Today, Tesco announced that they were to start stocking vinyl in 55 of their largest stores, with new Iron Maiden LP ‘The Book Of Souls’ available to buy from Friday (September 4).
The move will make the shop the first supermarket chain to venture into the world of vinyl since its revival as a format, but is this necessarily a good thing? On one hand you have the possibility of an increase in sales for artists and the wider promotion of vinyl in all its tactile, tangible glory among people who may not be record store frequenters. On the other you have a potentially severe impact on independent shops who could suffer from the convenience of picking up the next Royal Blood album while popping out for a loaf of bread.
We asked NME readers what they thought of the idea and the response was varied. “So independent record shops manage to create a market for themselves out of nothing and now the supermarkets want to come along and destroy it all over again? Thanks for that,” commented Stuart Conway via Facebook.
Georgina Conway was more pragmatic, commenting “The thing is, nobody who buys records would be buying them from a supermarket anyway” while Sam Moody says “As long as you get yourself a record why does where you bought it fucking matter? Get over it, if you’re near a Tesco and like vinyl you might find it easier, maybe even cheaper. It’s called business.”
Here’s a selection of other responses to the divisive news – let us know which side you’re on in the poll below.
http://storify.com/nmemagazine/tesco-are-to-start-selling-vinyl