As demand for vinyl surges, Ozarks record stores try to keep up

As more people ditch digital music, they're turning to vinyl records. In the last decades vinyl sales have reached recent record highs.

According to Nielson, in 2005 0.9 million were sold across the US. Last year alone, record sales hit close to 12 million. It's a trend that Wes Nichols has watched first hand in his 23 years at Stick it in Your Ear in downtown Springfield.

"We always had your hardcore fans that collected vinyl," Nichols said. "But around '06 and '07 is when we noticed it was a whole new generation. It was your 15-19 demographic."

More customers means ordering more records, to make sure he can keep up with the surging demand.

"I'll buy a 5th and a 6th copy of Fleetwood Mac 'Rumors,' whereas back in the day one was plenty, and that's just an example. Your Eagles 'Hotel California,' your Neil Young 'Harvest,' can you ever really have enough of those? No, the answer is no."

With more demand means more competition. In the last few years record stores like Heavy Heads have sprung up across the Ozarks, hoping to take advantage of the fast-growing trend.

"We celebrated our birthday the first week in April," -- said.

And after just a year in Springfield, the store is already planning to expand to keep up demand from customers like 19-year-old Derek Van Hise, who wasn't even alive when vinyl was popular the first time around.

"About a year ago I got a record player for Christmas, and my grandfather said here have all my Beatles and Rolling Stones records and I figured that was a great head start"

So what's behind the recent record high in record sales? There are a few different theories.

"There's something about the sound quality that attracts you," Van Hise explained.

"You have to actually take the record out, you have to actually play and I think people missed that for years and years," Nichols said. "And maybe we underestimated the new generations want for that."

But whatever's causing it, record fans are just happy the trend is back, and they say this time around, its not going anywhere.

"For years it was just one place that made vinyl there in Nashville, and now they’ve opened one more and now another is supposed to open, so I think they foresee it to be lasting," Nichols said.

While classic rock albums are what many people think of when it comes to vinyl, the top albums of 2015 fall outside that genre. Adele's '25' and Taylor Swift's '1989' took the top two spots, with Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon,' The Beatles' 'Abbey Road,' and Miles Davis' 'Kind of Blue' following them.