TESCO SUPERMARKET IS TO START SELLING VINYL ALBUMS AFTER THE SELL OUT-SUCCESS OF IRON MAIDEN’S LATEST LP, THE BOOK OF SOULS
The success of the Iron Maiden LP trial on 55 Tesco’s shops incited the firm to start selling vinyl.
20 album records will be made available to buyers in 40 stores across the UK by Christmas. This includes Bob Marley’s Greatest Hits; The Rolling Stones — Sticky Fingers; The Beatles — Sgt Pepper; Elvis Presley — 30 Number Ones; Bruce Springsteen — Born In The USA; Foo Fighters — Greatest Hits and Radiohead — The Bends.
The vinyl albums will cost from between £12 to £20.
This movement can be explained after significant year on year increase in vinyl sales. Sales went up by 50% in 2014 according to the British Phonographic Institute (BPI). Tesco Music Buyer Michael Mulligan said, “Vinyl is definitely coming back with demand growing stronger year by year and we think there will be a big demand in the UK this Christmas as music fans look for trendy gifting options.”
Some already established vinyl sellers affirm that this new decision will have a positive impact on sales as Tesco is only stocking a limited range of records. Bev Nipps, second hand seller said, “Once a first time buyer becomes a committed record collector he will be seeking to broaden his range and tastes.”
On the other side, some producers claim that Tesco’s initiative will damage the format in the long run. Miguel Colmenares, producer, and founder of Colectivo Futuro said, “It will force the few pressing plants available to prioritize bigger orders from the major labels to reissue records that are already widely available.” He concluded saying that, “What will end up happening is a lot of the indie labels will be forced to turn to other formats for their releases to avoid waiting of over a year to get their releases.”
The move by Tesco comes off the back of revival album sales. After a growth at just over 205,000 vinyl albums in 2007, UK in 2014 reached almost 1.3 million the highest annual total since 1995 — according to BPI.
A different approach to music is claimed to be happening. Jack Nicols, a secondhand seller said, “Vinyl are memories. If you are 16 and you buy your first record, your girlfriend will put a scratch on it and in 30-years time when you listen to it again, that scratch will remind you of that time.”
Pauline Nez, a vinyl buyer said, “Vinyl brought me back a certain musical culture that I forgot because I was too focused in recent music and records allowed me to come back to classics.”
Finally, the record format has whole artwork and sound quality, which seem to recover appreciation. Bev Nipps affirmed, “The sound, the quality of vinyl are a lot more warmer.” Regarding the artwork Miguel said, “It is a piece of art. I can be something you put on your wall because it is so nice.
