SALISBURY, Md. — Little more than a decade ago, many people would have thought the vinyl record was a relic of a past age; a nostalgic piece of history that new technology has rendered obsolete.
But to the happy surprise of antique dealers and collectors, the last 10 years or so have witnessed a resurgence in the LP. Salisbury resident and vinyl aficionado Matthew Gunby said vinyl offers a unique experience that has been lost in our digital world.
“There’s something very special about sitting and taking the time to put on what you think you want to hear, instead of just hitting a shuffle button and skipping through songs,” he said, adding that he thinks younger generations have discovered and started to love that same experience.
“There’s just something really wonderful about that,” he said.
While sales in the music industry have been led by digital downloads from iTunes and streaming services, such as Spotify and Apple Music, vinyl sales hit a peak in 2015 with a 10th straight year of growth and a record-setting 12 million units sold, according to Nielsen, a global information company that keeps track of what consumers buy.
Gunby considers himself primarily an avid collector, but he’s also a buyer and seller of used records at Season’s Best Antiques of Salisbury, where his offerings are in frequent demand from enthusiasts.
“They’re selling very, very well. Exceptionally well,” said Veronica James, an employee and vendor at Season’s Best. “There’s a lot of repeat business because Matt is always bringing new things in.”
Most of Gunby’s profits go directly back into filling his collection, he said, which began when he purchased Michael Jackson’s Beat It and has been expanding since.
“I eat my own profits all the time, spending it on my own collection,” he said. “The passion for me is in the music and not the money. I consider myself about 75 percent collector and 25 percent seller.
“I just never stopped buying them,” he said.
Sue Hetherington, who operates Whistling Swan Antiques in Salisbury, with her husband, Bill, said the phenomenon is fascinating when you stop and think about it.
“CDs and online music are just easier,” she added with a laugh. “I mean, you have to flip these records every 20 minutes, but they just see something in it.”
Surpassing even the revenue generated from on-demand, ad-supported services (such as the free-to-use tiers of YouTube and Spotify), which earned $385 million in 2015, vinyl sales raked in $416 million, a 36 percent increase from 2014, according to the Record Industry Association of America, a trade group that represents the U.S. recording industry.
Bill Hetherington said while their vinyl-hunting customers come from all different demographics, most of them can be roughly split into two groups.
“We have a lot of baby boomers trying to fill the holes in their collections,” he said, noting that some of them have been stopping in nearly every week since Whistling Swan opened to see what new albums are being offered. “But then there’s a lot of younger people that maybe just discovered some of this music.”
Sue was quick to point out that many of those high school and college-age customers knew at least as much as she did about some of the bands they sought.
“They can tell us things about that music and groups that even I didn’t know, and I lived through that era,” she said, adding how pleased she was that younger people were discovering the music she grew up with.
It isn’t just older music that consumers are buying, either. Although Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, was No. 7 in 2015, modern artists such as Mumford & Sons, The Black Keys, Jack White and Lana Del Rey all have albums ranked among the top 10 of vinyl album sales since 2010, according to Nielsen.
While Jory Pryor, 25, of Salisbury, does have some vinyl copies of older music – Michael Jackson's Thriller, and the Notorious B.I.G. were two that came to mind – it's mostly newer music that he purchases on vintage technology.
“I only buy records that have really impacted me in my life, my favorite albums,” he said. “You get the art with it, and I feel like it's easier to enjoy when you can actually have the music in your hands.”
Even though records were already being replaced by cassettes when he started buying music, Pryor said there's something special about the sound they provide that isn't available elsewhere.
“It's funny, but the scratchiness of vinyl is almost cherished now,” he said. “The sound is warmer and you get more nuances, phonically, than I think you do when you listen to music online.”
