TURNING THE TABLES
I
N LATE DECEMBER 2019, FOR
the first time since Nielsen Music
began electronically tracking
music sales 29 years ago, vinyl
albums surpassed 1 million copies
in a single week. Among those
most eager to capitalize on vinyl’s resur-
gence: the creators of film and TV scores
and soundtracks.
“There are fans who are score collectors
and there are fans who are vinyl collec-
tors. They’re both collectors’ markets,”
says Brian McNelis, senior vp music and
soundtracks at Lakeshore Entertainment.
Lakeshore released seven scores and
soundtracks on vinyl in 2015; last year, the
number soared to 30.
Film studios are now working to target
this growing group of obsessive collectors
with a flood of new vinyl offerings, even
though they’ve stopped releasing
as much film music on CDs. “Almost
every soundtrack we do now has a vinyl
component,” says Universal Pictures
president of film music and publishing
Mike Knobloch. Universal releases the
music through its own Back Lot Music or,
more frequently, a major-label partner or
specialty labels like Austin-based Mondo
Music and New Orleans-based Waxwork
Records. Universal went from one vinyl
release in 2012 to 20 in 2018. Similarly,
Sony Pictures has also ramped up with 18
vinyl releases in 2019, double that of 2015.
The overall numbers are still small, but
the increases are significant. Pop culture
company Mondo expanded into vinyl
in 2011 with one title and is now up to
60 vinyl releases a year (in part due to a
merger with Death Waltz in 2014). Milan
Records, which Sony Music Masterworks
acquired in July, now averages one vinyl
release per month.
“Vinyl has definitely become the most
in-demand physical format for fans of film
and TV music. There is an expectation
among fans that their favorite property will
get a vinyl release,” says Milan senior vp
JC Chamboredon. “Vinyl has also become
something more than just a record. It is an
extension of the property. It is very com-
mon for fans to buy vinyl not for the music
but as a collectible item.”
Certain titles, such as Mondo/
Death Waltz’s 2016 reissue of Angelo
Badalamenti’s beloved TV score to Twin
Peaks, pressed on “180-gram damn-fine
coffee-color vinyl,” have sold up to 36,000
copies. “It was like, pandemonium,” says
Mondo Music record label manager Mo
Shafeek. “Anytime we sell over 5,000
units, it’s a big deal for us.” According to
McNelis, “3,000 units is a fair break-even
number for most titles.”
Titles typically sell for between $20 and
$35, although prices can extend northward
for special editions. Companies like Lake-
shore and Mondo license the music and
artwork from the studios — McNelis pre-
fers at least a 10-year license — and then
they add drama: Bells and whistles range
from fake blood splattered on horror film
records to pop-up art that comes to life
upon opening the sleeve. A collectors’ edi-
tion for the Stranger Things score included
a vinyl swirl of the TV show’s Demogorgon
monster. “We try to get creative with the
entire packaging,” says McNelis.
Going wild with vinyl design can be
risky. Mondo’s Shafeek made 75 sets of
clear vinyl filled with green “Xenomorph
blood”-colored liquid for the 2016 reissued
score to Aliens. To manufacture the two-
album set alone cost $100. But as it turned
out, “The person was very good at making
liquid-filled records... but not good at ship-
ping them,” recalls Shafeek.
Though the majority of releases are
scores for current films, there’s still big
demand for classic titles, such as any John
Williams score or Universal’s 2016 release
of Alan Silvestri’s score for Back to the Fu-
ture on vinyl for the first time. Shafeek has
a list of 20 titles that he is “begging desper-
ately” to see if the studios will license. Yann
Tiersen’s score for 2001’s Amélie, which
has never come out on vinyl, tops his list.
Some titles continue to sell consis-
tently year after year. Recently, the vinyl
soundtrack to 2017’s Call Me By Your
Name, which also includes portions of the
score, has proved an evergreen with fans
wanting more. Music on Vinyl will release
the soundtrack on 180-gram red transpar-
ent vinyl for Valentine’s Day — limited to
10,000 copies worldwide — following
previously released editions on black, blue,
yellow and peach-colored vinyl.
“Cliff Martinez’s score for 2011’s Drive
also remains a fan favorite,” says Brad
Schelden, soundtrack buyer for Amoeba
Music in Hollywood, adding: “It has been
a best seller ever since it came out.” The
vinyl version continues to sell hundreds
of copies a year at the store. Lakeshore
has issued several editions, including a
limited-edition pressing in 2015 and a fifth-
anniversary version in 2016. Appropriately
enough, says Schelden, the store’s best
seller for 2019 was the vinyl for Quentin
Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time... in Hol-
lywood soundtrack.
Chamboredon worries that a rush to
release too much on vinyl could hurt the
health of the vinyl score market, while
McNelis already sees more titles being
released, but slowing sales for each.
But Shafeek anticipates continued
growth. “There is the joy of sharing music
that very often flies beneath the radar of
most music fans, even though it may be
heard by millions of people in theaters.”
Film studios are chasing a ballooning big-spending market for their scores and soundtracks: vinyl geeks
BY MELINDA NEWMAN
Only once has a song from a documentary won an Oscar: MELISSA ETHERIDGE’s “I Need to Wake Up” from the 2006 doc An Inconvenient Truth.
From left: Michael J. Fox
and Christopher Lloyd in
Back to the Future, Kyle
MacLachlan in Twin Peaks,
Millie Bobby Brown in
Stranger Things, Margot
Robbie in Once Upon a
Time... in Hollywood and
Timothée Chalamet in Call
Me By Your Name.
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