Fans spin vinyl to record high: However, collectors – who pay on average more than $20 a record – shouldn’t get too excited. The market will soon wind down, say consultants at Deloitte. “In 1981, over one billion albums were sold. In 2017 it will be around 40 million. This is not the resurgence that is portrayed. It is a blip,” Paul Lee, Deloitte’s head of technology, media and telecoms research, tells Nic Fildes in the Financial Times.
Lobster Theremin Open New London Record Shop: The team at Lobster Theremin are set to open a new record shop in East London at the weekend. The distribution company, label, and talent spotting enterprise will bring the majority of their 200+ distribution stock plus an array of tapes, merch, zines and more at the space in Hackney. Lobster Records will be located on Sidworth Street, just a short walk from the always-popular London Fields area. The shop opens tomorrow (January 21st) before taking a two day break – Lobster Records will then be open seven days a week from Tuesday (January 24th).
Record shops thrive on our growing love of vinyl: More than 15 years after the iPod turned the music industry on its head, and as car manufacturers start to delete the CD player from their new models, many independent music stores are not only still in business, they are thriving. Mel Mays, owner of Quality Records in Malvern, Victoria, is one of them, and he puts it all down to the resurgence of records. He said the trend started about five years ago, initially as a “fashion thing”. “Every year you’d think it would be on it’s last legs, but it’s just kept on growing,” he said. “It’s an old industry, but it’s a growth industry.”
Island entrepreneurs ready to start pressing vinyl on P.E.I., Kaneshii Vinyl Press will start production in March: A group of Island entrepreneurs are riding the wave of what they say is a resurgence in consumer demand for vinyl LPs — with plans to start pressing records in Charlottetown this spring. Kaneshii Vinyl Press is now renovating an industrial space to start production in March. The factory will fill a gap in manufacturing services currently available in Canada, according to one of the company’s founders. “A lot of local artists struggle to get their vinyl out on time, or out on time when they’re going on tour,” said Rob Rice, one of four founders of Kaneshii Vinyl Press. “All of us were very interested in pursuing this, not only as a business venture, but to stimulate the music industry on P.E.I. and in Canada in general.”
Third Man Records to open pressing plant in February: When Jack White opened his Third Man Records retail outlet in the Cass Corridor in November 2015, much of the attention surrounding the store was focused on the back of the building, which was set to house a 10,000-square-foot vinyl record pressing plant. That space, Third Man Pressing, will finally open on Feb. 25, and will become one of only around 20 vinyl pressing plants in the United States and a few dozen in the world. To toast the launch, a party will be held at Third Man featuring live music, new and exclusive merchandise and exclusive presses of several LPs, including the White Stripes’ self-titled first album and the band’s sophomore set, “De Stijl.”
Three more classic David Bowie records set for vinyl reissue: Diamond Dogs, Young Americans and Station To Station up next. Originally included in 2016’s Who Can I Be Now? (1974 – 1976) vinyl box set (which presented Bowie’s previously unreleased LP The Gouster for the first time), Diamond Dogs (1974), Young Americans (1975) and Station To Station (1976) are set for individual vinyl reissue. As Exclaim! reports, the remastered vinyl pressings are due on 10th February via Parlophone, although they point out that The Gouster does not appear to be slated for indidivual reissue at this time. After several years of retrospective releases, the Bowie estate has already been busy in 2017, announcing the picture disc reissue of ‘Sound & Vision’ from Berlin Trilogy album Low.
Column: Listening to music the old-fashioned way: As my wife and I sat down for dinner recently, the iconic sounds of Paul Simon played in the background. The live album “Paul Simon in Concert: Live Rhymin’” was recorded in 1973 at the former home of the New York Islanders, Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. As we ate our meal with a glass of wine, we enjoyed Simon & Garfunkel classics like “Homeward Bound” and “The Boxer.” It’s not uncommon for us to play music during dinner. But rather than stream music via Bluetooth from Apple Music or Amazon Alexa to a soundbar in the living room — like the tech-savvy millennials we are — we listened much like those who bought the album more than four decades ago: on vinyl.
You spin me right round: Vinyl records don’t appear to be going away anytime soon. The music medium is projected to sell 40 million units in 2017, with sales nearing $1 billion – a figure that also includes accessories such as turntables – for the first time since its heyday in the 1980s, according to the Financial Times. It’s a number that Scott Havens, co-owner of Reimagine Records, believes is in reach for the industry. “I think it’s possible,” Havens said. “I think the folks with money, the industry itself, are starting to invest in the long term. Pressing plants are popping up all over the place, new presses are actually being built, whereas in the beginning, they had to make do with a small number of old machines…”
