Just so you know, Criminal Records isn't closed to my knowledge. I live right down the street. Little 5 Points is where it's at for music in Atlanta. Three stores, Moods Music, Criminal, and Wax n Facts are all hip spots. Plus Beatport on Ponce/Highland isn't too far away either. And Even still, not far away from there is Decatur CD. 

Sounds like it's in survival mode now, I noticed a "Save Criminal Records Benefit at The Cottage in East Atlanta" in November I think, and some talk of a wind-down or closure a few months ago.

::MW

yeah, well that'll suck if it happens

"67 percent of all vinyl albums in the US were sold by indie record stores last year."

Serious question- as opposed to what? Where other than indie stores can anybody find vinyl anymore? What makes up the other 33%? Internet? Direct sales from the merch tables at shows?

@balbers

You'd be surprised where you can find vinyl these days.  I walked into an Urban Outfitters the other day and found an entire section with vinyl, turntables, headphones, and related gear.

A number of big box retail outlets are also carrying vinyl, though I haven't seen that yet with my own eyes.  But, there's some conjecture that big box outlets may actually be responsible for a considerably amt. of the recent growth in the format, but that is not confirmed and I cannot substantiate that (maybe someone else knows something about that)?

And, yes, the internet.

/paul

paul and balbers,

i saw vinyl at 2 best buys over the holiday. it was a miserable selection, VERY disorganized, and really only focused on the giant multi-platinum classic rock and grunge records. I'm not sure if there was anything on the shelf post-2000.

aa

The big box stores will not be offering a huge vinyl selection, except online. Why? Furniture. Vinyl displays are not readily and cheaply available. The racks of records I see at Best Try are poor and makeshift; they don't allow one to browse easily.

Unless it's on sale at Urban Outfitters, it's overpriced. Their selection is also limited & timid. The record players they sell, made by Crosley are garbage; no better than the record player we had in grade school in the '70s. Crosley record players lack decent tone arms, anti-skating, weight adjustable tone arms. They are frequently coupled with speakers worse than earbuds. If you want to hear the full dynamic range vinyl can offer, step up and buy a real stereo with a decent, full functioning record player. Urban Outfitters is all about style, not substance. Most record stores beat Amazon's inflated, above-list prices on vinyl daily with better, human customer service to boot.

Actually, mega-bastard corporate chain HASTINGS is trying to get into the vinyl market. THEY EVEN PUT OUT ADS ON RECORD STORE DAY CELEBRATING RECORD STORE DAY (which was created for indy stores).

Rediculous story chickin little. Get out of the house away from your computer and breathe.  "The main driver of those sales is drying up??"   The main driver of those sales are quality artists and fans.  Criminal is still in Atlanta and there are more vinyl record stores in LA now then there were 2 years ago.

 There are still numerous Vinyl stores in the Detroit area, mainly Detroit Threads, The Record Graveyard and Peoples Records just to name a couple

Fightin' the Good FIGHT!

What does everyone think of this?

Now, let's get the share of vinyl sold to be greater than 1%.

It's raining men.

The place to go in Ft. Wayne Indiana is Neat Neat Neat records!

Boo ya!

Who bought the other 1/3?

Bring on the joy!

The recent popularity of vinyl long play records comes from several sources. One might be the recent "vintage" status of vinyl LP records, as we are now are at least two generations removed from their heyday. Historically, the LP records were at the height of their popularity in the 1980s, then replaced to a large degree by the cassette tape, and, even more so later on by the CD and the mp3 or other compressed digital music formats and related mp3 players. The other source of the popularity of the vinyl records is the popularity of the rap music and its successor hip hop. The DJs who play this kind of music are famous for their sound manipulations such as "scratches", and transitions from one song to the other, which can only be properly implemented manually, using two turntables with vinyl LP records playing on both of them simultaneously.sell old records

It seems that audiophiles nowadays like to patronize indie stores to get their audio record fix, which is interesting and encouraging at the same time because this will mean better business for these stores and keep them from dying out.

Mike - Record Companies