What is the state of today’s vinyl
album business?
LARRY JAFFEE Sales are continually
growing, and the records being made
are better, generally. The Record Store
Day sales numbers are not a fad. And
from a retail standpoint, the industry is
getting smarter. In the first years, there
was a large attention to back catalog.
For the format to sustain itself, it’s
going to have to produce more current
product — but be smart about it. We
realize that it’s a digital world. We
know we’re a niche, but also a deluxe
niche that some music lovers prefer,
and we have to keep coming up with
ways to serve them.
Why did you want to move the
conference to Hollywood?
JAFFEE On the program side, we have
people who were certainly aware of
the event the first two years but for
logistics reasons couldn’t attend in
Detroit. Lawrence Azerrad, the pack-
aging designer, won our first best in
show award and then won a Grammy
a few months later. He’s based in Los
Angeles, so he’ll be there and speaking.
Jeff Jampol, whose company [JAM
Inc.] manages the estate of The Doors,
Janis Joplin, the Ramones and others,
was interested in attending last year
but couldn’t. We’re also able to focus
on Blue Note’s 80th-anniversary vinyl
reissue series.
Blue Note is re-creating its vinyl
heritage in a unique way.
JAFFEE [Blue Note Records producer]
Joe Harley will explain what he found
in the archives. A lot of these titles
have not been available for years. It’s
my understanding that they tested a
few titles and sold out immediately.
They realized they had touched upon a
sleeping giant, so they have expanded
the number of titles and turned them
into two different series for their 80th
anniversary. We also have mastering
engineer Kevin Gray of Cohearent,
who has worked on the reissue series.
How has the new setting influ-
enced this year’s programming?
JAFFEE One of the things we try to
do year to year is not repeat our-
selves. Ninety percent of the speak-
ers this year are brand-new. We’ve
brought in new topics in distribution
and merchandising. We also have a
presentation from Bandcamp, which
started out as a digital platform and
is now offering vinyl as well. Another
topic that’s new is sustainability — the
environmental impact of vinyl records.
There have been a lot of technologi-
cal advancements and more pressing
plants, as well as suppliers who are
focused on vinyl as an environmen-
tally conscious alternative. We have
a professor [Kyle Devine, University
of Oslo] coming in from Norway to
present research about how the carbon
footprint of a vinyl record is less than
digital music and Erica Records, in
Southern California, which only press-
es lead-free, PVC records.
Why is Bernie Grundman the
best choice for the Lifetime
Achievement Award?
JAFFEE He’s the guy when it comes to
vinyl mastering. He has done a who’s
who of popular music — Michael
Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Steely
Dan, Barbra Streisand, on and on. It
just made sense to give it to him, and
we were very lucky to get him. He’s
another example of someone we have
been trying to get for a few years but
he couldn’t get to Detroit.
BRYAN EKUS Another wrinkle: After
we announced Bernie’s Lifetime
Achievement Award, I saw [musician,
actor and Sirius XM DJ] Michael Des
Barres offer him congrats online. I
knew he was based in Los Angeles, so
I asked if he wanted to get involved.
Now he’s going to open up the event.
And the kicker, totally unexpected, is
his latest single, “Crackle & Hiss,” was
released on Little Steven’s label, Wick-
ed Cool Records. Little Steven [aka
musician-actor Steven Van Zandt] was
last year’s keynote speaker, so there’s a
little bit of continuity there.
What’s new in the awards portion?
JAFFEE We have put more focus on
jazz and classical because we realized
the aesthetics for those genres might
make for unfair comparisons in pop-
rock. And the “They Said It Couldn’t
Be Done” category comes from the
idea of how do you top yourself. Last
year, the winner was “Weird Al”
Yankovic’s Squeeze Box, which put his
entire recording career in a replica of
an accordion. This year’s winner really
wowed the judges.
Will you stay in Hollywood?
EKUS It’s a great place to be, but I
don’t know if it will be home forever.
We could wind up in other music-
related cities — other places in L.A.,
or even going back to Detroit again.
We’ll just have to see. The idea is not to
make this a moving carnival.
You launched Making Vinyl Berlin
in May. Why?
JAFFEE I think of the Leonard Cohen
song — “First we take Manhattan, then
we take Berlin.” The vinyl comeback
was plotted in New York and then
crossed the Atlantic, so it made a lot of
sense to have something in Europe.
EKUS It was great. We did it at Hansa
Studios, where so many artists [like Da-
vid Bowie, Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, R.E.M.,
U2] have worked. For the same reason
we’re doing it in L.A. this year, if you
bring a product like Making Vinyl to a
new area, different people attend who
might not have done so before. We got
a pretty good representation of people
from Europe in Detroit, so we got some
of those people to Berlin.
Are there any other continents on
your radar?
EKUS Certainly. Asia could be a strong
possibility. There’s a huge vinyl market
and manufacturing community in
Japan. There would be some language
barriers, but that would be something
I would love to explore for the next
Making Vinyl.
A panel at Making Vinyl Berlin
on May 3; W Hollywood’s
on-site recording studio, the
W Sound Suite (inset).
Lifetime Achievement: Bernie Grundman
A
s CDs replaced vinyl
in the mid-’80s, a
handful of mastering
facilities bucked
the trend, notably Bernie
Grundman Mastering, the
20,000-square-foot studio
complex in Hollywood named
after the venerable engineer,
whose credits include Carole
King’s Tapestry, Steely Dan’s Aja
and Prince’s Purple Rain. Making
Vinyl will recognize Grundman
with its lifetime achievement
award in October.
Born in Minneapolis and
raised in Phoenix, Grundman
first trained locally while at
Arizona State University before
stints at Los Angeles’ Contem-
porary Records and as head of
A&M’s mastering division. He
launched his own studio in 1984.
“We’ve always had vinyl, and
there’s always been a certain
amount of it, regardless of how
unpopular it was for a while,”
says Grundman. “But for about
six or seven years now, we’ve
been slammed all the time
— with new products, special
packages or catalog releases.”
Grundman first saw the
beginning of a vinyl resurgence
in the mid-’90s, when a small but
fervent group of audiophile
clients asked to reissue jazz and
rock classics on high-grade vinyl.
Those customers hankered for
what they perceived was the
analog format’s warmer, more
intimate sound. “There was a
nostalgia for that,” he says.
Despite the widespread belief
that vinyl is always higher
quality, Grundman says it can be
just as “poor” as digital “if you
don’t know what you’re doing.”
—PAUL VERNA
Albums with
Grundman’s
credits (from top):
Aja, Tapestry,
Purple Rain.
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86 BILLBOARD • SEPTEMBER 28, 2019