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By Mike Brennan | MiBiz
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John Dentzman, left, discusses a record with Corner Record Shop manager Joe Senn. Vinyl sales are rebounding as more people switch back to records because they prefer the sound. PHOTO: RACHELE ANGELO

KALAMAZOO — Ben Angelo grew up listening to music from his folks’ giant collection of vinyl records. But when CDs took over the music scene in the 1990s, he left analog recordings behind.

Now Angelo, 31, has joined millions of people who again are buying albums and hybrid turntables that let them download their records to digital devices.

“A lot of young people I know listen to records,” Angelo said. “Records are something we talk about a lot. I’m a huge collector. I inherited my parents’ record collection.”

But he’s is not listening to his LPs on a turntable he inherited from his folks. Rather, Angelo, a part-time disc jockey, plays his records on a “Wheel of Steel,” a Technics 1200 professional DJ turntable.

But not everyone needs a $1,200 turntable to experience the high-fidelity audio vinyl experience, said Joe Senn, store manager at the Corner Record Shop in Kalamazoo.

“Most people feel you should spend around $500 to get a great turntable,” Senn said. “Some real audiophiles will spend $1,000 on a turntable. But entry level is $249 for a good analog rig. These turntables can hook up to a computer and, with special software, you can rip an LP into digital format for portability. Anything under that price is pretty cheap stuff. In audio, you spend more, you get more.”

Vinyl records and turntables make up about 75-percent of The Corner Record Shop’s sales, Senn said. The sweet spot for people buying vinyl and turntables ranges from age 18 to 55. But younger and older people also are returning to records and buying updated turntables. Two-thirds of his customers are male and a third are female, Senn said. He claims to be the only store in Kalamazoo selling new turntables.

There’s also a Corner Record Shop in Grandville, but there’s no legal relationship any longer between the two stores. Both sell vinyl and turntables, though.

Music sales in the U.S. were up 1.6 percent in 2011, according to The Nielsen Company, as digital album and track sales saw dramatic growth through May 8, the latest figures available. While physical albums saw a decline in year-over-year sales from the same period in 2010, digital album and track purchases rose 16.8 percent and 9.6 percent, respectively. Digital retailers received more than half of all music transactions, propelling a 12.4-percent growth in sales over last year.

Also driving vinyl sales are coupons included by the record labels and recording artists with each vinyl purchase that lets buyers download their LPs to smart phones, iPods, tablet- and personal-computers for music on the go.

Other findings by Nielsen include:

• Vinyl sales increased 37 percent in the beginning of 2011 over the same period last year. Vinyl sales also rose 14.2 percent in 2010, although they only accounted for 1.2 percent of physical sales.
• 2011 saw the most successful Record Store Day in the event’s four-year history. Album sales at independent record stores increased over 39 percent the week of Record Store Day (April 16) from the prior week – an increase of 180,000 units – and 12.7 percent compared to 2010.
• Rock is the most popular genre of music, with 32 percent album share, while pop music represents 40 percent of all current digital tracks sold.

New more expensive turntables are also big sellers at Northwood Audio & Video in Grand Rapids.

“We always stocked turntables, but nobody wanted them until a couple of years ago,” said owner Ron Biermacher. “But now there is a renaissance in record sales, largely to people in their 20s. I stock high-quality turntables made in England. My least expensive model is about $450. I tell these kids, ‘You’re spending $50 a week on records — be kind to them.’”

The other age group Biermacher sees shopping in his store for turntables are empty-nesters that discovered boxes of records they’ve had forever.

“It’s a good group for me because they always buy nicer record players,” he said.

John Dentzman, 53, of Breedsville, who was shopping in The Corner Record Shop, said he still has his old turntable from decades ago, but he also bought a new one recently for about $250.

“Just a straight turntable,” he said. “No USB connection.”

Dentzman said he usually stops by the Kalamazoo store a couple times each week to check out all the new vinyl and CD arrivals.

“I saved all my vinyl,” Dentzman said. “I must have about a thousand albums and a thousand CDs. After putting on the vinyl again and listening to it, I think the sound quality is a lot better than CDs.”

He’s right, said Roy Hall, the owner and president of Music Hall, a Long Island, New York audio equipment distributor. Music Hall turntables are stocked at Northwood Audio & Video.

“What happens is when you digitize music, you’re making something like a photograph,” Hall said. “You buy Vogue magazine and the photos are fabulous because the photos have many more dots per inch. With newspapers, you have fewer dots and lower resolution photos.”

Taking this analogy a step further, Hall said CDs deliver music at the rate of 44,100 bits per second, the equivalent of a newspaper photo. Analog music, like on a vinyl record, reproduces up to 200,000 bits per second. The record plays continuous music, not a facsimile of the sound like digital music. Listeners can hear the tambor of the music and the harmonics as they would listening to it live.

“We’ve been arguing this since CDs came out,” Hall said. “Records are just so much better are reproducing music.”

Music Hall sells a $250 turntable with a USB connection, called the Music Hall USB-1. It’s made in China and the Czech Republic. The rig also has a phonograph amp so you can plug your turntable into your computer.

“We’re talking sales of the USB-1 in the thousands each year,” Hall said. “Nationwide, hundreds of thousands of USB turntables are sold annually. We also sell a higher quality turntable for $450. We sold out of that model for Christmas.”

“People are buying vinyl or downloading music these days,” Hall said. “CDs are gone. Music in the future will be downloaded or vinyl. The old technology selling side by side with the new. The difference is the sound quality of vinyl is so much better than what you’d get on downloads today.”

Mike Brennan is senior technology writer for MiBiz. His day job is Editor & Publisher of MITechNews.Com.

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