The Sound Of Vinyl Launches New Way To Discover And Buy Records Through First-Of-Its-Kind Text Message Service

The Sound of Vinyl today launched in the U.S. with a first-of-its-kind music service that provides a personalized and curated platform for discovering and buying vinyl records.

The Sound of Vinyl (http://thesoundofvinyl.us) provides a powerful and convenient solution to help music enthusiasts discover vinyl and build their record collections. The service offers new and classic albums from a vast catalog of over 20,000 titles from all major labels and dozens of indie labels. In addition to being a full-service online store, The Sound of Vinyl provides an innovative recommendation engine that suggests albums based on a user's personal tastes, and features exclusive content and album suggestions from top music experts.

The Sound of Vinyl's recommendation service uses cutting-edge technology to send personalized album picks by text message. When a user enters their mobile phone number and creates a taste profile, The Sound of Vinyl begins sending daily texts with album recommendations that feature album artwork, information and price. Users can reply LIKE or DISLIKE to improve future picks, or simply reply YES to instantly buy an album, creating a seamless shopping experience. The service is powered by Seattle-based startup MessageYes.

The Sound of Vinyl will also host exclusive vinyl records from rock, jazz and classical to R&B, rap and hip-hop. Limited edition color variations of albums by Arrested Development, Marvin Gaye, Miles Davis, Iggy Pop, KISS, Grand Funk, and The Go-Gos are slated for release, with more titles launching every month. Quantities are extremely limited; recent exclusives by Interpol and ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead sold out in less than a week.

Additionally, The Sound of Vinyl's website will host exclusive content from music experts including Henry Rollins, Young Guru, Don Was, Ahmet Zappa, and more, as well as artists, producers, radio DJs, and music journalists. The website will also feature videos, interviews, editorial, and hand-picked album recommendations. More content will be available on The Sound of Vinyl's blog and social media channels.

Henry Rollins, punk rock icon and accomplished author, and Gimel "Young Guru" Keaton, renowned audio engineer and DJ, are The Sound of Vinyl's first featured vinyl curators. Rollins will recommend his favorite albums, share stories from his life in punk rock, and interview music veterans like producer Don Was and legendary Capitol Studios vinyl mastering engineer Ron McMaster. Young Guru will tap into his experience engineering music for iconic artists like Jay Z, Beyoncé, and Alicia Keys, as well as his deep history as a DJ and producer, to showcase albums that form the foundation of his work.

"Vinyl is the ultimate delivery medium for music's limitless greatness," Rollins says. "I came into music via vinyl, and that's how I'm going out! The Sound of Vinyl allows music enthusiasts of all levels of interest or experience to not only get records easily, but to learn about every aspect of vinyl from extraordinarily unique and informed sources."

Young Guru added, "Since the earliest days of DJs mixing on turntables, vinyl has played an important role in hip-hop's evolution. So many of the albums that built hip-hop's foundation were intended to be heard and experienced on vinyl. I'm excited to cast new light on some of these iconic albums and give fans new insights into classic records that built hip-hop." The Sound of Vinyl was created by Universal Music Enterprises, the global catalog division of Universal Music Group (UMG), the global leader in music-based entertainment.

Michele Anthony, Executive Vice President of UMG, said, "Until today, music fans haven't had a personalized and curated experience for discovering and buying vinyl albums. Sound of Vinyl solves that problem for consumers by providing daily suggestions tailored to their individual tastes, recommendations from music experts and exclusive albums and merchandise that can't be found anywhere else. With Sound of Vinyl, music fans will have a simple, easy and engaging service that provides instant access to the very best in vinyl."

"The passion for the vinyl experience remains contagious, and now, with Sound of Vinyl, fans will have a unique and accessible way to discover and buy vinyl albums tailored to their music tastes, without a membership fee," Bruce Resnikoff, President and CEO of Universal Music Enterprises, UMG's global catalog division. "Of all the music formats out there, vinyl most closely reflects the artist's original vision for the quality and experience of listening to an entire album. It's an experience that demands a listener's attention and provides a robust physical connection to the artist and music."