According to Nielsen Soundscan, sales of vinyl albums in 2009 have already topped the 2-million mark.

This beats 2008’s, 1.9 million, which means that 2009 sales of vinyl LPs are on target to be the highest since at least 1991, when Soundscan began tracking music sales.

Digital music sales aren’t doing too bad, either.

Total purchased album downloads are on pace to top last year’s figure of 65 million.

This is a cool trend. In my book, the perfect music format is Vinyl + MP3; you buy your nice big sexy album and you get a download code along with it.

What do you think about the resurgence of LP sales?

Is this just a vinyl fetish – or do you think vinyl actually offers a better way to get your music fix?

via LATimes

Image: karola riegler photography

Aaron Howell and Sharon Shattucks’ Records is like the 45 of vinyl documentaries – short and to the point.

Enjoy.

via cratekings

If you’re like a lot of music fans, you probably have fond memories of discovering music at a local record store.

The trend towards digital music has rendered traditional record stores obsolete, yet there are still thousands of indie record stores still standing.

Why?

Because they don’t suck – and they are still working to keep indie music alive, in towns all over the world.

Support indie music and your local music scene by making a trip to your local record store on April 18th!

The National Association of Recording Merchandisers has announced that over 1,000 record stores around the globe will be celebrating Record Store Day on Saturday, April 18.

This second annual event was created to recognize the impact local record shops have had on the world of music over the years. Participating countries include the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom; France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Greece, the Netherlands, Israel, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Across the United States, hundreds of other live performances and signings will be featured at participating retail outlets throughout the country. All confirmed musical appearances are listed here: www.recordstoreday.com.

Record Store Day is organized by the Music Monitor Network, the Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS), Alliance of Independent Media Stores (AIMS) and Newbury.

Looks like we are all Devo – CBS reports that vinyl is having a resurgence – which means the vinyl fetish is going mainstream.

Just as DJ’s were getting comfortable with digital, too.

This documentary tells the story of Paul Mawhinney and Record-Rama, the largest collection of vinyl LPs in the world.

Mawhinney was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. Over the years he has amassed what has become the world’s largest record collection. Due to health issues and a struggling record industry Paul is being forced to sell his collection.

A really interesting look at the historical value of vinyl, and the obsession of collectors.

via Crate Kings

Vinyl Record Day is August 12th, the anniversary of the day that Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877.

That’s right – people have been spinning disks for over 130 years. That’s an amazing run for a technology.

According to organizers:

It is the goal of VRD to establish August 12th as a day for friends and family to get together to enjoy favorite music and be reminded that regardless of national news or personal challenges, life always has its goodness. Participating in Vinyl Record Day is also to support the purposes detailed on the Mission Statement page: To preserve the cultural influences, the recordings, and the cover art of vinyl. And to have a good time on Vinyl Record Day. Your participation is meaningful, for without the individual there can be no society to accomplish these goals.

Sounds like a holiday I can get behind. Maybe even better than Sadie Hawkins Day.

The Vinyl Record Day organizers have a lot of other suggestions for ways to celebrate at their site.

I’m going to listen to a little 70’s synth records; let me know if you’re going to celebrate Vinyl Record Day!

“Collecting is creepy. Record collectors put each other down for their various fixations. Everybody is convinced that his way of collecting is superior. They look down on casual collectors, who are just accumulators – the kind who’ll just pick up anything and let it pile up. A true collector is more of a connoisseur, and that’s the good thing about collecting. It creates a connoisseurship to sort out what’s worthwhile in the culture and what isn’t. Wealthy art collectors in this country have sorted out who the great artists are. If you’re collecting a lot of objects of one particular kind, you develop a very acute sense of discrimination.”

“Any of the younger guys who get into collecting are quirky and oddball types, pretty maladjusted people. They’re not into hanging around in bars and picking up chicks or nothing. If they have a girlfriend at all it’s amazing. And the older collectors I know, a lot of them just have their little room down in the basement where they go and listen. They don’t share it with anyone, and their wives don’t know anything about it. So when they die, the vultures start descending.”

“78 collectors have almost nothing to do with LP or 45 collectors; prewar collectors have nothing to do with postwar collectors. They don’t avoid each other, but they bully and pick on each other. That’s the problem, it’s lonely collecting records. You can share it, but there’s a vicious undercurrent there, the only person you can ever impress with that rare record you just got is another collector who’s looking for the same record. And the average person, I can show them the rarest record in the collection and they’ll say, ‘Yeah? So what?’

“I did try to share it with the world, I did comic stories about old musicians because I thought it was far superior to anything being done currently. In this case, I had done a comic story about Charley Patton, one of the great fathers of the blues, and the guy who published it was over at my house. So I took out one of my favorite 78s, Charley Patton’s ‘Down the Dirt Road,’ and I put it on. So I’m sitting there, having this great experience listening to this record, and he’s sitting there quietly, patiently. And after I took it off, he looks at me and says, ‘So, what did you like about that?’ I mean, he wasn’t trying to be insulting, just curious, but what can you say to that? So I don’t try to convert people anymore.”

Chicks Don’t Dig Collectors 

“Picking up chicks? Forget it! It never gets them hot, they don’t give a shit about collectors. I wouldn’t say that collectors are antisocial – that would imply that they want to do something harmful to society – but it’s not very sociable either. Very self-obsessed, kind of asocial. That’s why the world looks down on collectors, it takes a certain kind of personality. There is nothing sexy or glamorous about it. Women aren’t attracted to people because they collect. You can go up to them and say, ‘I’m an outlaw bandit’ and they’ll like that. But if you say, ‘I’m a collector’ – no chance.”

Unfortunately, I think Crumb’s take applies to guys that collect gear, too. Ouch.

Robert Crumb, artist and 78 record album collector, talks about the “creepiness” of collecting in Vinyl Junkies: Adventures in Record Collecting by Brett Milano.