Looks like revenue from sales of vinyl will soon overtake that of CDs (well, at least in Australia), but revenue from both is a tiny fraction of that for streaming services. Indeed the days of the CD were numbered over 20 years ago when digital audio no longer required a physical format, so digital audio has evolved and continues to evolve as a streamed product. Physical formats are increasingly becoming a niche product.
That says more about how far CD has fallen than how popular LPs are. The price on new LPs is very high too, while CDs are cheap. Better to compare number of units than sales figures.
I agree that revenue overstates the comparison as the cost of LPs (production costs and margins embedded in the retail price) is far greater than CDs. However the day will soon come where unit sales of LPs will exceed that of CDs but as you say, not so much because of increasing sales of LPs, rather the sharp decline in sales of CDs. Physical formats (CDs, LPs, SACDs, DVDs etc) are becoming niche products and probably will fade out of view by the middle of this century.
I was in a Cracker Barrel a year ago, there was a rack of re-issue vinyl, all were $25 and up, some way up. Even some done with picture vinyl. And they sold cheap phonographs to play them on. Odd mix too, Led Zepplin next to Vince Gill next to Songs from Snow White.
I was in a Cracker Barrel a week ago, just a very few records left, no players at all, and all in one rack shoved into a corner out of the main stream. I don't think that market supported vinyl well at all. Probably never re-stocked.
An unlikely vinyl venue. A "down-home country-style" restaurant that walk you through their gift shop on the way in and out. Actually, a very large corporation that markets everything, gifts included, extremely well. Both food and gifts are actually very good, but the appeal is not especially high-end. Even so, not a place I expected to see vinyl.
Absolutely. It's touchy. It's feely. It's big. It moves and you can watch it. The art is 12x12, full color. It's nostalgia, but since today's young people have no direct connection with the past, it's pseudo-nostalgia, which is what, I feel, is the single most powerful expectation bias of vinyl. Then someone applies the terms "analog warmth" and we're off to the races.
Absolutely. It's touchy. It's feely. It's big. It moves and you can watch it. The art is 12x12, full color. It's nostalgia, but since today's young people have no direct connection with the past, it's pseudo-nostalgia, which is what, I feel, is the single most powerful expectation bias of vinyl. Then someone applies the terms "analog warmth" and we're off to the races.
Maybe more like the hula hoop?....but yep at this point i don't think the format is getting by on sales to music lovers.New record sales looks to be more of a "fad" purchase by people a lot younger than me
I have a couple of friends who buy LPs. They started out thinking it would sound better, but now they sheepishly admit it's just an "object of fetish" thing like collecting Capo di Monte or Beanie Babies. Oddly, they don't collect old records, only new ones.
Yep 90% digital here now.....and that number increases every year.Records have become a way to hear music thats not available on any other format(and a very few that don't have a decent digital counterpart),can't say that i miss the hassle of records too much.
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