Brighton, UK | Vinyl fans enjoy fair at Brighton Racecourse: The wet and blustery weather failed to deter hundreds of collectors from attending the VIP Record Fair at Brighton Racecourse, although fortunately the event was staged inside, protecting both records and punters from the elements. Dealers travelled from all over the country and included Steve and Gloria Holmes, who tied in a visit to family in Brighton with running a stall at the racecourse. Steve, 62, said: “I have been dealing in records for the best part of 40 years now. “We are Beatles specialists but sell a lot of other rock music from the Sixties and Seventies, and later as well, although not so much of the current stuff. “There have probably been 300 to 400 buyers but it is a pity about the weather because I am sure otherwise there would have been a lot more. “Nevertheless, people know what they want and we have done well.”
Are Vinyl Record Sales Actually on the Decline? So, when it comes to vinyl numbers, who should we believe? The RIAA and Nielsen Music, or Best Buy? According to Nielsen Music, American consumers purchased 14.3 million vinyl albums last year. Up 9.3% over 2016, vinyl sales have now experienced growth 12 years straight. The RIAA recently revealed vinyl sales jumped 13% in the first half of 2018 over the same period last year. Yet, CD sales plummeted 41%. Both have revealed one thing – vinyl records have and will continue to grow in the near future. But, not everyone agrees…Viewing Best Buy’s sales rank data, vinyl albums have steadily faded out. Breaking down the sales rank of 22,888 individual record UPCs at the retail chain, Thinknum found vinyl sales have slipped for almost 2 years.
Vinyl is even more popular than we thought: The vinyl resurgence is even bigger than we all originally thought thanks to records sales that aren’t regularly reported—until now. Vinyl has had quite the resurgence over the past decade or so, and it appears that the comeback is more than just a trend. While it was clear vinyl sales have spiked in recent years, it appears to be more than we all realized. Used records are purchased just as much (if not more than) new ones, but those figures weren’t being accounted for until now. According to Forbes, new data shows the vinyl market is at least double what the original figures show. The music industry doesn’t actively count used sales in a world where streaming is the most prevalent preferred music consumption as the former’s sales don’t benefit labels, artists or songwriters.
‘Timeless’ Bee Gees Present Career-Spanning Collection On Vinyl: The 21-track collection, which first appeared on CD and digitally in April 2017, arrives as a 2LP set. …The retrospective covers several decades of massive hits from the Gibb brothers’ unrivalled career, beginning with their first No. 1 in Australia, the adopted home of their youth, with 1966’s ‘Spicks and Specks.’ It embraces early, worldwide smash hits of the late 1960s, such as ‘New York Mining Disaster 1941,’ ‘Massachusetts’ and ‘I’ve Gotta Get a Message to You’; their mid-1970s rebirth with such songs as ‘Jive Talkin” and ‘Nights On Broadway’; the dance anthems of the record-breaking Saturday Night Fever era including ‘Night Fever’ and ‘Stayin’ Alive’ and their 1987 UK No. 1 ‘You Win Again.’ In his introduction for Timeless, Barry Gibb writes: “There is a spirituality about this album and these songs always meant the most to us. Although there are many other songs, these songs, I feel, are the songs that Maurice, Robin, and I would be most proud of.”
Sound Advice: A good phono preamp can make a major difference in vinyl sound quality: A high output moving coil cartridge will work with any phono preamp with a moving magnet (MM) input. A moving coil (MC) input is only needed with a low output moving coil cartridge. Many phono preamps have settings for both kinds of cartridges. If vinyl record playback is a big part of your musical enjoyment, a good phono preamp can make a major difference in the sound quality of your system. This often-overlooked component has a critical job to do. First, it takes the tiny electrical signal from a phono cartridge and increases it many times, so it can be used with a line level input on a receiver or amplifier. Then it must adjust the signal from the cartridge so it does not sound distorted, using a process called RIAA equalization.
