UK Figures Underscore Increasing Vinyl Popularity

I continue to be flabbergasted at the revival of the vinyl format among music lovers, including myself.

Sure, it never really stopped being a format of choice for audiophiles, and colleagues Bob Archer and Grant Clauser both noted that record demos were common at last week's Rocky Mountain Audio Fest in Denver.

But what's amazing me is how the surge in vinyl appreciation seems to be much more genuine than some retro 70s or 80s fad, like what Hollywood has tried to force upon us with a Footloose remake here, another 80s cartoon-turned-movie there.

The latest sales figure making the music blogosphere rounds comes from the UK sales follower Official Charts Company. The group released its report on the biggest-selling vinyl albums of 2011, also noting that UK sales of vinyl have already topped those of last year and are on pace to be eclipsed by 40 percent year-over-year.

Right now it's at 240,000 units, compared with 234,000 in 2010, led by "The King of Limbs" from British-based critical darling Radiohead. That album has sold more than 20,000 copies -- which doesn't sound like much until you really think about it. That's 20,000 turntables in action playing music released in 2011 ... from the same band that is also well known for offering its previous LP, "In Rainbows," as a name-your-price download.

The Official Charts Company includes a top 10 of vinyl sales for the year, and checking in at No. 10 is Nirvana's "Nevermind," an album making the rounds as a 20th anniversary release. Still to come this year is U2's anniversary release of "Achtung Baby," which should do pretty well in its own right.

And that's just in the United Kingdom. Back in May, The Nielsen Company reported 37 percent growth in the U.S. sales, and projected them at 3.6 million for the year, over 2.8 million sold in 2010.

Part of why I'm revisiting the vinyl evangelizing now, after personally getting back into it full-throttle a couple of years ago, is that I'm seeing it more on TV. Records are a key prop in the latest Fiat car commercial that features Jennifer Lopez. The vaunted McIntosh MT10 turntable gets some air time in a Chrysler ad featuring designer John Varvatos.

It's a stark contrast to another music note that Archer and Clauser both came away with from their time at the Rocky Mountain show: CDs were nowhere to be found.

That's amazing to me in its own right, but another recent boon to vinyl was also brought to my attention lately. Archer ran a few of my used LPs through the Spin Clean Record Washer system (his review to come), and they looked brand new. So even older LPs can look as shiny as CDs, in case that's a worry.

We're even starting to review turntables here at CE Pro. Archer took a Thorens table for a spin earlier this year, and I've got a Pro-Ject Essential USB model right now.

In trying to alleviate installers' fears that clients only think of spending thousands on tweaky analog products to enjoy records, I can say already that at just a few hundred bucks the Pro-Ject model would be a perfect entry point for both installers and clients. Plus you can rip music as high-res digital files if you want to enjoy it that way, too. I'm all for the rising niche of high-res 24/96 audio files, too ... but we'll save that for another day.