THE NEW MUSICAL BOX

VINYL SALES EXPLODE; PRINT SALES PLUMMET 

In the fast-changing world of music making and consumption, it's a comfort to know that some long-lived elements of the business are still around.

Audiophiles have long said that Vinyl LPs have a warmer, richer and more organic sound than their digital cousins such as CDs and downloads. It may be a matter of personal taste or aural debate, but there's no doubting the complete experience that comes with a gate-fold LP pressed on 180g vinyl and sporting all manner of readable album notes. And it seems, the UK's record-buying public concurs with the latest figures from the BPI noting that vinyl sales in 2013 are already 100% up on 2012 - and projecting 700,000 albums sold by the year-end. But there's always a balance, isn't there? The yin and the yang, the hot and the cold, the AM and the FM as it were - and so it is here. For just as many music fans are rediscovering vinyl, the remaining weekly and monthly print magazines seem to be in free-fall.

I've written before (right here in fact: So Where Is All This Hot New Music? ) about the rise and fall of the weekly music papers such as Melody Maker and the New Musical Express, their initial replacement by the glossy monthlies (Q, Mojo, Uncut and so forth) and the parallel growth of on-line editions. But it is sad news that the last remaining general rock and pop weekly - the NME, a paper started in 1952 - has seen its latest ABC-audited weekly sales barely break the 20,000 figure. This is shocking news for those of us who still love the printed word: a paper that in its heyday sold over 310,000 copies a week has been reduced to selling barely enough copies to pay for the newsprint, let alone the rest of the overheads.   

NME Relaunch Issue

From a print perspective, the music business is a microcosm of the decline of paper-based magazines, newspapers and books. Just as national papers such as The Guardian and Daily Mail are finding that print-editions can only survive at all because of an increasing web-presence, so it is with the NME which has a good website and a large digital footprint. Divorce that from the print edition and it would soon close down. The quality of the print NME is a shadow of its former self and just this month, has undergone another redesign in what I should imagine is a last gasp attempt to keep its head above water. 

More than that though, the glossy monthlies which started appearing in the late 80s are now finding it tough. At one time, glossy paper, full colour and the space to have extended articles and interviews seemed very attractive - the more so when some publications (Mojo, Uncut) started adding a free cover-mounted CD each month. But today with access to You Tube for videos and to a range of streaming services for songs, most music fans can find what they want themselves. Looking at those ABC sales figures makes for very sad and depressing reading as the table below shows. The thing is, unless those publications can *monetize* their on-line presence, we'll lose them altogether. Some may say that's just a sign of the times, but there's no substitute for proper journalists and experts curating a package of news and features into a lively magazine. Others will say that the blogosphere makes us all journalists now, we can all publish our own views and opinions and thus, surely, widen the appeal of the music business. Who needs the printed word?

Who indeed?

There's no doubt that there are some good blogs and comment pieces to be found on line. Equally, though there is an ever-growing morass of ill-informed and (often) inaccurate comment around too. Comment that isn't edited or filtered, where facts (if they exist) are not checked and opinions that are often either wholly gushing or hyper-critical but rarely informed. I'm not anti-digital - indeed, I embrace many aspects to support my love of music - but I would like to hope that somehow, just as with vinyl, there is room for the printed word to survive.

Let's end on that vinyl success story then. 

With projected sales of 700,000 or more by the end of the year, almost 1% of all UK album sales are now on vinyl. The ever-increasing impact of the annual Record Store Day has played its part, but musicians themselves are finding that limited edition vinyl is attractive to their fans. That vinyl attraction is often easier to turn into reality through crowd-funding services such as Kickstarter and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see vinyl sales hit the million barrier in 2014. As BPI Chief Executive Geoff Taylor says:

 Daft Punk - Random Access Memories.
Top-selling UK vinyl album so far in 2013
What will happen over the forthcoming
festive season?

“The LP is back in the groove. We’re witnessing a renaissance for records – they’re no longer retromania and are becoming the format of choice for more and more music fans.  This year has been a treat for vinyl aficionados with releases from Daft Punk, David Bowie, Arctic Monkeys and Black Sabbath.

“Whilst sales only account for a small percentage of the overall market, vinyl sales are growing fast as a new generation discovers the magic of 12 inch artwork, liner notes and the unique sound of analogue records, often accompanied by a download code for mp3s."

Let's just hope that all those new music fans who are getting into the vinyl explosion handle their goods with care. CDs may be souless in terms of look and feel, MP3s too *bright* in terms of sound - but at least you can't accidentally scratch your record, crease the sleeve or leave it by a radiator only for the heat to warp your treasured possession into something unplayable.

Such are the joys of vinyl.

Alan Dorey

21st October 2013