|
Music on discs, the big, old-time kind, is popular again. Baby boomers and even kids seek it out. The industry responds.
AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Monti Olson, left, and Jeff Bowers launched
the vinyl-only Original Recordings Group label in December 2006. It
will release 10 albums in 2008 and expects to put out twice that number
in 2009
When the doorbell rings at Monti Olson's Glendale home in the middle of
the night, it can mean only one thing: Jeff Bowers, his partner in
Original Recordings Group, has brought new album artwork for him to
inspect. "I'll come out in my pajamas and look it over," Olson said.
"He drives home, and I'll go back to bed."
Olson's doorbell is chiming more frequently these days. Since starting
vinyl-only label ORG in December 2006 in Olson's kitchen, the label is
bursting at the seams. "By the end of the year, we will have gone from
making zero money to projecting that we will gross over $1 million,"
said Olson, who nevertheless has kept his day job as senior vice
president of A&R at Universal Music Publishing Group.
The label, which primarily licenses material from Universal Music
Group, will release 10 vinyl albums in 2008 and expects to put out
twice that number in 2009. But ORG isn't the only one reaping the
rewards. Many Southern California companies -- large and small -- are
benefiting from this sonic boom.
According to the Recording Industry Assn., shipments of vinyl soared
36.6% from 2006 to 2007. That amounts to 1.3 million units nationwide.
While the numbers are minuscule compared to CD shipments of 511 million
for 2007, the news is much-welcomed by a faltering music industry.
"This is a little bright star," said Jane Ventom, vice president for
Hollywood-based EMI Music Marketing. Next month, Capitol/EMI will
launch "From the Capitol Vaults," with the release of 13 titles on
vinyl, including Radiohead's "OK Computer" and Steve Miller Band's
"Greatest Hits 1974-1978."
Baby boomers, many of whom had long tucked away their turntables, began
to feel nostalgic for their youth and the warm sound of vinyl.
Concurrently, a younger generation, raised on CDs and tinny, compressed
MP3 files, traded in their earbuds for a less isolated music experience.
Long the provenance of indie record stores, vinyl can now be found at such mass marketers as Best Buy and Costco.
"I have family friends whose 10-year-olds are asking for turntables,"
said Tom "Grover" Biery, Warner Bros. Records' executive vice president
of promotion and the Burbank-based label's vinyl guru.
Olson and Bowers knew they were on to something when they sold 4,000
copies -- their entire vinyl inventory -- of rock band TV on the
Radio's "Return to Cookie Mountain" in 24 hours. "We thought we'd sell
100 a month, and the day the solicitation went out, they were gone,"
said Bowers.
Biery's light bulb moment came three years ago when Neil Young came to
Warner Bros. to play his greatest hits album for the staff. "At the end
of it," Biery recalled, "he did a whole speech about how sound matters
and someone needs to stand up for sound."
Inspired, Biery went to his boss about Warner Bros. releasing vinyl
made with loving care, "from mastering to pressing to the jacket," he
says. In the three years since the initiative started, Biery said
Warner Bros. has gone from pressing 2,000 vinyl copies of a title to up
to 15,000 copies. "Vinyl is still really a niche thing, but it's a
bigger niche to the point where the accounting department is actually
asking me about projections now," he said.
Similarly, Warner's sister label, Rhino, has ramped up with Rhino
Vinyl. In the last quarter of 2007, Burbank-based Rhino released five
titles. For the same period this year, the tally will be more than 30
-- many in conjunction with Warner Bros.' 50th anniversary. "Vinyl is
no longer an afterthought," said Rhino's Cheryl Pawelski.
Like many labels, when Rhino releases a new title such as the "Juno" soundtrack on vinyl, the company either includes a CD version or a code to digitally download the songs.
The resurgence is having a snowball effect. At Record Technology Inc.,
a once-beleaguered pressing plant in Camarillo, owner Don MacInnis said
that "business is the best it's been in 20 years."
When vinyl started its rebirth, RTI operated on banker's hours -- five
days a week, eight hours a day. Now, "we're running 16 hours a day, six
days a week," MacInnis said. And he's turning away clients. RTI's
average pressing per title over the last few years has doubled to 3,000
units, with orders frequently topping 10,000 copies.
While labels expect to make money -- or at least break even --
producing vinyl is, for many, a labor of love. The production cost is
easily four times that of pressing a CD and can soar higher when a
heavier vinyl weight is used. (A traditional LP is pressed on 120-gram
weight vinyl, whereas many labels produce special packages using
180-gram vinyl, which gives a fuller, richer sound.)
This summer, ORG will release a four-vinyl-LP, 10th-anniversary edition
of Beck's "Odelay." The original CD booklet will be re-created for the
180-gram special package, which will carry a suggested retail list
price of $60.
Most major labels are releasing a mix of new and vintage titles, but at
West Los Angeles retailer Record Surplus, which sells used vinyl, CDs
and DVDs, the classics never go out of vogue. "Led Zeppelin doesn't
stay for more than two days," said store co-manager Neil Canter, adding
that sales of rock vinyl have doubled in the last few years. "Pink
Floyd -- as soon as I put it out, it sells."
Amoeba Music in Hollywood sells about 2,000 vinyl LPs a day, up as much
as 15% compared to a year ago, said store marketing executive Ilene
Barg, adding that turntable sales there have risen 10% to 15% compared
to last year.
Many of those sales are to an audience experiencing vinyl for the first
time. "I'm seeing actual young, attractive people at Record Surplus,"
joked David Gorman, co-owner of L.A. indie label HackTone Records,
which will issue its first vinyl release, "Ready for the Flood," from
former Jayhawks Mark Olson and Gary Louris this fall.
LAT
.
|
reminds me of the classic song. Every...
Wow, the Corps is just going to love ...
where is that pig shit bomb when you ...
a hundred megatons should do it
there is never going to be any peacef...