Vinyl revival and my warped White Album

I’ve been wary of slumber parties ever since my then 7-year-old sister Jean Marie left my Beatles White Album on a radiator. Back in the U.S.S.R.? Permanent vacation. While My Guitar Gently Weeps? Cry me a warped vinyl river. Gone. Gone for good… almost.

Vinyl sales, which had been dormant since 1988, surpassed sales of CDs in 2022 off a 20 percent increase according to the online publication The Conversation. This continues the upward trend the industry has seen since 2007 for new and used LPs. Of course, it remains to be seen whether the return to vinyl is a passing fad until the next technology is available. Several factors show that LPs will stick around, though. LPs have two major buyers in baby boomers and the 15-20 age group. That’s a lot of coverage. In 2022, vinyl sold 1.2 billion units out of a total of 41.3 billion of recordings of all types in the industry.

The second factor is the me experience. As physical objects, LPs and their decorative covers can be thumbed through readily, ascertaining someone’s musical taste in the time it takes to say Derek and the Dominos. The big advantage LPs have is cover art and liner notes. They’re also more durable if left away from radiators. One description of vinyl called them “subjectively pleasant.” A British music store owner summed it up this way: “Record collections are very personal. You can view into the person’s soul, really.”

Bill Proulx, proprietor of Somerville Street’s Metro City Records, has been in the business 35 years. According to him vinyl has been growing in small increments over the last five years.

“My major challenge now is distribution,” Proulx said. “I place an order and too many times it gets halved or even cancelled.”

According to Proulx his CD sales are still outpacing his LP sales.

Japan, Germany and South Korea, leaders in karaoke, now offer vinyl bars. The third Saturday in April is now designated Record Store Day in the United States.

Taylor Swift’s Midnights was the top-selling LP in 2022 with sales of 945,000 supplanting the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The latter crosses over from vintage to new. Metro City Records can’t keep rock icons like the Beatles or the Rolling Stones in stock.

Proulx pointed out that Metro City Records offers more than rock, however. The store has categories in Classical, Christian, Christmas and Movie Sound tracks, among others.