Amidst the new wave of popularity for vinyl, Record Store Day is launching a Black Friday event, giving small record stores like Karma a chance to get in the game that is holiday shopping.
By Taylor Meyers
The scratch and crack the needle makes before subtly placing itself onto a record is a glorious sound to those who collect. It’s the sound of nostalgia for the older generation, and honestly it makes those of us who are younger look a bit cooler.
For at least the past ten years, vinyl record sales have increased dramatically. It’s a resurgence. Nielson reports in their mid-year music report that U.S. sales for vinyl records have increased 19.2 percent since last year. It’s a total of 7.6 million LPs sold in just the first half of this year, with close to 800 thousand of them occurring on Record Store Day this past April.
Record Store Day is Karma’s, located in Indianapolis, best-selling day. It’s their Black Friday, in a sense, because as store manager Sean Crafton says, small brick and mortar record stores don’t have a way to participate during those sales. They can’t cut the prices on records like a big box store can on a TV.
According to Crafton, vinyl is the way music is intended to be heard. He uses Megadeth’s song “Into The Lungs Of Hell” as an example. In the intro to the song, there’s a violin playing. On CD or a digital version of the song, the violin is almost inaudible. But once a needle is placed onto the LP version, the violin comes to life.
He says this opens up a new world of music to the younger generation, and that is one of the reasons for the revitalization of vinyl.
“Prior to them owning a record player that they got for Christmas, they were listening to stuff on their iPhones and digital formats and they didn’t know what it really sounded like,” Crafton said.
Another reason that vinyl has grown in popularity is because it’s a piece of artwork for avid collectors, according to Crafton.
“Especially back in the day, like the 60s and 70s, that was an art form,” Crafton said. “You start flipping through some of those older albums and some of the artwork on them is fantastic.”
This revitalization is good for smaller stores like Karma. Big box stores like Walmart and Target don’t sell every record or CD anymore, forcing people to go to Karma, which happens to be one of the only record stores on the eastside of Indianapolis, and buy the album they’re looking for.
The online Record Store Day Black Friday event is taking place, according to their website, because they want the chance to celebrate art. It will be in the same format as the normal Record Store Day: They will release limited special editions, often numbered, from some of the most popular artists at the moment.
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