who was buying new/current rock albums on vinyl in the 90s?

[willbo]

I've got a memory of being in HMV(etc) in the mid-late 90s and seeing a handful of current rock albums new on vinyl - Oasis' What's The Story and maybe a Blur and Verve one as well. It's got me thinking. How many rock albums were released new on Vinyl in the 90s? How cool were the people buying them?

[Brundle-Fly]

Very collectible. Now's the time to cash in though.

[Rizla]

I bought What's The Story on vinyl at the time, then sold it a few years later for about 3 quid. A copy in good nick is now supposedly worth a fair bit, circa £200. Same goes for a lot of stuff from that era, because the vinyl runs were very low, I believe around 20,000 copies, and most of them had so many lines of gear racked out and bifters rolled on them that the sleeves were worn out. 1997 was, profit-wise, the UK music industry's peak, the vast majority of sales being CDs (lower manufacturing costs than vinyl but still sold at a premium), including yer boomers re-purchasing the sounds of their youth.

[daf]

Off the top of my head  . . .

KLF - Chill Out (1990)  +  Space (bootleg) (1990)
The Lilac Time - And Love For All (1990)
The Shamen - En-Tact (1990)  +  En-tact (US remix) (1991)  +  Progeny (1991) 
XTC - Nonsuch (1991)
Fluke - Out (In Essence) (1991)
KLF - The White Room (1991)
The Orb - UFOrb (1992)
The Irresistible Force - Flying High (1992)
The Shamen - Boss Drum (1992)  +  Different Drum (1993)
Fluke - Six Wheels on My Wagon (1993)
Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works Volume II (1994)
The Shamen - Axis Mutatis / Arbor Bona, Arbor Mala (1995)
Oasis - What's The Story (1995)
Oasis - Be Here Now (double vinyl boxed set)  (1997)
Oasis - The Masterplan (10 inch boxed set) (1998)
Mansun - Six (1998)
XTC - Apple Venus (1999)

[Pauline Walnuts]

Apart from a terrible terrible 3/6 months in 1996* I kept to the vinyls, unfortunately I was getting the exciting experimental forward stuff like Mouse on Mars and Post rock stuff, nice, but it goes for a lot less than the more mainstream stuff. Didn't really get much straight ahead rock in the 90s though.

I bought Labradfords self titled album on CD, oh, my shame.

[willbo]

I never really thought about electronic stuff because I always expected electronic artists to be on vinyl because of dj culture and stuff, it never surprised me to see a new FSOL album on vinyl for example, but Oasis took me aback.

[PaulTMA]

I made my brother by Morning Glory on vinyl (he had claimed Oasis purchases which was fine be me) due to the presence of the bonus track.  Dunno if that made him win any cool points at all, I think at least one of two people got a tape of the elusive Bonehead's Bank Holiday.

I picked up both Elastica and Supergrass' debuts on vinyl due to the presence of the bonus 7"s or flexis.  These things did appear to matter at the time.  Actually, those were both pretty good bonuses so no regrets there

[purlieu]

How many rock albums were released new on Vinyl in the 90s?

Everything on a major label and most things on the larger indies. There were plenty of CD-only releases by the mid '90s, but they were still generally put out by artists/labels who couldn't afford other formats, as well as those that vinyl didn't suit (Pete Namlook was notoriously anti-vinyl which is why there were no FAX albums ever released on vinyl, largely because there were so many 30+ minute tracks; by the late '90s, a lot of experimental electronic stuff was moving into pure digital sound and thus vinyl didn't really make sense). It wasn't until the early-to-mid '00s that bigger labels really stopped producing vinyl, and then it was only a couple more years before sales started increasing and the format reappeared anyway.

There will be a few exceptions, of course - Dizzy Heights by the Lightning Seeds never had a vinyl release, and Tilt was only put out as a run of 500 promotional LPs; Dubstar's Make it Better from 2000 was CD and cassette-only - and, particularly by the end of the decade, runs were small, rarely more than a couple of thousand, but you'll be hard pushed to find many big albums from then that weren't released on all three major formats. Which is ideal, as we're now moving into a format wars era which is such a pain in the arse. Artists and labels are choosing not to put stuff out on CD because of its perceived obsolescence, despite it still outselling vinyl by roughly 5:1 in the UK (and that includes "all four colours bundle for only £65" offers that artificially inflate vinyl sales), and I really long for the time when you could just buy what you want in the format you wanted without all the pain in the arse bullshit around it.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

I was, I only started buying CDs round about 1999.

[Art Bear]

Yep, had the first three Oasis albums on vinyl, gave them to Oxfam in the great vinyl clearout of '08. Still have Elastica, Labradford, Stereolab, Blur, Shellac, etc, etc. The ex- got the Supergrass and the Portishead though, gutted.

[Art Bear]

The trend towards vinyl/download only disturbs me too. If I want a physical copy of a new release I am much more likely to buy it on CD than vinyl, especially if they've done something beyond a standard jewelcase, partly because it'll be cheaper and more convenient, but also because most new stuff sounds terrible on vinyl.

[holyzombiejesus]

Everything on a major label and most things on the larger indies.

Don't think that's true, to be honest. It was the indies who stuck by vinyl and the majors who deserted it. I only ever bought CDs if there was no lp and that was almost always for bands on major labels. I worked in a record shop for much of the 90s and the  majority of indies stood by vinyl.

Also, I wonder if the 'CDs outsell records by 5:1' is skewed by things like Adelle and Ed Sheeran. Anecdotally, the shops I buy from have reduced their CD stock so much that I can't even remember where it is. When I go to Piccadilly, it's really rare to see anyone buying a CD.

I never stopped buying records, not because of any notion of coolness but because they're just what I'd always bought. Especially for indie stuff, vinyl just seemed to suit it more.

[purlieu]

Don't think that's true, to be honest. It was the indies who stuck by vinyl and the majors who deserted it. I only ever bought CDs if there was no lp and that was almost always for bands on major labels.

Maybe a slight exaggeration on my part, but from my obsessive trawling around Discogs over the years I've rarely come across any 'rock' (in its broadest terms) albums from the '90s that weren't available on vinyl. Not calling you a liar, just surprised. Even crap like the Supernaturals and Cast was released on vinyl at the end of the '90s.

Also, I wonder if the 'CDs outsell records by 5:1' is skewed by things like Adelle and Ed Sheeran.

Possibly, but the latest Manics album only sold 6,000 vinyl copies of its 27,000 total, so I'd say there's still a sizeable CD-buying public when it comes to non-pop stuff. I think we'll see it levelling out soon, simply because most people still buying CDs seem pretty committed to the format and are probably unlikely to be won over by another format.
It largely doesn't add to the stats, but I actually follow a hell of a lot of CD-only DIY labels these days and my vinyl collection is pretty small simply because just about everything I want still comes out on CD. I keep expecting my habits to shift to vinyl out of necessity and it's just not happened yet. FSOL put out two CD-only albums this year, a lot of albums released on ECM still get no vinyl release.

Anecdotally, the shops I buy from have reduced their CD stock so much that I can't even remember where it is. When I go to Piccadilly, it's really rare to see anyone buying a CD.

Having not been in an indie for the longest time the only comparison I probably have is HMV, but the number of customers looking at vinyl and CD always seems to be fairly equal in them. I'm always surprised that there are often teenagers buying CDs, having assumed it was largely middle aged people these days.

I never stopped buying records, not because of any notion of coolness but because they're just what I'd always bought. Especially for indie stuff, vinyl just seemed to suit it more.

I hate the fact that it even needs to be qualified, but there really is a certain stigma around... well, the whole thing really, these days. Again, I miss the days when things would come out on most or all major formats and you could just pick the one you actually wanted to listen to. I've been on the end of some really sneery and even occasionally angry remarks by saying I still largely buy CDs - and I see people being similar about vinyl fans - and it's just fucking ridiculous. I dislike the way labels try to fleece collectors by putting out loads of different colour variants, but otherwise, as long as people are buying and enjoying the music, why does anyone even care?

[Pauline Walnuts]

Maybe a slight exaggeration on my part, but from my obsessive trawling around Discogs over the years I've rarely come across any 'rock' (in its broadest terms) albums from the '90s that weren't available on vinyl. Not calling you a liar, just surprised. Even crap like the Supernaturals and Cast was released on vinyl at the end of the '90s.Possibly, but the latest Manics album only sold 6,000 vinyl copies of its 27,000 total, so I'd say there's still a sizeable CD-buying public when it comes to non-pop stuff. I think we'll see it levelling out soon, simply because most people still buying CDs seem pretty committed to the format and are probably unlikely to be won over by another format.
It largely doesn't add to the stats, but I actually follow a hell of a lot of CD-only DIY labels these days and my vinyl collection is pretty small simply because just about everything I want still comes out on CD.

Isn't that mostly people putting out file/MP3 albums, and have a quick run of CD/CDr/Taapes for the old folks who like something physical/want to support the artist buy actually buying it?

Actually, isn't that true for everything these days?

[gilbertharding]

I was buying everything on vinyl up until about 1998. Apart from a period around 1990-1992 when I bought a fair amount of stuff on cassette - due to mainly either listening to stuff in the car or on a walkman, and the fact that the record shop in St Neots where I worked mainly sold cassettes at that time. I have Nevermind on tape, and Loveless, and Screamadelica, and many many more.

I'm still buying CDs too - but not many these days. My current car has a CD player though, but perhaps my next one won't. I'll have to rip more of my cds and put them on my phone to play them in the car then, I guess.

[daf]

most new stuff sounds terrible on vinyl.

Pretty much all of the new vinyl I've heard have been muffled brick-walled non-fill plagued discs of crap. Since they shut most of the pressing plants 20 years ago, I swear they just forgot how to press the buggers properly!

And the heaviness of the vinyl (everything has to be 180 sodding grams!!) makes absolutely no difference to the sound - those floppy "Dynaflex" pressings from the 70's are leagues ahead in dynamics (plus they're all analogue of course!)

[Pauline Walnuts]

What causes this non-fill, they managed to make records for 60 years before it became a problem? Too hot or too cold presses? Just pressing too fast?

[purlieu]

Isn't that mostly people putting out file/MP3 albums, and have a quick run of CD/CDr/Taapes for the old folks who like something physical/want to support the artist buy actually buying it?

Surprisingly not, I've seen some pretty daft arguments go up when a release doesn't have a physical version. A lot of ambient stuff is on CD and seems to be genuinely listened to, labels like Carpe Sonum, TXT, Fantasy Enhancing etc. seem to have a lot of "I won't buy it if it's only a download" type fans. In fact, TXT only launched a Bandcamp page very recently, and a lot of that stuff isn't on streaming either. In my experience, people buying these kinds of CDs are probably more likely to play them than vinyl, which has an aesthetic quality that makes it appeal to collectors. Other than fancy deluxe editions, there's comparatively little of interest in the CD's packaging.

[kngen]

Kept buying hip-hop on vinyl throughout the 90s but, by christ, they really started to take the piss as album lengths became longer and longer. Cramming 60 mins onto a single LP like Redman's Dare Iz a Darkside made it sound fucking awful. By the time you get to the latter tracks on each respective side, it starts to sound like AM radio.

That said, I've (smugly) still got my Wu-Tang and associated solo acts' releases on vinyl, and those go for ludicrous amounts of money now, so maybe there wasn't as much vinyl being shifted as you'd expect, given the genre.

[another Mr. Lizard]

Got my first CD player in 1990, having amassed a sizeable vinyl collection since the mid 70s. However, I only got it because some CDs were beginning to include bonus tracks and other content, and since CD-only releases began to be mentioned in the music press. But records remained my favoured format for some time well into the 90s - and occasionally the LP, not the CD, would have the extra tracks (first Oasis album, Sonic Youth's 'Dirty', etc). Still have all my vinyl purchases from then, including Pavement, Superchunk, Screaming Trees, stuff on Homestead/Sub Pop/Blast First, and plenty of post-shoegaze/pre-Britpop material from that wave of British bands who didn't seem to be rammed together as part of a named collective movement, circa 91-93.

[Pranet]

For a time in the 90s I'd buy whatever format the music I wanted was available on in the shop I was in, be it CD cassette or vinyl. I remember people asking me why I was buying a record as opposed to a CD or cassette. I quite often bought 7 inch singles because they were so cheap.

Then in the later half of the 90s I was poor so only bought second hand stuff, again in whatever format it was available in.

Don't often buy physical music now mainly because I don't have much space for it, I'd quite like to.

[peanutbutter]

How much was a CD player in 1995? We didn't have one in our house until either the PlayStation or PC (both 99, cant remember which was first). Along with a small set of audiophiles sticking to vinyl I assume CD players were either cost  prohibitive up to a certain point and then beyond that there was a patch of time where people assumed they costed a lot more than they did too.

[purlieu]

I got my first CD player for Christmas 1995 as part of a boombox thing with twin tape and radio on it, it was a cheap one off the market that started making that horrible glitchy noise on some CDs after a couple of years, probably cost about £80 back then. Used my parents' hi-fi for a while after, it was only when I went to uni and was able to buy a little portable CD/tape/radio unit for about £25 that I realised how expensive things were back in the early '90s.

[badaids]

I was buying vinyl but still attracted to CDs and so, stupidly, bought plenty of CDs that I could have got for cheaper on Vinyl, and would get more pleasure from today. 

I'm gutted that I bought the following on CD and not vinyl:

Gene - Olympian.
All those Radiohead records.
Pumpkins - Mellon Collie.
FSOL - Dead Cities.
Modern Life is Rubbish and Parklife.
All my Suede records.
Adam F - Colours.
Ladies and Gentlemen we are Floating in Space.

I'm so happy that I bought on vinyl:

Primal Scream - Vanishing Point.
Verve - A Storm and Heaven and A Northern Soul.
SFA - all the early records.
The Cure - Wild Mood Swings.  A terrible record but it's worth a fortune today.
Broadcast -Work and Non Work.
Gorky's - ALL.
Tindersticks - ALL.
All the early BoC records.

[purlieu]

I'm gutted that I bought the following on CD and not vinyl:
FSOL - Dead Cities.

I'm surprised - it was structured to be played seamlessly start to finish. The vinyl version has three gaps which kind of ruin the point of gapless albums for me (see also: ISDN and, to a lesser extent, Lifeforms). It was also mixed to 16/44 DAT and mastered to CDr so there's no audio benefit. It's an example of an album that I think is actually genuinely suited to a particular medium in a way that you can't recreate with others. Although you do get some intro / outro sections at the starts and ends of sides that the CD version lacks.

The vinyl version was re-pressed this year, by the way, so it's not (too) expensive to get ahold of these days.

[Dusty Substance]

I've still got my original vinyl copy of SFA's Radiator. Think I paid £8.99 for it. I remember the guy in the shop enthusiastically selling it to me, calling it a "modern classic". Played it when I got home and didn't think much of it and I probably immediately went back to listening to Chemical Brothers on repeat. Now I get it - Radiator's a bloody good album and I'm very pleased to have kept it all these years.

Also picked up Tellin' Stories by The Charlatans around the same time which I've still got too. A lesser album but one that I preferred over Super Furries at the time.

[Echo Valley 2-6809]

Some albums are being delayed by months where labels insist on releasing vinyl, CD, download (and cassette?) simultaneously, because there aren't anough vinyl pressing plants now.
The vinyl boom might not last much longer anyway, but why not have two sales drives for the CD/downloads and the vinyl (with extra artwork) later?

[holyzombiejesus]

Some albums are being delayed by months where labels insist on releasing vinyl, CD, download (and cassette?) simultaneously, because there aren't anough vinyl pressing plants now.
The vinyl boom might not last much longer anyway, but why not have two sales drives for the CD/downloads and the vinyl (with extra artwork) later?

Because vinyl isn't (or at least shouldn't be) some gimmicky, deluxe 'collector's  format. It's what people have been choosing to listen to their music on for around 100 years. There's the occasional record that I buy because it's fancy and feels like a nice thing to but I generally buy LPs (and 7"s if anyone still bothers with them) because that's what I've done for the majority of my life. What they should do (which of course they won't) is have the presses geared up for new releases and make coloured represses of Rumours go to the back of the queue. Just seen the list for Black Friday (which is coming on the back of 2 RSDs and a 'Love Record Stores Day' and the list is, as usual, riddled with utter shit. Horrible tat. It's cunts doing drizzle coloured Deacon Blue represses/ red vinyl pressings of If You're Feeling Sinister and the stupid arseholes buying them that's fucking things over.

[SpiderChrist]

Some albums are being delayed by months where labels insist on releasing vinyl, CD, download (and cassette?) simultaneously, because there aren't anough vinyl pressing plants now.
The vinyl boom might not last much longer anyway, but why not have two sales drives for the CD/downloads and the vinyl (with extra artwork) later?

I had the discussion with a friend of mine who complained that my anti-RSD stance was "trendy posturing" and that record shops (as opposed to stores) relied on RSD for income that kept them in business. My argument was that RSD stifled smaller independent releases by clogging up the pressing plants. He wasn't having it.

[holyzombiejesus]

He's a prick then. You can tell him that from me. Let's see how well the shops do when the racks are bulging with wank like Hall & Oates reissues and £33 Clash interview discs that they had to buy outright rather than 'sale or return'. It's not like RSD is even that popular any more. In Manchester, the queues had apparently gone by 9am.

Also, if your business model is relying on limited (15,000 copies) versions of the latest Lana Del Ray album on blue vinyl with a different sleeve selling at £50, you're probably in need of a rethink.