Scratching the Surface on Vinyl
by Justin Carretta
Issue 3, Winter/Spring 2004
Major label bands are suddenly coming out with albums and singles on vinyl. What does this trend mean?
Browsing through the Hot Topic in Syracuse, New York, in mid-October, I decided to take a glance at the vinyl section. Hot Topic doesn't carry a very large selection of vinyl, just a few tucked away in the corner, but out of interest I took a look through the 7" collection. They had one each of a number of singles, but there were four in particular that the store had several copies of. They were:
AFI-"Girl's Not Grey"
Saves the Day- "Anywhere with You"
Thrice/Thursday- "Under a Killing Moon"/"For the Workforce,
Drowning"
The Ataris-"In This Diary"
I looked through them, picked up a copy of the Saves the Day single, paid for it and left. It wasn't until I left that I realized what these bands have in common.
AFI and Saves the Day just signed to Dreamworks Records, Thrice and Thursday signed to Island Records, and the Ataris to Columbia Records; all major labels. Is it just a coincidence that the five most popular bands to put out vinyl singles in the past few months are now on major labels after jumping from an independent label?
It isn't just these five bands either. A quick check of interpunk.com shows that they are selling 3,898 different 7" singles, and 4000+ full-length records. Despite the fact that vinyl was supposed to go the way of the 8-track after CD's became affordable, it seems to be putting up a good fight.
A lot of questions need to be answered to figure out this phenomenon. The first is defining the difference between indie and major labels. What is an indie band? The definition has been changed over the years, especially in the recent past. It used to be that as soon as an independent band decided that they wanted to be on a major label, they were no longer an independent band. The indie kids turned their back on them and listened to something else, or followed them into the mainstream, but no longer considered them independent.
"Major labels, especially now, are more singles-based than ever before," says Tom Hazaert in the online magazine Musicians Assistance. "Larger labels tend to look for the quick return on their investment-- a hook heavy hit radio song they can feed to the masses. Indies, on the other hand, are artist based. Meaning that while the major wants the quick gain, and the quick return on their investment, independent labels tend to be more about building careers for their artists."
The struggle over whether to keep the creative control of an independent label or to run for the money on a major label has haunted bands for years. In his book, Our Band Could be Your Life, Michael Azerrad tracked the progress of 13 indie bands in the 1980s, and among them, only two stayed independent throughout -- the others either signed to a major label or couldn't take the strain of playing for such little money and broke up.
The first reason that independent bands will come out with vinyl is because of price. If you're a big well-known band and want to put out an album, CD is for you. But if you want to record something for cheap, vinyl is a good way of doing it. United Record Pressing charges $.37 per seven-inch record, plus other fees. If you were to buy 1,000 copies of a seven-inch single, it would cost around $714, or 71 cents each. MaxDisk is a leading producer of CD's. The cheapest package available to make CD's is $995 for 1000, and run up to $1555 for a higher quality packaging.
It can't be just price that makes bands go with vinyl. Jonah Bayer, music editor of Alternative Press Magazine, says "I'm not sure (vinyl) ever really went away in the independent scene. I grew up buying all my favorite music on seven-inches and vinyl and was even part of a trading circle where I traded rare hardcore albums on colored vinyl, etc." It never has gone away for indie kids. But try finding vinyl at a chain store like Best Buy or Circuit City. You may have trouble.
Yet if you go to an independent store such as Newbury Comics or Vintage Vinyl, you will be surrounded by it, or just take a peek into your local independent music store. There will most likely be plenty of vinyl in there. Vinyl has never gone away in the indie scene.
"I think that maybe more mainstream acts are pressing their music on vinyl these days, which is fine and all, but as far as the indie scene goes I think it's been fairly consistent for the last decade--probably more for collector value, but for sound quality as well," says Bayer.
So, vinyl is about the indie scene having their own thing. The mainstream is going to make whatever sells the best, which is CD's. The indie community wants to stand out: to be doing things a different way. It's a more pure way of putting out an album. The sound of a vinyl album is more airy, and people say it has more of a "home" feeling. It sounds less slick, less produced. Some prefer the digital recording of CD's, but some people will always prefer the analog recording of vinyl.
The connection that vinyl is an indie way of life has been established. It's cheap to make and is low budget. And as long as kids want to stay independent, that isn't going to change. The indie scene is and will always be a reaction to that. If you want to be the opposite of the mainstream, vinyl is a way of going. Then why are bigger name bands, on major labels, who sell hundreds of thousands of copies of their CD's, suddenly so eager to put out records on vinyl?
To avoid the cries of "sellout" is one scenario. Whether that is the idea of the record label or of the band is unknown. These bands grew up in the indie scene. They, like most of their fans, grew up following independent bands, and don't want to look like they are just chasing after a big payday to their most loyal fans who have followed them since the beginning. Is it all about the cash? It's about reaching a bigger audience, and that's a decision that every band eventually has to make. It's harder than ever to be 100% independent. Now, only four companies (Universal, EMI, Sony/BMG, and Warner Brothers) own all the major record labels and put out about 75% of what is in record stores. Also, a lot of the records they don't put out themselves have distribution deals with independent labels so they still have a part of it.
The definition of mainstream has changed. It no longer means being signed to a major record label. If bands like Thursday and Saves the Day start getting invited to P. Diddy's parties and sounding like Blink 182, then you might say they've become too mainstream. Until then, they aren't sellouts.