[deafmetal]

I was dragged into an Urban Outfitters while killing time before a movie, so I browsed the OST vinyl section of the store. I already knew Hot Topic was stocking a few soundtracks, but I am now reading about Barnes & Noble exclusive variants of soundtrack albums as well.

What do you make of all this? Short-lived fad or the new normal? Everybody likes to joke that hipsters don't actually listen to the vinyl they buy, but I'm curious what is actually going on out there.

[texasvinyl]

They're going to burn people out, too many releases too quickly, too many reissues of reissues, pressing counts are too high, and prices are out of line.

I browsed a Barnes & Noble the other day and could not believe the prices for some of the stuff. There wasn't one decent price in the entire lot.

And the secondhand market is even worse, where people list flexi postcards /3000 that were free for $40, and shame on people doing stupid shit like buying the ZED--a blank disc!-- for $75

We all know where this is headed, just a matter of when not if.

[deathwaltz]

Fad.

[deathwaltz]

Or

[deathwaltz]

Rad

[deathwaltz]

You decide

[texasvinyl]

It's both!

I love the breadth of material available now, but I don't love the prices, and digging for used gems is almost impossible. Even just a couple of years ago you could still find good used stuff for reasonable prices. Now you see thrift shops pricing Michael Jackson records for $50, it's nuts.

[Aremagod]

I await the end of vinyl as a fad along with beards....the mullets of today.

[deafmetal]

Forgot to mention, Urban Outfitters had a small section called "Vintage", which was filled with VG+ 60's/70's rock LP's all with huge "VINTAGE" circle stickers on them.

Unreal.

[deathwaltz]

I'm happy to give exclusive variants to say Newberry comics but not say Barnes and Noble . I'm all for supporting the stores that have supported us and always sold vinyl but I am not going to drive people away from Indie record stores the lifeblood of our business for a quick buck as when we lose indie record stores where will folks buy records...

[oaxaca]

Its a tricky one. Its obviously important to support indie stores, especially brick n' mortar ones. But I guess you can make the case that if vinyl is finding its way into chains frequented by thousands of people daily, your going to reach a whole new level of vinyl sales. And the format's popularity will continue to grow, eventually leading to more choice and cheaper releases (in theory). Even Tesco (UK supermarket) has started selling vinyl! http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/a ... nyl-format

Plus I would have thought the chains can afford to sell vinyl at a cheaper price than indie stores. Though B&N are choosing not to by the sounds of things!

Of course, in an ideal world chains wouldn't exist and we'd have a level playing field for consumers, retailers and labels.