Bowie's iconic Changes album is available on new-issue vinylOh, how the tables have turned. While Target and Best Buy are pulling CDs from their shelves, vinyl record sales continue to grow.
Billboard magazine recently announced that Best Buy will be taking CDs off the shelves in July, and Target is telling labels it will no longer pay for unsold CDs, forcing the label to pick up the check and leaving such sales in question. Meanwhile, Nielsen's 2017 U.S. Music Year-End Report says vinyl had its 12th consecutive year of sales growth in 2017, accounting for 14 percent of all physical albums purchased.
Chris Kelley started working at local retailer For The Record in 1995, when he says the medium was on its way out. He believes vinyl is becoming popular again because people are tired of invisible, intangible digital formats. Based on his talks with a growing number of customers, Kelley thinks people like vinyl because of its physical heft, album art and the fact that they can watch the disc go round and round.
"People go back to a better place in time with records," Kelley says. "It reminds me of a time I used to smile more."
Perhaps the younger generation is looking for something more personal in an ever-increasing digital world, or maybe they just realized Adele sounds better on vinyl. Though the debate over technical sound quality still wages on, many people report a richer sound from vinyl as compared to a CD.
"It's a warm feeling to listen to it," says Chad Bledsoe, owner of local record store Chad's Records. "I feel it better than CDs. CDs can be sterile."
April 21 is a day for fans to celebrate the culture of music on vinyl. Every year for Record Store Day, a list of albums to be featured in select stores is announced, including some titles that are released exclusively at participating RSD stores. The celebration happens worldwide, with the list of albums specific to each country and its trends.
For The Record is a participating RSD store and is expecting a flood of music-lovers that day. Kelley says the store usually has a line of 100 people waiting outside when it opens. He expects big hits to be Pink Floyd's re-release of debut album "Piper at the Gates of Dawn," remastered from the original mono version, which purists will likely prefer to the mixed-down stereo version, as well as Eric Clapton's soundtrack to the movie "Rush," being released on vinyl in the U.S. for the first time in honor of RSD.
Other exclusive RSD releases include David Bowie's "Bowie Now," being made available commercially for the first time; "Yeah Yeah" by underground Memphis funk band Blackrock, which includes an extended version of their hit single and a previously unreleased track; and the first-ever U.S. pressing of "Big Red Letter Day" by Buffalo Tom, a '90s alt rock group.