BUT HERE'S THE AMAZING THING...

Audiophiles' Delight: Vinyl LPs Still Sell: Those old-fashioned analog platters (with the warm sound) aren't back from the dead; they were never quite buried in the first place ((Carl Winfield, 8/23/08, Business Week)

Rising LP sales are proving that every fashion comes back if you stick around long enough. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) reports that shipments of vinyl records, measured by dollar value, increased 36.6% from 2006 to 2007. But, while demand for albums has increased, record sales remain significantly lower than those of compact discs and digital media. More than half a billion CDs were purchased in 2007, compared with about 1.3 million vinyl LPs.

"Demand for records has grown, but it's kind of like the dandelion in the weed patch," says Geoff Mayfield, chart director at Billboard magazine. "Growth is high because the base is so small." The RIAA declined to comment.

Despite the minuscule retail figures, the format's popularity has never wavered over the decades among audiophiles, LP enthusiasts, and serious music collectors. Vinyl is often praised as the medium of warmth and richness, delivering playback that most closely represents a live musical experience. Purists sniff that digital routinely registers as cold and antiseptic.

...stop in your local thrift store--Salvation Army or whoever--and check out the piles of old lp's you can buy for around twenty-five cents a pop. And the stuff you find is just amazing.

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 25, 2008 7:21 PM