Well, folks, prepare to purchase your vinyl without an old coat of dust and poor independent record store lighting -- your baby’s returning to the big time. Vinyl, the long-thought dead and "outdated" form of musical storage and presentation, is getting a test tryout at select Best Buy stores. Could this be the first tiny step for mainstream vinyl reemergence? Will this be the crossing of the Rubicon for the endless and non-profitable war between CDs and LPs? Will I have to start buying my records at Best Buy once they inevitably overtake the market and control all distribution chains with their massive bulk-quantity discount-buying? Am I over-exaggerating?
However surprising this may seem, it isn’t really unexpected: vinyl has been quietly (and with a fuller sound!) resurging back into the populace (TMT News). According to Jackie Crosby of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, vinyl makes up only 0.2% of total sales compared to 90% of CDs, amounting to nearly one million units sold. This may seem small for an entire format, but that “nearly one million” is a 15%(!) increase and the highest level in three years, according to Nielsen Sound Scan.
Crosby goes on to further explain that Best Buy’s willingness to give this old war horse another shot is due to the growing demand and sales figures from local Minneapolis record stores. She also illustrates that, contrary to popular belief, vinyl music cannot be directly copied to a digital format (except for the many models of record players built for that specific purpose, obviously) and points to the growing amount of hip, young artists who are simultaneously releasing their work on CD, LP, and digital formats.
Best Buy states that this “test” will take place “at an undisclosed amount of locations... to avoid artificially tipping the scales.”
