We didn't have too much in the house. panel, but they were important. The wrappers were carefully removed from the shelf. It was listened to. from beginning to end.
When our parents bought us a "music pole", records were replaced by compact discs. They were more practical, but there was no gramophone crackle.
Today, I am making a big collection. When I travel, instead of fridge magnets, I buy plates. When the needle touches the vinyl, the music takes me back to where the record came from.
"Gramophone records are no longer a relic of the past or a hobby for nostalgic people," says Slobodan Nešović, director of the Mascom publishing house.
Young people love vinyl.
After nearly two decades of steady sales growth, vinyl has returned to the mainstream. Today, every major album is released in digital format and on record, and more and more buyers are coming from Generation Z.
"Vinyl has become part of the regular publishing plan," says Nešović for our newsletter Medjuvreme. Globally, as many as 37 percent of buyers are young people.
The trend is also noticed in Yugovinil, a Belgrade store of used and new records. "Records are sold today much more than, say, 15 years ago and are bought by all generations. There is hardly a day when we don't sell anything," they say in this shop.
They say that due to customs regulations, it is more profitable for people today to buy in Belgrade than to ship from abroad themselves.
"If it happens that we have what someone is looking for, they won't wait for delivery, but can immediately put a record on the record player from here," says a salesman in a store with thousands of records of various genres.
Photo: Pixabay / ThibaultlamtranGramophone
Where are the plates printed?
The decline in vinyl sales during the nineties was dramatic. And the big comeback was not only a question of demand, but also of production.
The sudden popularity of vinyl led to a standstill in previous years, with months of waiting for records to be printed. In the meantime, new factories were opened and capacities were expanded.
"For a while, we were in a problem because there was not enough capacity. We used to wait for two or three months, now it's about a month," says Nešović.
Most of the production comes from Central and Eastern Europe. The largest part of the circulation for the Serbian market comes from the Czech Republic, Poland and Austria.
The United States has developed but decentralized manufacturing. It is among the most famous United Record Pressing of Nashville, one of the oldest vinyl factories.
Serbia without production
Plates are not produced in Serbia and most of the neighboring countries today. A few years ago, the only record factory in this part of Europe operated in Novi Sad. There, vinyl "pies" were used to make records. It was a branch of a German company, but it is closed.
During the time of SFRY, Zagreb's Jugoton and Belgrade's PGP were rampant. Factories supplied the entire Yugoslav market and part of exports, and the circulations were massive.
In the early 1990s, with the collapse of the state and changes in the market, production was shut down, and the equipment was scrapped, according to interlocutors of Medjuvrema. Who knows, maybe he'll come back one day.
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