Vinyl, the once and future music format

Graeme Thomson

Last Updated: Mar 7, 2011

Radiohead’s new album The King of Limbs may well be a bold snapshot of the future, but not necessarily in the ways you would imagine. Setting aside the thrilling subterfuge surrounding its surprise arrival and the sound of a band continually refusing to echo past glories, the lasting significance of The King of Limbs may lie in defining the ever more polarised ways in which albums are being released.

As the music-buying experience becomes increasingly functional – click, use, dispose – at the opposite extreme, the vinyl album is carving out an identity as a deluxe artefact. Radiohead not only released The King of Limbs last month as an MP3 download, the ruthlessly convenient budget option that has reshaped the music industry, but also as the world’s first “newspaper album”. This comprised two clear 10in vinyl records in a purpose-built record sleeve, several large works of art alongside 625 minuscule pieces, and a full-colour piece of “oxo-degradable plastic” to keep it all together.

Included almost as an afterthought are a compact disc and a download, but the conventional CD release of The King of Limbs isn’t scheduled until the end of March, almost two months after the download and vinyl release. The fact that Radiohead currently offers no middle ground between digital convenience and coffee-table opulence suggests that the “newspaper album” isn’t really about the music. Costing £30 (Dh179), this is vinyl as lifestyle accessory and high-end luxury item.

The death of vinyl has been widely predicted since CDs began to dominate the market in the late 1980s, but it has always maintained a foothold. Previously, demand primarily stemmed from DJs, for whom vinyl remained a necessary format in order to mix and scratch records. It was also popular with audiophiles who simply believe – and it’s hard to argue – that it offers sound quality far superior to that of either CD or MP3, as well as indie kids who liked to think that buying music on 7in vinyl was a sign of individuality and keeping faith with an independent ethos.

At one point about five years ago, 7in singles were outselling CD singles, but the bottom has fallen out of that market, largely thanks to the rise of the MP3. In the first half of 2010, sales of 7in singles fell 36 per cent in the UK. But while the dominance of downloads has consumed the singles market, it has had a galvanising effect on vinyl albums. In an age where the download brings nothing in the way of packaging and no real aesthetic context, bands and record labels have discovered the value in offering deluxe vinyl packages while honing their buzzwords: “luxury”, “special”, “limited edition”, “individually signed”.

Under the auspices of specialised companies such as Modo and Artists in Residence, as well as more familiar names like Warner Brothers and its special projects arm, Rhino, bespoke vinyl releases have become a lucrative and highly popular industry in its own right. In 2007 Sigur Ros released a limited 5,000-copy run of In a Frozen Sea which – as well as featuring vinyl editions of all their albums – included a lavish 32-page book of photographs. Retailing at $150 (Dh551), it quickly sold out.

A recording of Cream’s 2005 reunion concerts at the Royal Albert Hall was released in a luxury embossed green box containing three high-quality vinyl records in picture sleeves and a poster to hang on the wall. A used copy has been available on Amazon for £135. That’s a bargain next to the definitive Pixies box-set Minotaur, which offers all five of the band’s albums on top-quality 180g vinyl, plus gold-plated CDs, DVDs, a 96-page fine art book, an additional 54-page book and two double-sided fold-out posters. Every­ copy is individually numbered and signed. Yours for $495.

These items are clearly designed to adorn your home rather than your record player. Although it’s still slightly odd to see an album sold by weight and width as though it were a piece of livestock, everyone from Beck to Nine Inch Nails to the Strokes’ Julian Casablancas has pounced on the deluxe vinyl bandwagon, and such phrases as “custom-bound storybook” and “handcrafted clamshell box” have become almost clichéd. Next page

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