Vinyl
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As sales of vinyl grew for the 16th consecutive year in the U.K., Taylor Swift and The Beatles reigned supreme.
Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (via EMI) was the U.K.’s biggest-selling vinyl album of 2023, according to data published by the Official Charts Company, shifting 84,700 copies on the format since its release last October.
The fourth in Swift’s re-recording projects blasted to the biggest opening week for any album in 2023 (with more than 184,000 combined units), and logged three weeks at No. 1 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart. Based on midweek data, it’s set to log a fourth when the weekly chart is published this Friday, Jan. 5.
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Swifties love their wax. 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is one of three Swift LPs to crack the top 10 on the Official Top 40 best-selling vinyl albums of 2023, ahead of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) (No. 4) and Midnights (No. 8), while another five titles impact the year-end chart: Lover (No. 20), folklore (No. 21), reputation (No. 27), evermore (No. 37) and the Record Store Day limited-edition release folklore – The Long Pond Studio Sessions (No. 38).
Completing the podium on the U.K.’s year-end vinyl albums chart is The Rolling Stones’ Hackney Diamonds (Polydor), at No. 2; and Lana Del Rey’s Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd (Polydor), at No. 3, respectively.
Meanwhile, The Beatles’ “last” single “Now And Then” (via Apple Corps), released 53 years after the Fab Four split, is crowned the best-selling vinyl single of 2023 in the U.K.
The song, which began life as a demo recorded by John Lennon in the late 1970s, and which features contributions from all four members of the legendary band, moved 33,000 copies on vinyl since its release, which included 12” and 7” versions, with fans snapping up clear, light blue and blue/white marble editions.
En route to No. 1 on the weekly tally last November, “Now And Then” established a flurry of records, including the longest span between an artist’s first and last No. 1, and the U.K.’s fastest-selling vinyl single of the century.
On the year-end vinyl singles tally, Boygenius’s “The Rest” (Interscope) comes in behind the Beatles, at No. 2, while veteran electronic music wizard Aphex Twin completes the top 3 with “Blackbox Life Recorder 21F” (Warp). British punk icons the Sex Pistols land three vinyl releases in the U.K.’s top 10, all via Virgin: “Anarchy in the U.K.” (No. 5), “Holidays in the Sun” (No. 6) and “Pretty Vacant” (No. 9).
Vinyl is no trifling matter. Data published by the BPI, which operates the OCC in a joint venture with entertainment retail body ERA, shows that the format posted its 16th consecutive year of growth in 2023.Year-on-year growth was 11.7% to 5.9 million units (up to week 51), for the highest annual sales figures for the format since 1990. That’s well up on the 2.9% growth recorded in the previous year.
See the full year-end vinyl charts here.
U.S. vinyl album sales surged in the week ending Dec. 21, with 2.054 million copies sold, according to Luminate. That marks the largest week of 2023 for vinyl albums, and the third-largest week in the modern era — since Luminate began electronically tracking sales in 1991. The only two larger weeks registered since 1991 both […]
Record Store Day’s Black Friday festivities on Nov. 24 yielded big gains for vinyl album sales in the U.S., thanks to hot-selling titles by the likes of Linkin Park, Olivia Rodrigo, The Doors, U2 and Post Malone – all released exclusively for the indie store holiday.
According to Luminate, in the tracking week ending Nov. 30, the top five-selling Record Store Day (RSD) Black Friday album release were Linkin Park’s Lost Demos (on translucent sea blue vinyl), Rodrigo’s four-song Guts: The Secret Tracks (on opaque deep purple vinyl), The Doors’ Live in Bakersfield, California, August 21, 1970 (on double vinyl), U2’s U2 Live: Under a Blood Red Sky (on red vinyl, naturally) and Post Malone’s The Diamond Collection (on clear double vinyl). (See lists below, which are ranked by album sales generated in the week ending Nov. 30.)
The Doors’ Live in Bakersfield set was released on both vinyl and as a two-CD set, and their combined sales across the two configurations make the album the RSD Black Friday top-seller overall for the week.
Typically, many unique and limited-edition titles – both albums and singles – are released for RSD Black Friday celebrations, exclusively sold through independent and small chain music stores. Record Store Day traditionally has its main indie store holiday in the springtime (2023’s edition was held on April 22), followed by a secondary shindig for Black Friday.
In the week ending Nov. 30, U.S. vinyl album sales industry-wide (across all sellers of music, not just indie stores and small chains) grew 67% to 1.748 million sold (up from 1.046 million sold the previous week). Independent store vinyl album sales for the week jumped 149% to 829,000 (up from 333,000 the previous week). 47.4% of all vinyl albums sold in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 30 were purchased at independent and small chain music stores (829,000 of 1.748 million).
With 1.748 million vinyl albums sold industry-wide, that marks the fifth-largest week for vinyl album sales in the U.S. in the modern era, since Luminate began electronically tracking music sales in 1991. (It’s also the second-largest week of 2023 for vinyl album sales, following the week ending April 27, which captured Record Store Day 2023, with 1.809 million sold). The biggest week since 1991 for vinyl album sales was the week ending Dec. 22, 2022, when 2.232 million vinyl albums were sold.
Top-Selling Record Store Day Black Friday 2023 Exclusive Albums at Independent Record Stores in U.S. (By Configuration)Rank, Artist, Title1. Linkin Park, Lost Demos (translucent sea blue vinyl)2. Olivia Rodrigo, Guts: The Secret Tracks (opaque deep purple vinyl)3. The Doors, Live in Bakersfield, California, August 21, 1970 (double vinyl)4. U2, U2 Live: Under a Blood Red Sky (red vinyl)5. Post Malone, The Diamond Collection (clear double vinyl)6. Rilo Kiley, Under the Blacklight (translucent “blacklight” purple vinyl)7. Noah Kahan, Cape Elizabeth (color marbled vinyl)8. Grateful Dead, Filmore West 1969, March 2nd (five vinyl LP box set)9. Coheed and Cambria, Live at the Starland Ballroom (solar flare colored double vinyl)10. Gram Parsons and The Fallen Angels, The Last Roundup: Live From the Bijou Café in Philadelphia, 3/16/73 (double vinyl)11. Jerry Garcia & John Kahn, Pure Jerry: Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium San Rafael, California – February, 28, 1986 (double vinyl)12. Joni Mitchell, Court and Spark: Demos (vinyl)13. CZARFACE, CZARtificial Intelligence (translucent Czarbury orange vinyl)14. The Beach Boys, The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album (green vinyl)15. My Morning Jacket, Happy Holiday! (clear vinyl with “white snow splatters”)16. Faces, Had Me a Real Good Time: Live at the BBC, In Session & In Concert 1971-1973 (vinyl)17. Nas, I Am… The Autobiography (double vinyl)18. The English Beat, I Just Can’t Stop It (double vinyl)19. Willie Nelson, Shotgun Willie (double vinyl)20. Bill Evans / Chuck Israels / Larry Bunker, Tales: Live in Copenhagen (1964) (vinyl)21. Various Artists, Jazz Dispensary: At the Movies (purple marble vinyl)22. Kim Petras, Problematique (apple red vinyl)23. Jonas Brothers, The Family Business (clear double vinyl)24. Soundtrack, Asteroid City (orange double vinyl)25. The Flaming Lips, Live at the Paradise Lounge (pink vinyl)
Top-Selling Record Store Day Black Friday 2023 Exclusive Singles at Independent Record Stores in U.S.Rank, Artist, Title1. Prince and The N.P.G, Gett Off (12-inch vinyl)2. Billy Strings featuring Willie Nelson, California Sober (green 12-inch vinyl)3. Turnstile x BADBADNOTGOOD, Mystery / Alien Love Call, featuring Blood Orange / Underwater Boi (12-inch vinyl)4. Motley Crue, Too Young to Fall In Love (Remix) / Knock em’ Dead Kid / Too Fast for Love (orange/black 12-inch vinyl)5. Cypress Hill, Insane In the Brain (2023 Remix) / Hits From the Bong (2023 Remix) (12-inch vinyl)6. Phoenix, Winter Solstice / Winter Solstice (Braxe+Falcon Remix) (7-inch vinyl)7. Aimee Mann, Dead Eyes / Dead Eyes (demo) (7-inch vinyl)8. Jeff Beck, Midnight Walker Lament, featuring Imelda May / Elegy for Dunkirk (Live), featuring Olivia Safe / Goin’ Down (Live) (12-inch vinyl)9. The Hold Steady, The Death of the Punchline / Radar & Leda (random color 12-inch)10. Waterboys, This Is the Sea (Fast) / The Passenger (10-inch vinyl)
Source: Luminate, for the week ending Nov. 30, 2023.
Taylor Swift is the queen of vinyl, as the superstar is by far the top-selling artist in 2023 in the U.S. when it comes to vinyl albums sold. So far this year, through Nov. 2, her catalog of albums have sold 2.484 million copies on vinyl in 2023, according to data tracking firm Luminate. That equates to 6.43% of total vinyl album sales (38.585 million) — or, nearly one out of every 15 vinyl albums sold.
A healthy chunk of Swift’s vinyl sales this year come from her latest release, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), which debuted with 693,000 copies sold in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 2, following its Oct. 27 release. That sum also broke the record for the single largest sales week for an album on vinyl since Luminate began tracking music sales in 1991. It surpassed the high-water mark previously set by Swift herself, with the debut week of Midnights in 2022, with 575,000 copies sold.
Swift’s impressive vinyl sales figures are bolstered by her catalog generally being made available in multiple collectible variants, including five different versions of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) – each in a different color vinyl with a different cover. (It’s not uncommon for artists to release multiple versions of an album on vinyl — Swift is not alone in this practice.)
2023’s second-biggest-selling artist when it comes to vinyl albums is Lana Del Rey, with 501,000 sold across her assorted albums.
In 2022 and 2021, Swift was the year’s top-selling vinyl albums artist in the U.S. In 2022, she sold 1.69 million (of the market’s total 43.46 million) and in 2021 she sold 1.093 million (of the market’s total of 41.717 million). In total, from January 2021 through Nov. 2, 2023, there were 123.762 million vinyl albums sold. Of that sum, Swift sold 5.273 million vinyl albums – equaling 4.26% of the vinyl market.
So far in 2023, Swift has five of the top 10 biggest-selling albums on vinyl, with four of those among the top five. Her latest release, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), is the year’s biggest on vinyl, with, as noted above, 693,000 sold in its first week. At Nos. 2, 3 and 5, respectively, are Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) (406,000), Midnights (367,000) and Folklore (201,000). Lover is Swift’s fifth title among the year’s top 10-sellers, at No. 9 with 151,000 sold.
“When I saw that you were going to call from Billboard, I was reminiscing about the first time I was on the charts,” Nancy Sinatra tells Billboard over the phone. “I think I was No. 89 or something. It barely made it. [It was called] ‘So Long Babe.’”
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The 83-year-old pop legend has a sharp memory. Her first Billboard Hot 100 hit, “So Long Babe,” hit No. 86 – just three spots away from her guess. Of course, that shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who follows her on X (formerly known as Twitter). Sinatra regularly weighs in on everything from politics (she’s NOT a fan of the guy who tried to reverse the results of a democratic election, FYI) to AI to her celebrity pals’ birthdays.
Although she’s effectively retired from music, she’s more than happy to reflect on her lengthy career as Light in the Attic releases a new compilation of her work, Keep Walkin’: Singles, Demos & Rarities 1965-1978, on vinyl and CD. “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in,” she jokes, making a Godfather reference which is doubly funny, considering that her father Frank famously berated series author Mario Puzo.
Here, Nancy Sinatra chats with Billboard about everything from finding her voice on the Hot 100-topping “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’,” her up-and-down acting career and how her daughters’ “tenacity” keeps her music alive.
When you started releasing music, you had a string of singles that didn’t chart. Eventually, working with Lee Hazelwood yielded you a career-defining breakthrough, “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’.” Did working with him feel different?
Very much so. That early stuff was what we used to call bubblegum. I was a nervous wreck [on “Boots”]. I was eager to please because I knew I was going to be dropped from the label if I didn’t do something important enough to make the charts. It was nerve-racking.
After working with him for a bit, were you able to relax?
It got better. The fact that we had a chart record right away was the impetus to keep going. It gave me the confidence to know I was going in the right direction.
With “Boots,” you’re singing in a deeper register than on your earlier stuff. That must have been a conscious decision with your new direction.
Absolutely. Each song dictates the vocal approach. The fact that the music was so completely different, the vocals just followed suit.
You and Lee had another classic with “Some Velvet Morning.” It’s a very strange song – what did you think of it when you first came across it?
I had no idea what it was about. I don’t know if Lee even had an idea either. Later on, in retrospect, he said something about Phaedra [from Greek mythology], that he wanted to pay tribute to Phaedra. That’s a bunch of bull. That never came up in all the years we’d performed. Never once. It was a lucky marriage of vocal sounds, strange as it may seem, and arrangement. He dictated the change in time signatures that occurs in the song. Lee asked Billy [Strange] to do that.
How was working with the Wrecking Crew’s Billy Strange? He’s a legend in his own right.
He was like a big brother. He was one of the best people I’ve ever known in my life. I still miss him so much.
Light In the Attic has done a few reissues of your material. I gather your daughter was the impetus behind that connection.
It’s incredible how my kids have helped me so much. Both of my daughters are very much responsible for these incarnations of mine. I keep bouncing back and it’s because of their tenacity, AJ and Amanda. I’m very blessed.
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Do you think about these songs a lot in your day-to-day life?
I don’t, but I’m on Twitter constantly to keep in touch with the public, and they remind me every day of the songs. But the funny thing is they don’t know the half of it. There’s so much they’ve never heard. I’m hoping if we’re blessed enough to succeed with the first couple projects, they will dig deeper into my catalog because there are so many songs that should be heard. They have access to all of my master tapes. Between the Light in the Attic reissues and the book, I feel like I’m reborn again, again. The book is called One for Your Dreams, the phrase from “You Only Live Twice.” David Wills is the author. It’s a picture book with all of the iconic photographs by Ron Joy and stories to go with them.
Since you mentioned the Bond theme, I’m curious, do you keep up with the film series?
I love Daniel Craig. I’m crazy about him. He’s so good, he’s such a good Bond. Did he really die in the last one?
In No Time to Die? I feel like… no.
They blew him up, for heaven’s sake!
Yeah, but he can get out of anything.
I hope so.
When you said people on Twitter don’t know the half of it, what are you referring to? What era?
There was an album called Nancy Sinatra that had artists like Kim Gordon, Morrissey, Pete Yorn — that was another gift from my daughter AJ. She put that together. She said, “Mom, I know so many people who love your music and we should take advantage of that and get songs written by them.” And they did, they came up with songs, which was so sweet. Whether I like it or not, they’re bringing me back all the time. But the songs people are not talking about are very versatile. There’s my California Girl album; I did an album called Cherry Smiles that was a lot of rare singles nobody’s heard. There’s a lot of interesting music that’s recorded that hopefully Light in the Attic will discover. I guess we have to be pretty successful with what we’re doing before they commit to doing anything else. But I’m grateful and humbled. It’s such a gift to me at this time in my life.
Do you miss recording or performing?
Every day of my life. It’s true what they say about how it’s in your blood.
Would you ever get back into it?
No, I’m too old now. I wouldn’t be able to tour. I suppose men can do it but I don’t know about women my age who tour. Do you? Dolly Parton is a lot younger than me and she does still tour.
You also did movies back in the day but didn’t stick with it. Were you less passionate about acting than music?
I was such a crappy actor. It never grabbed me. I made what I like to call my epic films and I stopped. (laughs)
I caught one on TCM that featured you performing, a movie called The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini from 1966.
Oh, that is so horrible. I made a couple of fun ones. The Last of the Secret Agents? was a fun movie. The Wild Angels made me No. 1 at the box office. I had a run-in with a couple of fun movies. I’m very lucky.
Do you have any personal favorites of your own songs?
I like a song called “100 Years,” it’s a Lee Hazelwood song. I also like a song called “Cuando calienta el sol” which is on my California Girl album which is just me and a guitar player called Daryl Curaco. I do lean toward the guitar/vocal duets, I think they’re quite lovely and special. “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)” was one of them.
And that song, of course, got a second life thanks to Kill Bill.
Isn’t that the truth? That’s what I mean. In spite of me, I keep getting brought back. Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.
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The legacy of Jean-Michel Basquiat will be brought to life in a special way for Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary. His estate will be releasing his “Beat Bop” single on vinyl.
Hype Beast is reporting that the late great artist’s music will be available. This week the estate announced it will be dropping his very rare “Beat Bop” song in partnership with The Drop Shop. In 1983 the Haitian and Puerto Rican creative founded Tartown Records Co. and recorded the gritty Rap song which featured an almost 10-minute battle between K-Rob and Rammellzee. In 2013 Profile Records founder Cory Robbins detailed how the record came to be with Spin Magazine. “It didn’t follow any rules. It was long and it didn’t have a hook. It was so free-form. There’s no record like it” he said.
According to the press release the forthcoming sale will feature 50 copies of the original 500 test pressings Jean-Michael Basquiat had created. “The Drop offers 39 of the original 50 copies that remained in Basquiat’s personal collection. All are factory-sealed and come in a numbered, handmade commemorative leather case with a signed certificate issued by the Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat” it read. “The release marks the first time the Estate has offered any pressings from the artist’s personal collection for sale.”
In the past “Beat Bop” has sold for over $100,000 at auction. The limited-edition vinyl will be available starting November 2 at $4,000.00 each. You can find out more about the drop here.
BMG said on Thursday (Oct. 18) that it will use Universal Music Group’s (UMG) commercial services division for the distribution of its physical recorded music, in what BMG CEO Thomas Coesfeld described as the first project of a burgeoning “alliance.” Last month, BMG announced it was winding down its agreement with Warner Music Group’s ADA […]
Halfway through 2023, the U.S. recorded music industry has set a record for first-half retail revenue, generating $8.4 billion, according to the new RIAA mid-year 2023 report released Monday (Sept. 18). But within that headline number, there are several trends and statistics that are worthy of their own exploration, from increasing revenue to slowing growth figures and the factors behind them. Digging deeper into the numbers, here are four takeaways (and a bonus fifth) from the mid-year report.
Ad-Supported Revenue Flatlines
The RIAA reported that ad-supported on-demand streaming revenue came in at $870.1 million — just a 0.6% bump over the $865 million it generated in the first half of 2022. Looking at the 2022 mid-year report, the ad-supported revenue figure was $871.5 million, up 16.4% from $748.5 million midway through 2021. (The RIAA regularly adjusts and updates figures each year as more data becomes available, hence the discrepancies.) What it points to, at best, is a stagnant advertising market; and at worst, one that risks going backwards.
On one hand, it’s not surprising, given the adverse advertising market across the board in 2023 so far. On the other hand, it’s yet another blow to a part of the model for services like Spotify and YouTube that has been maligned for years and considerably detracts from the value of music. Still, revenue from the “other ad-supported streaming” category grew 56.8% year over year for an increase of $58 million after a few years of negligible growth at best.
The Big Pricing Shift
In the past two weeks, a lot of conversation in the industry has revolved around how royalties from streaming services should be divided moving forward. But the broader issue that many executives are, and have been, pointing to has been about pricing. Music streaming services have fallen behind the times in keeping the price of a monthly subscription largely static over the past decade-plus, while video streamers (with fractionalized offerings) have raised prices regularly.
That’s now starting to change — and it’s being reflected in the numbers. Apple Music and Amazon Music both raised prices for their streaming services at the turn of the year, and that has translated into paid subscription streaming revenue growing 12.4% in the first half of 2023 — even as the average number of subscriptions grew at a much slower rate, increasing just 6.4% from 90 million to 95.8 million. With YouTube Music and, most critically, Spotify increasing prices over the summer — numbers that were not reflected in the first half of this year — the additional value realized will be something to keep an eye on moving forward.
But It’s Not Just Streaming
Those streaming service price hikes get a lot of attention — and rightly so. But the industry is seeing increased revenue from consumers in more than just streaming. The physical product market has continued to grow in revenue, up 5% overall, with vinyl revenue rising 1.3% year over year (up $8.2 million) and CD revenue growing 14.3% (up $29.6 million). What’s more interesting — apart from, perhaps, the winding down of the “vinyl explosion” double-digit increase narrative of the past several years — is that both formats grew in revenue while being down in unit counts.
Vinyl, overall, seemed to be a little static year over year. The number of records sold dropped by about 400,000 or so, even as revenue ticked up. But the discrepancy in CDs was stark: despite the type of double-digit revenue growth that’s been associated with vinyl in years past, there were actually 3.2 million fewer CDs sold in the United States in the first half of 2023 compared to 2022. Whether that’s a reaction to the hyper-fandom of artists who tend to do well in the physical market raising prices significantly or a marker of an industry-wide price hike there, it’s another example of how pricing is shifting across the industry and changing the revenue picture as a result.
Subscriptions Slowing Down?
As noted above, the average number of paid music streaming subscriptions grew by 5.8 million in the first half of the year to 95.8 million. That represents the slowest level of growth — both in raw numbers and in percentage — since at least 2015, when the U.S. streaming industry was still in its nascent phases. The growth in the number of subscribers has been slowing down now for about five years straight, as those who haven’t already gotten on board with paid music streaming slowly sign on. But it’s unclear how much room for growth remains — and, either way, the focus will continue to shift from acquisition and retention to growing value.
As subscriptions continue to near critical mass in the United States, the industry will need to continue its growth rate by convincing digital service providers to get more from the subscribers they already have. Whether that comes from price hikes or finding new ways to monetize fans on platforms — or, more likely, some combination of both — is an area to watch.
And, Finally…
A last word for our favorite sector of the RIAA report each year: ringtones and ringbacks. U.S. consumers spent $6.0 million on them in the first half of 2023 — down slightly from $6.2 million halfway through last year — while the unit count also slightly declined. We are a long way away from the Billboard Ringtones Chart of 2004, yet they continue to hang on as a line item year after half year. What a blessing.
Taylor Swift is continuing the rollout for 1989 (Taylor’s Version), which is set to release on Oct. 27, and the star announced on Wednesday (Sept. 13) that an exclusive bonus track will be available on the tangerine edition of the vinyl. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news […]
In September 1947, Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson founded Atlantic Records with a $10,000 loan from Ertegun’s dentist. In 1948, Atlantic began putting out its first releases. Seventy-five years later, Atlantic remains one of the most storied labels in American history as home through the decades to such artists as Ruth Brown, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Led Zeppelin, Genesis, Stevie Nicks, Matchbox Twenty and Crosby, Stills & Nash; and, more recently, Twenty One Pilots, Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran and Lizzo.
This year, Atlantic is paying homage to its rich heritage with a multi-pronged, year-long campaign that celebrates some of its most iconic titles. Already started is the release of 90 classic titles, many on crystal clear, colored or recycled vinyl, curated by Atlantic Records chairman/CEO and noted audiophile Craig Kallman.
Among the releases in the 75th-anniversary commemoration are John Coltrane’s Olé Coltrane, Yes’ Fragile, Dusty Springfield’s Dusty in Memphis, Phil Collins’ No Jacket Required, Hootie & the Blowfish’s Cracked Rear View and Crosby, Stills & Nash’s self-titled album. More recent titles in the collection include Mars’ 24K Magic, Gucci Mane’s Mr. Davis, Lizzo’s Cuz I Love You, Sheeran’s Divide and Gayle’s A Study in the Human Experience. All titles are for purchase through Atlantic Records’ site and a number are available through various brick-and-mortar retailers.
Kallman began working on the project, which is running in conjunction with Rhino Entertainment, a number of years ago, printing out spreadsheets highlighting every significant title of the past 75 years. “It was stacks of paper making sure we didn’t miss anybody. It was painstakingly done. There was a lot of internal debating,” he says.
His mission was to cover the “breadth and scope of Atlantic’s history by genre,” he says. “We tried to include records that were culturally significant, that were groundbreaking for the company, that were blowout sales successes. It was about records that defined the label and the culture of the company.”
Though painstaking and extremely time-consuming, Kallman says the process “was a lot of fun and brings back a lot of memories because I was here for 32 years of it.” Kallman joined Atlantic in 1991 when the company purchased his dance label, Big Beat Records, and, in many ways, he had unintentionally been preparing for this moment. When he started at Atlantic, “I thought part of my responsibility was to really know and understand the history and legacy of the company so I can’t think of any [release] I didn’t already know about, but we wrestled with making sure that the depths of the early catalog were there,” he says. “My DJ’ing background also came in handy in making the selections.” Kallman’s personal collection numbers more than 2 million LPs.
While titles started rolling out a few months ago, forthcoming releases include Coldplay’s A Head Full of Dreams (including The Chainsmokers and Coldplay’s 2017 hit, “Something Just Like This,” as a bonus track) on Oct. 20 and Led Zeppelin’s Led Zeppelin IV on Oct. 27. The collection includes a number of titles that have been out of print, like Lil Uzi Vert’s Luv is Rage 2, as well as releases that have never come out on vinyl. All releases are tagged with a 75th-anniversary logo.
Kallman tried to keep the releases to 75, but ultimately, he could only whittle it down to 90. “We’re like, ‘Oh my God, this is too tough to narrow down,’ and we figured we could err on the side of going beyond 75 titles,” he says.
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The anniversary has several other components. Atlantic has partnered with high-end audiophile label Acoustic Sounds to release 75 classic titles in 180-gram, 45RPM black vinyl and SACD versions. That offering includes such Genesis albums as Selling England by the Pound and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, Coltrane’s Giant Steps and My Favorite Things, Otis Redding’s The Dock of the Bay and Buffalo Springfield’s self-titled set.
Another tie-in is with vinyl subscription service Vinyl Me Please (VMP), through which Atlantic will offer several titles through VMP’s record of the month program. Five titles will be available to VMP members as November selections, including Charles’ Ray Charles in Person, Lupe Fiasco’s Food & Liquor and Stone Temple Pilots‘ No. 4. Kallman says the deal could extend beyond the initial five titles depending upon the response.
Another component is a collection of remixes, available exclusively for streaming via DSPs. Among the selections are DJ Nora En Pure’s fresh take on Donna Lewis’ “I Love You Always Forever,” DJ Spinna’s remake of Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly” and Italian DJ Luca Olivotto’s version of Yes’ “Owner of a Lonely Heart.”
The anniversary also includes a coffee table book from luxury art book publisher Taschen, which is expected to come out in 2024. “That’s been a labor of love,” Kallman says. “We’re excited to have a fitting chronicle of the history of the company with extraordinary photos and great essays.”