Is vinyl dying???

I've been going back and forth with this one for a while.  Reading various websites, blogs and articles, I get mixed messages.  Stats say that vinyl sales are increasing: according to Nielsen Soundscan, in 2010 vinyl sales increased 14% from the previous year while overall album sales dropped 13%.  But I've also read that a lot of record store owners are questioning how long they can stay in business.  Also at the last record fair I was at I overheard one of the vets saying he lost his store and might not keep coming to the fair because he isn't making the money he used to.  Then recently a local record store, Zulu Records, removed some of their CD racks and converted half their store to vinyl.  So it's mixed messages at best and utter confusion at worst.

What I do know is back when I was actively buying CD's I basically bought from two stores, AandB Sound and Sam The Record Man.  There was a couple of other places that I would go to occasionally but that's it. Two.  And in Vancouver they were side by side.  So I would make one trip and hit both.  Done.  No traipsing around the city, just hit Seymour Ave and start buying.  In Victoria I bought from AandB Sound and Lyle's Place. In Nanaimo it was AandB Sound.  Noticing a trend.  AandB was the go to place for music back then, and they were strategically placed everywhere I happened to need to buy music.  Convenient to say the least.

Well now AandB is gone, couldn't compete with iTunes and the box stores that sold things other than CD's like Future Shop and Best Buy.  Sam went extinct as well, same fate.  Lyle's Place is still around but they have an almost legendary following in Vic and they sold used CD's and vinyl so they weathered the storm.  So as album sales plummeted in the late 90's early 00's, the shops people used to go get CD's died.

So fast forward to how I purchase music now.  I pretty much exclusively buy vinyl and I don't go to just two shops like back in the day.  On the side of the blog is a partial list of record shops in Vancouver.  I haven't finished adding everyone to the list but as you can see we have a good selection.  I go to everyone on the list.  I've also bought from everyone.  So now that I'm buying only vinyl, I buy from more places.  Not because I have to but because I want to.  These shops each offer me a different buying and crate digging experience so I frequent them all.  I also go to used bookstores, thrift stores, garage sales, craigslist ads and flea markets to get my digging fix.  So when you add it all up, even though overall album sales are down, vinyl is rising and the amount of shopping around I do has also risen.

So is vinyl dying?

I guess I'll let you know when I've bought the last record from the last store left open.