Sales of Vinyl LPs are now almost 1/3 of all physical music sales.

Interesting article from UK Business Insider about the resurgence of LPs. Sales of vinyl LPs in the first 6 months of 2015 were up 52% from 2014.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/vinyl-sales-do-better-than-free-streaming-services-2015-9?r=US&IR=T

As much as I like vinyl, I'm really bothered by the notion of a technically superior physical media being dropped for it. I like the physical product and I even like the idiosyncratic things that make vinyl vinyl, but I tend to prefer most things on CD.

Now, if it becomes standard operating procedure to more modestly price vinyl AND include FLAC downloads with them, my opinion may change.

Have streaming services even started becoming profitable yet? I seem to recall not that long ago reading that Spotify constantly LOSES money and has to keep getting investor cash by the buckets to keep its life support going.

I think people should be happy that any kind of physical format is increasing in sales, because aside from vinyl every other format is falling drastically every single year.

There is also an uptick in the sales of physical books while the digital books are actually declining.

I'm glad that in 2015 I can still buy an actual book and read it while I sit down listening to an actual LP spinning on the turntable.

S.D. wrote:

I'm glad that in 2015 I can still buy an actual book and read it while I sit down listening to an actual LP spinning on the turntable.  

That is how I did homework and it still gives me peace today.

S.D. wrote:

I think people should be happy that any kind of physical format is increasing in sales, because aside from vinyl every other format is falling drastically every single year.

There is also an uptick in the sales of physical books while the digital books are actually declining.  

I'm glad that in 2015 I can still buy an actual book and read it while I sit down listening to an actual LP spinning on the turntable.  

Don't mistake my sour grapes for saying "the sky is falling."

I'm with you - actually a LOT. I'll take what I can get, but I'm a tech guy at heart and there's a reason the CD (and later DVD and Blu-Ray) were devised: namely, they were improvements on what came before. Vinyl succeeds because it's got vibe to spare courtesy of some of its imperfections, but it's not technically the best way to listen to music whether we're talking about playback distortion, surface noise, or frequency response. CD isn't perfect either, but I'd rather see a move to consumer audio Blu-Ray NOT priced and marketed to audiophiles than a backwards step. Just my taste.

That said, I'm certainly not going to be weeping bitter tears when I throw my analog-from-start-to-finish mono Beatles records on my Dual 701 turntable and crank it up.

Interesting factoid about eBooks declining in sales. My guess is that people failed to bite on paying the same price for a locked ephemeral file as a tangible book that has manufacturing, storage and shipping costs associated with it. God knows, I've had a hard time with eBooks even though I'd LIKE to be able to get into them (limited storage space means picking and choosing my collections ).

Got $19,000 extra to spend on a Turntable? Try one of these, a laser turntable where nothing touches the actual vinyl.



Or you can buy a different model for the low price of $9,000. Read more here:

http://elpj.com/113-2/

I think I will stick with my Audio Technica LP-120.

Jesus. I knew these existed, but I'd never actually SEEN one.

And you still have to have a Mint copy to play in it. Any dust will still make it skip... unless they fixed that.

A friend of my parents actually has one of those laser vinyl players, i don't think they deserve their price tag, i mean it's basically the same technology as laser disc player with only audio to be read, but it's impressive. Then again, with proper handle and care, Vinyl can last a long time, it's the same when everybody went crazy about "CD's have only 30 years!" that was proven to be wrong (expect atlantic recods CDs that had a problem with the red coloring) and the same is true with vinly, some vinyl have a crackling sound but even the vinly my parents have, that are 40 year old work just fine, no skipping at all.

Most of the time if vinyl has a crackling sound it's because it hasn't been properly cleaned and you're hearing static discharge amplified through the pickup.  I've bought new albums recently that were snap, crackle & pop out of the plastic...but once properly cleaned they're dead quiet and pristine.

I assume they only track New Vinyl...What would the sales figure be if you added in all the used vinyl sold and resold and traded?

brokentulsa wrote:

I assume they only track New Vinyl...What would the sales figure be if you added in all the used vinyl sold and resold and traded?

There is no way to track that data...just as there is no way to track used CD sales, used DVD sales, used blu-ray sales, etc.

brokentulsa wrote:

I assume they only track New Vinyl...What would the sales figure be if you added in all the used vinyl sold and resold and traded?

Interesting because most of what I buy is used. I'll buy new on occasion but there is so much good used stuff out there for cheap prices.

S.D. wrote:

Most of the time if vinyl has a crackling sound it's because it hasn't been properly cleaned and you're hearing static discharge amplified through the pickup.  I've bought new albums recently that were snap, crackle & pop out of the plastic...but once properly cleaned they're dead quiet and pristine.

What's the best way to clean vinyl?