GIMP Version: 2.8.14
Operating System: Mac OS
OS Version: 10.11.6
GIMP Experience: Basic Level

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Hi all,
I'm creating an album cover for someone, and they want the finished product have a distressed/worn look like that of an old cover for a vinyl record, like so: . I've scoured the internet for tutorials and the best idea I've come across so far is to take an image of a plain, worn, album cover and layer it over the new album cover I created, then adjust the settings so that all you can see over the new album cover is the "wear-and-tear" of the old album cover. That idea came from a YouTube video by LarryLar, called "How To Create The Worn Out LP Look Using Photoshop". My only issue with this is that any of the images I've found to layer over the album I created are not hi-res enough and when you zoom in, the wear-and-tear looks like a blurry mess, and I'm worried it won't translate well to print. I'm at the point where I'm ready to go out and try to find some old vinyl with a plain cover and make a hi-res scan of it and use that. But if anyone has any ideas on how to solve this problem *without* searching for and buying a perfectly worn, plain vinyl cover, that would be awesome. I'm also open to taking a completely different approach altogether, so long as the end product is what I'm looking for
Thanks so much!

On the old record you will notice that when the top image wears out you have white-cream colored paper below it? Duplicate your original layer, add an alpha channel and make another layer the color of the worn LP record (cardboard layer). Forget your original layer and fade-out the duplicate layer and use the eraser tool on some of it in a circular shape. Then make some lines that look like cracks and wear marks. When happy anchor it down to the cardboard layer.
Because it's only a duplicate layer you can make mistakes, experiment, whatever.

I used the "Diffraction Patterns" to make this faux distressed album cover....

Thanks for the tips, everyone. I ended up going to the used vinyl shop in town and finding a worn-out, plain black record sleeve. I scanned it and laid that image over my own album cover, then set the mode to screen and adjusted the levels and opacity until I got what I needed. I also added a yellowish layer at 2% opacity, to make it look more aged. In all it was a lot of leg work, but it worked really well. Very happy with the results Thanks again for taking the time to contribute advice!

That's a very good idea and solution to your needs. Well done....