Vinyl Records Are Still Enjoying Double-Digit Growth — Up 19.2% In 2018: Vinyl records aren’t so vintage anymore. In fact, figures from Nielsen Music indicate that sales of LPs are up 19.2% this year. According to first-half, US-based stats shared with Digital Music News this morning, sales of LP albums landed at 7.6 million. Of course, that’s a big change from the early 2000s. At that point, the LP format was essentially declared dead. But even a mid-2000s resurgence was dismissed as a temporary fad, a mere blip that would ultimately get eviscerated by iTunes MP3s. Now, iTunes downloads are dying and there’s a full-blown, decade-plus vinyl records revival. Because, that’s what we all predicated, of course.
Opelika, AL | Turning Tables: 10,000 Hz Records prepares to open store in Opelika: When Russell and Hannah Baggett moved to Auburn from the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area in 2015, they jokingly talked about opening a record store. “My wife took a job at Auburn. And I came with her, as you do when you’re married,” Russell Baggett recalled. “The first time we were coming down here in the car to look for a place to live, I was like, ‘What am I going to do in Alabama?’ I had no idea. So I was like, ‘I’ll just open my record shop. Hahahaha,’ just kind of joking around about it.” But as he purchases inventory and spends time cleaning and painting the space that will become 10,000 Hz Records, Baggett is slowly watching his dream become a reality.
Phish Announce Exclusive Slip Stitch and Pass Vinyl Release at Curveball: Phish has announced that their own JEMP Records will release their 1997 live record Slip Stitch and Pass for the first time on vinyl at this year’s Curveball Festival. According to Phish Dry Goods, the JEMP Record Store will have an exclusive version of Slip Stitch and Pass, “pressed on 2 color splatter (blue and purple), foil numbered LPs.” Also included will be a limited edition screen print by Drew Millward. For those concerned about the heat, the JEMP Record Store will offer a cold-storage merch check, so your records can stay cool all weekend long. The vinyl selection at Curveball will feature the new release as well as Billy Breathes, A Live One, The White Tape, Junta, Lawn Boy, Rift, A Picture of Nectar and side project pressings.
A Quiet Place Soundtrack Gets Vinyl Release. The score for the John Krasinski-directed horror film is getting pressed on black-and-red vinyl. Marco Beltrami’s score for A Quiet Place—the horror movie directed by John Krasinski, starring himself and Emily Blunt—is coming to vinyl. Death Waltz Recording Company will release the LP, which is pressed on 180 gram black-and-red vinyl. Orders begin this Wednesday, July 11. “A QUIET PLACE – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack LP. Music by Marco Beltrami. Original artwork by Matt Ryan Tobin. Pressed on 180 Gram Black & Red color-in-color vinyl. Housed inside a 425gsm gatefold Spot Varnish jacket. On sale this Wednesday.”
Endless Space 2 gets a neat vinyl soundtrack. If sci-fi OSTs are your thing, here’s one for your consideration. If you’re a vinyl junkie with a taste for science fiction you may be in luck. A special edition “transparent blue double vinyl” for the soundtrack of Endless Space 2 is on its way. “It’s the exquisite blend of a 30-piece orchestra, a full choir and FlybyNo’s reverberant synth work – and now the highly acclaimed Endless Space 2 soundtrack is finally captured in a timeless 17-track double vinyl.” G4F Records, FlybyNo and Amplitude Studios offer a pre-order campaign for the limited record release. The first 200 copies are signed by FlybyNo. Up until the 500th pre-order there are additional extras, the digital version of the soundtrack, a special faction hero and a unique ES2 slip mat. The double vinyl costs 40 Euro and can be pre-ordered right here, right now.
Frank Zappa’s ‘Chunga’s Revenge’ Returns To Vinyl For First Time In Three Decades. The album’s last vinyl pressing was in 1986 for Zappa’s rare ‘Old Masters Box Two’ on his own Barking Pumpkin Records. Frank Zappa’s stylistically diverse and subversive 1970 album Chunga’s Revenge is set to return to vinyl for the first time in three decades…The latest installment in the Zappa Family Trust and UMe’s ongoing initiative to restore the iconoclastic musician’s catalogue, the new edition of Chunga’s Revenge has been specially mastered for this release by Bernie Grundman with all analog production and cut directly from the original 1970 analog master tapes. The last vinyl pressing of Chunga’s Revenge was in 1986 for Zappa’s rare Old Masters Box Two on his own Barking Pumpkin Records. The LP, which will be pressed at Pallas in Germany, will include meticulously reproduced original artwork. A limited edition color vinyl version is also in the works to be released on the same date.
