Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 11, 1993 TAG: 9306110103
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS. LENGTH: Medium
March, whose father ran a jukebox business, is one of a dwindling number of merchants who still sell vinyl records to diehard audiophiles, collectors, disc jockeys and other specialty buyers. But even March now stocks audio cassettes and CDs - the "& Such" of his sign - beside his mostly fossilizing collection of 4,000 new and used records.
"I hate to see it go," said March, 52. "We just have that nostalgic association with vinyl, with the covers. As a kid, I got my little Magnavox record player for Christmas and I got a 10-inch record of Fats Waller. That's what I really get a kick out of."
Introduced at the turn of the century, records provided the first commercially successful alternative to live music. Combined with another new medium, radio, the grooved platters gave rise to the American recording industry.
But since the 1970s, records have been drowned out, first by cassettes and now compact discs. In 1992, only about 22 million records were sold for a scant 2.5 percent share of total sales in recorded music, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.
Only 10 years earlier, before CDs, 381 million records sold for a 68 percent share of the record-cassette market.
CDs, which have flooded the market since the late 1980s, are widely praised for their digital sound quality, durability, convenience and portability. Yet a shrinking circle of aficionados still favor what they describe as the warmer or brighter analog sound of records, especially when new and played on high-quality equipment.
Others prefer the sound mixing and authentic feel of vintage vinyl. "Like for an old Beatles record, I would much rather drag out my old vinyl version, with some ticks and pops, than hear the CD version," said Rick Leab, a drummer from Lanesborough, Mass. who has collected about 12,000 records.
Some disc jockeys still prefer to work with 12-inch records, which carry a single song for commercial play. It takes them a moment to flip over a record, like a master chef cooking pancakes, and plunk down the needle on the right spot. No button punching. No waiting for whirring to end.
"Vinyl will never die," said Ed Dubiski, a Pittsfield disc jockey on a buying binge at Toonerville Trolley Records.
Toonerville sells everything from used James Taylor albums for $3 to the latest by Absolut Null Punkt for $28 in a genre endearingly known as "industrial noise."
Much punk music finds its way to vinyl. "It's the punk resistance to what everyone else is doing," said March.
Gary O'Brien, manager of Berkshire Record Outlet, said major recording labels, which once built their prosperity on records, helped bring about their demise by prematurely ending production in favor of higher priced CDs.
But Tim Sites, a spokesman for the Recording Association, said its members are simply responding to a dramatic shift by consumers.
As demand changes, some even foresee a fade-away future for cassette tapes, which peaked at 530 million sold in 1990.
by CNB