Vinyl Returns

Some are surprised to see record stores carrying vinyl again. Well, vinyl records never went away, they just got flooded underneath the CD craze of the 1990s.

CDs made buying and storing music easier than handling a vinyl, but many people noticed right away that the sound quality was not as good on CD than on vinyl.

Bands and artists like Pearl Jam and Neil Young continued to release their work on vinyl throughout the '90s. Record companies released vinyl in that decade only in limited quantities due to the demand in compact disks.

When the mp3 music format came at the tail end of the '90s, CD sales began to slump. Some blamed file sharing networks like Napster while others said the economic boom of the decade had gone bust and disposable income was no longer as prevalent.

Perhaps both arguments are true, but the fact the music industry had no idea what to do about it has been evident since.

Now they seemed to have figured out a new way to sell albums by doing it the old way. They are now selling vinyl again, and it is becoming popular among fans and bands alike.

Many labels have begun to re-issue their back catalogue of popular records. Many new bands offer a digital mp3 version of their albums for fans to download after buying the record.

Portishead released their latest album on both CD and vinyl, the latter being offered also as a deluxe box-set with a special key to download bonus tracks and a documentary.

The Hold Steady's last album contained a bonus track on the vinyl version. Nine Inch Nails' 1999 release, "The Fragile" had bonus tracks on the vinyl version that were not available on the CD release.

My Morning Jacket's latest release offers both the CD and the vinyl combined into one package.

The idea of containing an digital download code for consumers is a good way to push vinyl sales. The problem with vinyl is that is can easily warp and scratch. They are not as durable as a CD, but with the digital option consumers can still have a copy even if their album is destroyed.

Stores are showing the trend as well. Stores are now carrying turntables and online shops such as Amazon.com feature vinyl options for customers to buy.

SoundScan estimated that vinyl sales went up by 15 percent in 2007, though sales has decline by 43 percent between 2000 and 2006.

It is an interesting time for music formats. CD players are being replaced with mp3 players and iPods. Yet, the digital download does lack the intimacy of holding an album's artwork and reading liner notes.

Whether this is a fad or not, the new popularity in vinyl is interesting and looks like the format's predicted death years ago have been proven wrong.