Our default is to do vinyl, because we love it, too," Kevin Duneman, general manager of Secretly Canadian said. "Sometimes, it just doesn't make sense to do vinyl on a release, though. It would be irresponsible, and it makes it possible for us to operate how we do to have our budgets be flexible."
He also added, "Vinyl accounts for a small percentage of sales."
Although the trend shouldn't be labeled a comeback (according to Undercover.com.au, 1.88 million units were sold in 2008), it can be seen as a healthy marketing strategy. Radiohead's album, "In Rainbows" was the top vinyl record last year, selling over 25,000 copies. But, that's meek in comparison to its CD counterpart, selling nearly five times as much in one week.
For smaller, independent labels, such as Secretly Canadian and JagJaguwar, vinyl sales are an important aspect to staying out of the red. Even in musical havens such as Los Angeles, an investment in vinyl can pay off.
A representative of Anticon. Records, based out of Los Angeles, said records account for "around 15 percent of total physical sales," but at the same time, "we do it for the love more than anything."
Producing and distributing vinyl is more expensive than CD's, simply because more work needs to be done. Packaging, album color and inserts can lead to a hefty fee. United Record Pressing, based out of Nashville, has an automatic quote generator for anyone looking to press some records. One hundred copies of standard, black 12-inch records, with white paper sleeves, costs $854, not including shipping.
Through discmakers.com, a person can get one thousand CD's for about $50 less. However, most people are aware of the price differences between the two formats. Secretly Canadian said each vinyl unit costs them about $2.50 and Anitcon. Records said $4. Both also noted that the ultimate price depends on the packaging.
But most record stores carry vinyl records for about the same price as their counterpart, if not only a few dollars more. The plus side of it, though, is that most albums come with MP3 download codes to put on the buyer's computer. So it's like having both formats at once.
For artists and bands going through the alternative format, the price can add up. Frank Schweikhardt, a singer-songwriter based out of Bloomington, is about to release an album on white-colored vinyl.
"It cost me a lot of money to do it," he said, "but I should make most of it back. People like buying records, if anything, for the kind of exclusive nature of it. Not everyone has an album on vinyl."
This "rare" factor is also a big part in the appeal of records. But not everyone that tries to sell it gets profits. "It cost a lot of money," Zack Melton, bassist for the now-defunct Away with Vega explains, "and we should've sold them for more. I don't think we're out of the red still. It's too expensive."
As the music industry continues to struggle over CD sales and compete in the digital age, the world of vinyl will still be ongoing. Any music lover can go on about the benefits of such records, whether it be for the intimacy, the exclusivity or even the large, physical format. Records labels and stores have caught on to this small trend as well, and will continue to push for it. And, as a sticker says on each Secretly Canadian release, "Long Live Vinyl!"
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
