Has vinyl peaked?

[matteos]

My view is likely flawed, but I'll type it anyways.

Let me start by saying that yes, LPs are very, very popular with the younger crowd, myself included. But I have noticed some hostility between individuals on other forums regarding "vinyls." Hostility such as harsh criticism of newbies and their newbie setups (even though those delivering the criticism don't have much more impressive gear), and criticism of other's taste in "vinyls."

It just seems like some younger people are beginning to realize that record listening/ collecting isn't making them as much of an individual as they once thought. Perhaps they will take their interests elsewhere? I don't know.

I've noticed the same sort of trend with craft beer as of late.

But to OP's question, 2013 will tell us.

mmm, craft beer:beer:

 

[Sandbar92]

Three or four years ago the record shows went back to being record shows. Nearly all the CD booths have been replaced by vinyl vendors and several of them used to be exclusively CD booths. People are buying vinyl like crazy at the shows, and stores now have given over much more space to vinyl. I don't see this as peaking or letting up at this time. The prices have gone up dramatically in the past few years as well because the demand is there.

 

[sheltie dave]

Vinyl peaked in 1980 - 82. Have we even witnessed a gold or platinum selling album in the last ten years?

Back in college, I averaged buying ten new release albums a week for three years. I am pretty well connected with the buying audio geeks here in St. Louis, and I don't know anyone who buys five new release albums a month, including the college kids. The two largest record stores in town devote four record rack rows (out of sixty) for new, and new release, albums. There are zero new album only record stores in town.

 

[for_p1]

I think vinyl hipe was largely artificial. There is no reason to buy new records -they were mastered on digital workstation anyway, so its better better get original digital stream. Entry into vinyl world is expensive too. You need to spend well over $1000 on analog playback rig to get sound quality comparable to $200 digital player. Vinyl will be collector's only media quite soon. I, myself, only got TT so that I could listen to records just like people did when they were orginaly released 30-40-50 years ago. It is some sort of window into the past for me and likely the same for many others, who just didn't think about it. Today if smeone wants best quality - it's hi-res downloads they need to look for, not vinyl or CD.

 

[withmusic]

It would be a wonderful thing if turntables were to flood the market. Currently, at least around my area, turntables (real ones) are hard to come by and if you do see one the price is at least 4 times what it is worth.
I think the vinyl "revival" is just starting to die out from what I can see. Us older true vinyl appreciaters are unwilling to pay the inflated prices of the hipsters and the hipsters are starting to lose interest. I'm hearing a little more talk amongst them now about internet radio and services and high rate MP3s being their prefered media. I hope my prediction is right as I predict that soon, within the year, we well see vinyl flood the market again and prices turn downward. Hopefully we will see good turntables also.

 

[yellowfox]

There must be some kind of demand, because darn near every album I initially thought couldn't be had on vinyl, I've been able to find in the past six months. From brand new stuff like Owl City and Lady Gaga to older stuff that was never inititally available on vinyl simply because at the time it was considered a dead format... three recent albums I picked up were Sublime's self-titled album, They Might Be Giant's Factory Showroom, and Crash Test Dummies' God Shuffled His Feet. All albums from the mid to late 90's that have been re-released on vinyl when in their day were only available on CD and cassette.

 

[davidro]

I think vinyl hipe was largely artificial. There is no reason to buy new records -they were mastered on digital workstation anyway, so its better better get original digital stream.

this is what i used to think too. but many times ive enjoyed digital recording on vinyl more than digital recording on CDs.

 

[JohnVF]

But when you've gotten down to releasing The Crash Test Dummies, isn't that a sign that we're almost out of recordings to reissue on LP? These reissues were probably keeping a lot of money coming into to pressing plants and labels but at some point, everything that anybody wanted, is out. I know that I've gotten to that point. When I got Slowdive's "Souvlaki" and Pulp's "Different Class" on vinyl, I was happy and that was about the end of what I was still looking for as far as out of print titles I really 'needed' to have on LP.

The prices have driven me out of the new-vinyl market. I paid something like $30 for that Pulp album for the two or three times I've played it. And the pressing doesn't sound as good as the reissue CD I have ripped to my computer and played through my DAC. And when used vinyl is around $10 a record around here except for thrifts? No thanks to that, either. And the thrifts around here have nothing for selection, its all picked over.

Just 3 years ago I flew to Montreal with my girlfriend to spend 3 days going through record stores looking for a different variety than we had here. Now we're both sick of record prices and bad pressings.

 

[matteos]

Another thing I like about vinyl is that the Missus is really into it, she goes out and finds records and enjoys the whole thing. It's something more than just listening to music, she doesn't care the same way about digital, in fact she just texted me to tell me she'd picked up 4 records at a thrift store.

Listening to music this way is a shared thing, that alone is enough to keep vinyl around. I don't really care what other people do, if vinyl stays in fashion new stuff will be released, if it falls out I'l pick up all the records hipsters are getting rid of for cheap.

 

[fowlerclone]

I suppose we'll also see how RSD turn out is this year. I myself won't be there. This is mostly because of there being no titles that interest me, but also an unwillingness to spend big $$ on some special edition colored vinyl. Black is just fine thank you.

 

[JonL]

I think the high prices for vinyl are a good indication that the demand is still there (Econ 101). Even here on Bartertown, I'm shocked at what people ask (and pay) for used records. The market may get saturated or burnt out from the prices, but I think there's room for more growth if the prices come down a bit on both new and used records.

I rarely buy new records. Around here, the thrift shops are still selling at around a buck a record. There's one church thrift shop that somehow seems to get good stuff. I picked up about 10 near mint (still in shrink wrap) original Rolling Stones mono pressings of their early catalog a couple of years ago at a buck a piece. Last week I picked up Alvin Lee, Johnny Cash from Folsom Prison, This Is Sam Cooke, and Nat King Cole's Unforgettable, all for a buck each at the same place. These would sell for $10 to $15 or more plus shipping on BT. They'd be $5 - $20 at my local used record store -- with a guarantee. The market's all over the place. Tag sales are anywhere from $0.50 (rare these days) to $3+ per record. Could we be teetering at the peak of the market? Possible, but I don't think so. I think it'll gradually level off over the next five years, maybe retract a little, but stay fairly constant at that point. I think for most LP buyers it isn't about waiting until digital is as good or better, it's about a love for the vinyl medium, and I think that once bitten with the love of the medium (for more than just the sound), that love will stick around for a long while.

 

[haffy111]

I think vinyl hipe was largely artificial. There is no reason to buy new records -they were mastered on digital workstation anyway, so its better better get original digital stream. Entry into vinyl world is expensive too. You need to spend well over $1000 on analog playback rig to get sound quality comparable to $200 digital player. Vinyl will be collector's only media quite soon. I, myself, only got TT so that I could listen to records just like people did when they were orginaly released 30-40-50 years ago. It is some sort of window into the past for me and likely the same for many others, who just didn't think about it. Today if smeone wants best quality - it's hi-res downloads they need to look for, not vinyl or CD.

you may want to re-evaluate nearly every statement you made here.

 

[gaslover]

No. RTI is pressing 10,000 LPs a day. 25 years ago they pressed 10,000 per week.

 

[jeremyjustic]

I just read a few new audio mags on a couple of long plane trips to the UK. All were saying that DAC's and Headphones are the new hot ticket. I dont think turntables are any less popular it's just DAC's are the new flavor of the month so everyone is talking about them, lots of great new products coming out plus the audiophile world has finally decided to accept computer audio as a format. I just put together my computer server so it fresh on my mind as well.

I dont know why there is such a spike in headphone sales, however my 11 year old nephew and all of his friends wanted beats headphones for christmas. My mom said that they are the must have for all the kids at his school. I dont care what the quality of the beats are, it's getting kids into listening to music so thats great!

All that said , vinyl isnt going anywhere. it going to be around for a very long time, its popularity will ebb and flow like everything else

 

[matteos]

The headphone DAC thing is all down to headfi. Personally I'm not a fan of headphones at all unless I'm listening walking around. I want to be able to feel the music, not just hear it.

 

[iloveamps]

I think the craze is fading as people rediscover the inherent flaws of the medium and why we moved away from it in the first place. That said, I think (and hope) it will always be around, just not at the forefront.

 

[marc mc]

But when you've gotten down to releasing The Crash Test Dummies, isn't that a sign that we're almost out of recordings to reissue on LP? These reissues were probably keeping a lot of money coming into to pressing plants and labels but at some point, everything that anybody wanted, is out. I know that I've gotten to that point.

I cleaned up on the albums everyone dumped in the 90's. It was fish in a barrel for a while back then. But I was finally forced to adopt CD's for new material.

Today I have 2 completely different collections one is vinyl and one is CD. I did not replace any of my vinyl with CD's and today I have zero interest in replacing my CD's with vinyl reissues.

Now with that said as I'm picking up on the CD's that people are dumping if the masses drop vinyl again? I will gladly clean up for a second time. :thmbsp:

Marc mc

 

[charles 1973]

I think the craze is fading as people rediscover the inherent flaws of the medium and why we moved away from it in the first place. That said, I think (and hope) it will always be around, just not at the forefront.

That's how I see it too. There's no way I would use only Vinyl again. I love the convience of CD's and with a good CD Player (way more than $200), or CD Transport & Good DAC the SQ of the format is not a factor. However, the SQ of the Mastering I find is better overall all with my LP's, some used, some New. I have several CD's that I won't even listen too, they just fill up shelf space.

I recently got re-acquainted with LP's and must say when I'm in the mode, I Love the whole experience. While my vintage Belt Drive Pioneer TT and Nagoaka cartridge is hardly a giant killer, with some of my better, used LP's it sounds wonderfull too.

Today young people can chose to listen to their LP's, and when there not in the mode, can listen to any one of several Digital formats, from MP3's to 24 bit/96 khz or better Lossless Files. This way they won't get frustrated with LP's as easily as we did when LP's where a Primary source.

 

[Pandovski]

Great thread John, I'll punch in with some stats.

Well, I too like most of us have the impression that vinyl is kicking major digital ass and if the 70's were Greko-Roman, the late 00's are its Renaissance.

Here is how it all looks like to us music lovers and audiophiles.

Looks pretty great right? Oh but that's just at 4 million level.
Let's zoom out 50x at 200 million to see the whole music formats perspective.

...and 900 million level

 

[ehoove]

While they may not know it, they do own DACs. Everything with digital files and an analog output has a DAC somewhere in the chain. The only difference is that they aren't high quality DACs. You can say the same about cartridges, non-audiophiles way back when weren't swapping out cartridges.

Depends on the cd/sacd player in question. IMHO
Regards,
Jim