January 9, 2009 at 02:38:00 PM | more stories by this author
The B-52s, Guns 'n' Roses, and Metallica are still big news in the world of vinyl.
From Nielsen Soundscan by way of the LA Weekly and Rolling Stone, here are the top 10 vinyl sellers in 2008. I've added the years they were originally released and what I imagine was going through the minds of vinylphiles when they bought them.
10. Radiohead, OK Computer, 1997. Great production--trippy artwork looks great under the lava lamp.
9. Metallica, Death Magnetic, 2008. Maybe the vinyl version won't be overcompressed to death.
8. Fleet Foxes, Fleet Foxes, 2008. Pitchfork likes it, so it must be good.
7. Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon, 1973. Remember those posters?
6. Neutral Milk Hotel, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, 1998. With the LP, I can pretend I was hip to this record when it originally came out.
5. Portishead, Third, 2008. See number 8.
4. B-52s, Funplex, 2008. Remember that all-night dance party we had back in '82?
3. Guns 'n' Roses, Chinese Democracy, 2008. This will be a collectors' item someday.
2. The Beatles, Abbey Road, 1969. Now I can replace the copy my daughter stole when she went off to college.
1. Radiohead, In Rainbows, 2008. I feel kind of guilty about paying one cent for the download.
Overall, vinyl accounted for a whopping 0.1 percent of all music sales last year! How long before preloaded microSD cards surpass vinyl to become the third-most-popular music format?
Originally posted at Digital Noise: Music and Tech.


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