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Strictly Discs owner Ron Roloff shows a portion of his vinyl collection. The store will launch a Web site devoted to vinyl next week. - Kyle Bursaw

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Ron Roloff is defying the laws of physics these days by going backward and forward at the very same time.

Roloff owns Strictly Discs, a record store at 1900 Monroe St. This week, Strictly Discs is launching a Web site that will specialize in that most un-modern of technologies, the vinyl record.

"It's like a contradiction in terms," Roloff said. "The advance in technology is advancing the sales of one of the oldest formats. I can't even think of what that would compare to. Technology leading to the advancement of wood-burning stoves in your kitchen? Nutty."

This isn't just a nutty notion for Roloff and his store, however. While CD sales are plummeting at an alarming rate for the music industry, vinyl record sales rose 15 percent nationally in 2007, and even electronics megastore Best Buy announced this month that it would test market sales of vinyl in undisclosed store locations.

Roloff said vinyl has gone from being a niche to a significant part of his business, but was hesitant to disclose sales numbers.

"I can tell you already that the third quarter will be the biggest quarter of vinyl business we've ever done because we've had some enormous sales," he said.

Roloff knows there's a way to get even more vinyl into the hands of the people who want it. That's where the new Web site will come in. For now, it can be accessed through the Strictly Discs site, www.strictlydiscs.com and next week will break off on its own separate URL, www.instockvinyl.com. It will always be available through the Strictly Discs site, however.

"We thought, 'Let's get this done, let's not be on the wrong side of the curve on this and give it a whirl,'" Roloff said.

Strictly Discs has had a Web site since 2006, but the vinyl-only site will have some differences that try to hone in on how vinyl fans look for their music. CD buyers, Roloff said, already know what is available or what is coming soon. Conversely, Roloff said, vinyl buyers want to know, "What do you have?"

The Web site will have a daily counter showing how many records are available, usually around 12,000 to 18,000, Roloff said. Consumers can search by artist or label. All vinyl on the site will be new, not used; some discs can be bought for $12.99, about the price of a CD, while others go for many times that. All titles will be in stock, or something Strictly Discs can get that day.

"We believe the reach is going to be wider," he said. "You can buy vinyl on our Web site right now. People have randomly found us and said, 'You've got a lot of great vinyl here.' That's nothing compared to what we're going to have."

Strictly Discs, like many independent record stores, got back into vinyl around 2000 because of hip-hop. DJs needed discs to spin, and there hadn't been many new releases around since CDs took over the music market in the late 1980s. After hip-hop musicians and fans started rediscovering stacks of wax, indie rock bands began to see a certain cachet in putting out limited pressings of their albums on vinyl.

The "vinyl is back" trumpet has been sounded for much of this decade, but the sheer number of titles now available tells Roloff that this time it is here to stay. It's just on a smaller scale than it was in its heyday.

Strictly Discs has about 2,500 titles on vinyl on display in its store. There are another 10,000 downstairs in an area where Roloff might allow select buyers to peruse inventory. He is reworking areas of his store to be able to have more vinyl on display.

The store sells used vinyl, too, which is a labor-intensive item. Unlike CDs, for which stores can easily calculate a sale price, vinyl needs to be examined more carefully and priced accordingly.

The availability of used vinyl helped bring a new generation to the format. Record buyers who weren't even born when their parents' turntables were already collecting dust began to find used discs for cheap or just pulled out their parents' records.

Other buyers are attracted to vinyl because of its superior sound, Roloff said, willing to pay top dollar for an elaborate turntable-based system and high-quality vinyl.

"Their interest is piqued by it being a (top-quality) 200-gram pressing on Classic Records," Roloff said. "They think, 'Wow, I want to buy this. Who is this band?' "

Then, Roloff said, there are those diehards who never stopped buying vinyl and are just happy to now have more to choose from.

Strictly Discs and other stores see customers buying a mix of new and older releases. Roloff estimated that Eau Claire singer-songwriter Bon Iver's "For Emma, Forever Ago" sold 350 copies at his store. New releases by The Hold Steady, Mars Volta and Beck have sold well, too. The Mars Volta disc had 62 pre-orders for a release that cost $42.99.

In terms of older releases, Roloff said re-issues of the first four Metallica records have sold well, a Nick Drake box set sold 150 copies, a Traveling Wilburys disc sold more than 100 copies and Whiskeytown's first release, "Stranger's Almanac," sold nearly 100 copies.

Strictly Discs' current site is aimed at reaching and helping customers in the Madison area or those who have moved from here and want to continue to buy from the store. Plans for the Web site, however, reach further. Strictly Discs will ship vinyl ordered off the new site, as it does from its site now.

Roloff has added staff in anticipation of the rollout. He has one full-timer and three part-timers working on the Web site with another new staffer who was recently hired.

"I'm trying to take a very reserved approach to this in terms of expectations," Roloff said. "I don't know what else to compare it to, we're doing something very few people are doing. That's the unknown, but that's what retail is."