The Remarkable Return of Vinyl

If you were to have told me five years ago that vinyl records were going to outsell CDs this year, I would have laughed in your face and called you crazy.

There’s no way vinyl records – dead for more than 25 years – would make a supernatural resurgence and reclaim the throne of being the most-popular physical music format in the United States.

And yet, here we are.

In the 1970s, vinyl sales peaked at 530 million units per year and accounted for 66% of all music format revenues, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Then, as cassettes and CDs grew in popularity in the 80s and 90s, the vinyl industry essentially disappeared.

By the mid-90s, vinyl sales accounted for less than 1% of music format revenues. Today, vinyl sales have reached a 30-year high with nearly 42 million records sold in 2021, according to MRC Data.

To help get to the bottom of this unbelievable phenomenon, I spoke with some local record collectors and dealers to get their thoughts on why vinyl has made such a strong comeback, how long it’ll last and just how many records they have in their personal collection.

Lonnie “Big Lon” Salyer is a local and regional music historian in Kingsport, who collects and writes about obscure local and regional 45 rpm and 78 rpm records. According to his website, Big Lon says he “preserves the musical history of Southern Appalachia one dusty old record at a time.”

In addition to collecting records, Salyer hosts a weekly live radio show “Diggin’ With Big Lon” on WBCM Radio Bristol. And just this past summer, he held a record expo for the first time at Fun Fest.

When it comes to the resurgence of vinyl, Salyer thinks there’s several factors in play.

“Folks in my generation who grew up with records in the 70s and 80s are wanting to go back and find the music they had as a kid. When they think back to the sound of vinyl, it just sounds better to them,” Salyer said. “I know people who would rather have that vintage Led Zeppelin record found at a yard sale than buy a new CD.”

Another possible reason for the rise in vinyl popularity could be with the younger generation of music lovers.”

As a format, I think it began as a curiosity as a lot of millennials started listening to music that you just can’t get online or on CD,” Salyer said. “So we’ve got a whole group of people who are chasing after records.”

Vinyl records are manufactured the same way today as they were decades ago and cost about $7 each to make. When sold directly to fans, the bands make $15 or more in profit per record. According to Engadget – an online technology blog network – a band would have to have 450,000 streams on Spotify to match the profit of 100 vinyl sales.

“There’s been an insurgence of folks in the last five years who have discovered vinyl, who now want to get everything in their catalog,” Salyer said. “It may die down a little bit, but the biggest thing is the artists are going to try and keep records relevant because that’s where they’re going to make their highest percentage of profit.”

For the past 18 years, Michael Stevens of Bluff City has been hosting a Toy & Hobby Show at the Appalachian Fairgrounds with the proceeds going to an area charity. Along with a healthy collection of comic books, Stevens always brings hundreds of records to the fairgrounds to sell as well.

His personal collection tops 3,500 records and to this day Steven can remember the first album he purchased with his own money – a Rod Stewart album in 1981. While his mother listened to country music, and his father was a bluegrass fan, Stevens is more of a rock and roll kind of guy who has listened to records for more than 50 years.

“I never thought (vinyl) would come back,” Stevens admits. “I could buy them by the box for $5 at the flea market four to five years ago.”

Today, those same “give-away” albums are going for $20 to $25 each or more if the band is popular, the record is rare or the sleeve has noteworthy art. As a comic book collector, the cover art is almost as desirable as the record itself, Stevens said.

“As a comic book person I enjoy that kind of art, so I’ve bought a few just to look at the covers,” he said. “It’s not the same when you buy a CD. The artwork is so much smaller and you can’t display it like you can a record.”

Paul Davis has been in the record business for nearly 30 years, buying, selling and trading music in all its forms – albums, cassettes, CDs and even some eight-tracks. Davis owns and operates P.D.’s Records, located on Broad Street for the past eight years.

Davis said the recent surge in vinyl popularity has been great for business. “We’ve got the old records interspersed with the new vinyl coming out and now we’re selling a lot of the new vinyl,” Davis said. “It’s been good, but I don’t know how long it’s going to last and we’ll probably hit a saturation point at some time.”

Last year, female artists topped the US charts with Adele’s 30 coming in as the best- selling LP of 2021 – with 318,000 LPs sold, according to MRC Data. Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour came in second place – with 268,000 LPs sold, and Taylor Swift’s Red (Taylor’s Version) came in third – with 260,000 LPs sold.

Locally, Davis said the classics like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones, tend to do better than the newer albums. Plus, many older albums aren’t being reproduced these days, which makes them harder to find and worth more to collectors.

“Most record collectors prefer the old vinyl over the new vinyl. They think it sounds better and they want an original record,” Davis said.