CBS Evening News: In This Digital Age, Vinyl Records Are Making A Comeback

How Vinyl Got Its Groove Back

(CBS) Sixteen-year-old David MacRunnel loves his record collection.

"I have approximately 1,200," he said.

They're all vinyl LPs. Scratch the iPod.

"You experience the music versus hearing the music," MacRunnel said.

For 18-year-old Lukas Glickman, LPs have become an obsession.

"I spend all my money on it. It's a problem," he said.

They're true believers in a vinyl revival. Yes, in this digital age, the LP is coming back from the dead, CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason reports.

The group REM released its latest album on vinyl. So did Bruce Springsteen with his album, "Magic." Madonna's "Hard Candy" came out on vinyl and Coldplay's "Viva La Vida" as well. A new LP costs about $20.

"It's a business decision. The major labels are doing it, because there's a lotta demand for it," said Matt Wishnow, president of Insound, an online indie music store.

Vinyl records now account for nearly half of Insound's sales.

"If you're a music fan and you want to have music 'stuff,' this is the most prized 'stuff' you can have in your music collection," Wishnow said.

The vinyl plastic LP was created in the 1940s.

But by the 1990s, CDs had made LPs all but obsolete.

Two years ago, only 850,000 vinyl albums were sold in the United States. This year that's expected to nearly double.

Record Technology, a California vinyl plant, has a nearly 4-month backlog of orders.

"Have you actually played your album on vinyl?" Mason asked Grammy-Award winning vocalist Shelby Lynne.

"Shoot, yeah!" she said.

Lynne was thrilled when her 10th album was her first to come out on vinyl.

"Because look how big that picture is!" she said. "It's just the whole thing. The touchin' it. The puttin' the needle down."

Wishnow calls it the avid music fan's response to the fleeting nature of the digital age.

"This is not a trend. This is going to be there for a long time," Wishnow said.

Believe it. Vinyl is groovy again.

[CBS News]