The Real Reason Why Vinyl Sales Just Skyrocketed Record Levels, Passing 1991: Album sales decreased in 2020 across digital and physical. During the year everything else seemed to be in free fall, vinyl sales shot up by a staggering 46.2% according to MRC Data’s 2020 year-end report. Vinyl sales have been steadily increasing for the past 15 years. …The first Record Store Day took place in 2008, starting a legacy and tradition of celebrating the unique culture of record stores and everyone in them. Usually, on the day of, music lovers and vinyl aficionados come out and support indie record stores while getting their hands on special releases. In 2020, the community rallied to show indie stores extra support during a time when small businesses struggled intensely under the toll of the pandemic. While Record Store Day is usually an event in April and November, it became a four-part series in 2020. This helped drive sales.
The Official Top 40 best-selling vinyl albums and singles of 2020: Kylie Minogue, AC/DC, Idles and Joy Division are among the UK’s top selling vinyl releases of the year. Sales of vinyl records climbed for a 13th consecutive year in the UK in 2020, with new as well as classic albums enjoying success on the revived format. As fans turned to music during a difficult year, sales of vinyl jumped by over a tenth (11.5%) year-on-year to almost 5 million (4.8m), music industry body the BPI reports. Many also supported indepedendent record shops by purchasing locally, with hundreds offering online delivery as the UK comes in and out of lockdown. Last year Official Charts launched the Official Indie Record Store Finder, encouraging their customers to become virtual cratediggers. We also teamed up with Record Store Day and National Album Day to launch The Record Club in association with Bowers & Wilkins – a livestream series that takes place every other Wednesday that encourages viewers to order the album of the guest act in each episode through their local record shop, give it a listen, then watch the broadcast to find out all about it.
Top 5 reasons why vinyl records are better than digital music: Music fans across the UK are embracing old experiences and purchasing vinyl records in droves. With many cancellations of gigs over the last year, it’s no surprise that the UK vinyl market has boomed. Listen to a superior sound quality: While digital music is produced for a smooth, clean listening experience, vinyl records offer a sound quality like no other. If you want to recreate the sound experience of a live concert, vinyl is about as close as you can get. From the soft crackle between tracks to the specific timbre of your favourite singer, vinyl effortlessly captures the qualities your ear loves to hear. Enjoy a real, hands-on experience: Whichever record player you decide on (choosing the right one can take time) you’ll enjoy a real experience when playing your records. From sliding the record out of its sleeve to lowering the needle, it is a hands-on experience that will make you appreciate music in a new way.
10 Great Album Covers, Chosen by Andrea Beaulieu of Studio Linear: Nirvana, Likke Li, Björk and more. My childhood was full of music. From a young age—3rd grade, to be exact—I started piano lessons, which continued all through grade school and high school, and then I attended college for music composition. I played in many bands starting in 7th grade, playing in a friend’s basement for hours practicing music by Green Day, Nirvana and other grunge-inspired music. I really wanted to be a rock star and had a family that encouraged that path. Music is in my blood, I suppose you could say. My dad once researched our family tree to find that on one side we were distantly related to Eric Clapton and on another side our roots came from Cape Breton, where we are connected to the MacMaster family of musicians. I have these wonderful memories of being a little girl and watching my grandmother play her honey blonde piano or my dad buying me that electric guitar I wanted for Christmas and we would just jam for hours, him on the bass and me on any instrument I could get my hands on. Yeah, my childhood was full of the favorites.
Record Store Recs: Estereomance Are All In Their Feels With Vinyl From El Paso, Los Angeles & Mexico City: These three record stores are important locations for us. Amoeba in L.A. always gives us that big city treat; You can literally stay there for hours, finding new music every minute. We love that they have in-store shows that a lot of great artists perform at—that always inspires us and makes us daydream of playing there one day. We are mostly working when we are in L.A., but we made it a tradition to make time in our schedule to go and find records there; it feels like a souvenir from each trip. The last time we were there, Adria got Quincy Jones’ Sounds…And Stuff Like That!! (1978, A&M Records), Manu got Madvillain’s Madvillainy (2004, Stones Throw Records) and Paulina got Aretha Franklin’s Aretha Now (1968, Atlantic Records).
