For many, vinyl is still considered the domain of brandy-sipping classical aesthetes and basement-dwelling mouth-breathers, an over-romanticized relic of an era long gone. But as

In Rainbows: Perhaps you’ve heard of it?

MP3s begin to render compact discs obsolete, vinyl—with both its aesthetic possibilities and its warmer sound—is becoming a viable antidote to the relative sterility of digital sound files. And while artier bands may inspire well-heeled fans to cough up large sums for deluxe packages—Portishead’s Third is available in a double-vinyl-plus-USB set—there’s been a populist resurgence as well. The Raconteurs’ March announcement of their all-formats Consolers of the Lonely sneak attack encouraged people to buy the LP. Elvis Costello’s latest, Momofuku, isn’t coming out on CD at all—digital and vinyl only. And in April, Warner Bros. reissued Metallica’s back catalog—starting with Ride the Lightning and Kill ’Em All—on vinyl, offering fans a choice between a standard 33 ¹/_³ record or a 45 pressed on premium 180-gram vinyl.

When we did the Cream box set on vinyl three years ago, I think we only pressed 3,500. And we do 5,000 of Against Me! and they’re all sold out?” All of which suggests that a generation that’s known almost nothing but iPods for its entire adolescence is embracing the format. There is talk that Sony BMG will begin reissuing select back-catalog titles on vinyl, as well.

with stacks of compact discs. “I stopped buying CDs once I discovered downloading,” he says. “MP3s made CDs completely irrelevant to me.”

then they do, and ten years later, 10,000 people want those 1,000 records.”

“Vinyl is a way of saying you’re serious about music,” says Nashville-based collector James Cathcart, 26. “[People talk] about vinyl’s tonal warmth or whatever, but it’s a commodity-fetishist thing, too. It’s about having this clunky thing with a great big picture on it, something you can hold in your hands.” Cathcart has been amassing LPs and seven-inches since he was 13, but has little interest in complementing his record collection

Charles Maggio, who hollered in the hardcore band Rorschach and currently operates Gern Blandsten Records (the New Jersey–based label responsible for early releases by Radio 4 and Ted Leo), has been collecting punk vinyl for more than two decades. “Punk is, by default, a collector’s genre,” he explains. “It’s never mass-produced, because of limited budgets and limited exposure. You know, bands say, ‘We’ll do 1,000, and if we sell those, we’ll be lucky.’ And

“I think the CD will go the way of the

Neither Radiohead nor NIN formally partnered with a record company on their vinyl releases, although a handful of (mostly independent) labels remained faithful to the format even during the rise of the CD. Seattle’s Sub Pop includes with most new LPs sold a code that allows buyers to log on to the label’s website and download—for free—a digital version of the same album. According to sales and marketing VP Andy Kotowicz, vinyl accounts for around 6 or 7 percent of the label’s total sales. “Sub Pop started by releasing vinyl. We’ve been doing it pretty steadily for almost 20 years,” Kotowicz says. “Vinyl is like a cockroach.”

eight-track. But I can guarantee

“When we started listening back to Metallica on CD, we thought there was something left behind on the [master] tapes,” explains Tom “Grover” Biery, who oversees all vinyl releases at Warner Bros., including upcoming Green Day and Red Hot Chili Peppers reissues, as well as current titles like the new Black Keys album. “We listened to an import 12-inch of ‘One,’ and our jaws dropped. We were like, ‘Well, we’ve never heard it like that.’”

LPs will still be made.”JOSH BIZAR, MUSIC DIRECT

Paul Mawhinney searches in vain for Chicago VII.

Retailers are beginning to notice. Since 2000, CD sales have dropped by 35 percent, while vinyl sales appear to be on the upswing: Time reported that 990,000 albums were sold on vinyl last year, up 15.4 percent from 2006. (SoundScan doesn’t keep a reliable count of vinyl sales.) Music Direct, a purveyor of turntables and new and reissued vinyl, has seen the format’s sales increase by more than 300 percent in the last three years. Josh Bizar, the company’s director of sales, finds the turnaround shocking.

Even though vinyl only comprises a small percentage of Warner’s total sales, Biery thinks the consumer base for records is growing. “[The audience] has become a lot more broad,” he says. “Three years ago I would have said audiophile guys, collectors. But now it’s too big for that. There have to be new people buying vinyl. We sold 5,000 copies of [New Wave by] Against Me! on vinyl, and that blows my mind.

“It’s almost unmanageable,” he says. “We’ve seen a small explosion in music lovers under 25 running toward a format that was pronounced dead before they were born.” Bizar doubts that CDs will even exist in the marketplace 20 years from now. “I think the CD will go the way of the cassette or the eight-track. But I can absolutely guarantee that LPs will still be made.”

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