Modest Vinyl Revival

From The Guardian:

Popularity of vinyl boosts fortunes of Britain's 300 remaining independent record shops.

For decades they have been thought of as a dying breed, but thanks to the continuing popularity of vinyl, independent record stores are enjoying a modest revival.

Britain's remaining 300 independent record stores saw album sales increase by 44% in the first six months of 2013 compared with the same period of 2012, according to analysis of Official Charts Company data by the Entertainment Retailers Association.

This against a backdrop of a falling album sales market, which contracted by 1.5% in the same period.

While independents sold only 3.2% of all albums in the UK in that period, they accounted for more than 50% of total vinyl album sales.

According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, vinyl continues to see a resurgence – 12m vinyl records were sold last year, four times as many as in 2006. While the general music market sells only one in 250 albums on vinyl, one in seven albums sold in independent shops are on the 12" format.

"These first-half sales figures reveal a stunning result for indie record shops," said the Entertainment Retailers Association chairman Paul Quirk. "Although the odds are stacked against them, indies have fought back."

He praised Record Store Day, which yearly involves specialist independents releasing hard-to-find limited-edition albums to please the most exacting of music fans, while encouraging people to cherish their independent music shops.

"With Record Store Day [indies] have created the first major new UK sales promotion for music in 20 years and as consumers re-waken to the joys of analogue, they have driven the growth of vinyl sales.

Although only a tiny part of the music market overall, indie stores are driving some of the most exciting new initiatives in music, as well as continuing to support and help break new talent."

Independent record stores are also credited with providing a showcase for more avant-garde, non-mainstream releases often released on independent labels.

David Bowie's The Next Day, sitting at 15 in the charts, is currently the biggest-selling album for independent shops while Tomorrow's Harvest by Boards of Canada is in second place in the independent shop chart, compared to 218th across the whole market.

Independent labels also accounted for 14 of the top 20 biggest-selling albums through independent stores, while only one independent label album – Graffiti on the Train, released by Stereophonics on their own Stylus label – featured in the top 20 albums across the whole market.

"These figures demonstrate that the time-honoured role of indie stores in highlighting music which might otherwise fall through the cracks is as relevant today as it has ever been," said Quirk

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