Mario Speedwagon’s Under The Radar News Round Up: Conor Oberst, Jim James, and M. Ward = Monsters of Folk, A Bunch of Bitches Go On Tour to Support Their Newly Released or Soon to Be Released Albums: AA Bondy, These United States, Magnolia Electric Co.

By Nobodaddy on Jun 19 2009

Yes, yes, yes. The lovely little vinyl resurgence that has vindicated so many of us High Fidelity-watching (reading?), 160kbps-abhorring, laser-loathing lunatics feels pretty good, doesn’t it? But not so fast; before you go running around at 33 1/3 rpm declaring victory, you need, as Kafka cruelly puts it, “only to change your direction.”

The numbers still show a niche market for the medium of kings, for the time being. In fact, vinyl accounts for less than one percent of broader album sales in the U.S., according to Nielsen Soundscan. Ouch. Seriously? Yes. But the good news is that sales are expected to grow another 50% this year to 2.8-million units, up from 1.9 million in 2008, according to figures shared at the NARM Conference in San Diego last week. And while, yes, this still ain’t even close to the lifeboat that the major labels are pushing their own wives and children out of in order to claim their spot in, it's still encouraging news for indie labels and discriminatin’ record stores everywhere. Indeed, last year independent retailers accounted for 70% of total vinyl sales, but they already account for a hefty 67% halfway through this year.

And while percentage increases are beginning to cool year to year, absolute gains are steadily increasing. In 2008, the format added just under 887,000 units, a 90% gain. By the end of 2009, another 938,000 are projected to sell - a milder 50% gain. See?? Weird. But weirder still may be the market feedback on just who the heck is buying all of this wax. In April, at the MUSEXPO in Los Angeles, a number of executives pointed to fans purchasing vinyl without owning a turntable -- merely for the memento, which they probably need to go with their vintage Rolling Stones t-shirts from Target. Also, check this: one of the best-selling vinyl albums is Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy (TMT Review), which MUST be getting snatched up by collectors, because it surely isn’t being listened to by fans of actual music. Anyway, a more detailed ranking can be found on slide 25 of this Nielsen Soundscan presentation.

And then there’s the other question that mankind can’t help but ask: what happens next? What happens after 2009? Well, check this nonsense. According to one veteran executive with expertise in the format, future growth will be challenged by limited manufacturing capacity. "All plants are producing as fast as they can, and are still behind on fulfilling orders," the executive shared. So why not ramp capacities upward, and meet the blossoming demand? Not in Obama’s America! Turns out that manufacturers are hesitant to pour capital into something that could end up being a fad. Retailers may also shy away from paying for new racks or reconfiguring floorspace. "No one knows if this rally will sustain, so no one wants to invest money in new equipment to ramp up production capacity to meet increasing demand," the source continued. "Therefore, we're probably stuck where we are for the foreseeable future as far as market share."

Yeeek. Yeah, we wouldn’t wanna go around putting our faith in something as tainted and stained as Capitalism, I guess.