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I see vinyl is finally in decline (again)

richamor said:
So I buy the LP. It's a permanent source of enjoyment that, as long as I take care of it, I can continue too listen to into perpetuity free of charge
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Don't forget the fact it's tangible and is yours to do what you want with. It's not rented and you can sell it for gain or loss depending on demand.

cpt_paranoia said:
People seem to get rather emotional about this. Pointing out that vinyl is a medium in decline seems to be taken as some kind of attack on vinyl enthusiasts. It's not; it simply a statement of fact.
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But this statement is not fact. The word "decline" means sales have to be lower year over year currently. The fact is sale are increasing year over year and more rapidly every new year. It's also compounded in percentage figures. I remember in around 2013 they where saying new record sales had grown 5% over 2012. Here we are in 2018 and all the figures are not in but every year new record sale have increased there sales in percentage every year. On a half year percentage comparison so far 2018 has a increases of 19% over 2017. Decline that is not.

cpt_paranoia said:
10 million vinyl sales in a year?
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New record sales of last year, there still is far far more in the used market.

cpt_paranoia said:
How does that compare with streaming figures, or the sales figures of yesteryear?
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This is not the topic at all...LOL
 
Where I live (a university town) we had a really great cd/vinyl store. At one point they had two stores, but had to scale back to one during the recession They kept the larger store going, had a giant selection, a bandstand where touring acts coming through town would play free sets. They bought and sold and traded. They were well run by good management and friendly staff.

Then, the final blow was a road project that affected their visibility and accessibility. They hung on until it was finished but finally threw in the towel shortly thereafter.

That suggests to me that streaming and mass market move away from physical media plus razor thin margins has most or at least many of similar local shops on the brink.
 
Condorsat said:
Vinyl has been a niche format since the early 90's.
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It will always be a niche market. Talk of 'resurgence' only means maintaining a small niche. And that can only happen if the niche is big enough to be profitable, and even so will limit variety to good sellers.

I'm primarily a Classical listener, and that niche even in the "golden age" was only 4-5%, which would now be ,4-.5%, so I see little future there. The 5th Symphony and 4 Seasons will always be available, but only one or two performances, compared to a hundred or so once upon a time. That matters a lot with Classical. Only Hendrix "interprets" Hendrix, but Bach was never recorded and no interpreter is definitive, though many offer astonishing insights. Those insights will be lost.
 
I would agree that Vinyl will always be niche .. albeit a very long lasting and survivable one. Historically, formats don't make robust come backs like vinyl has done. I've always thought of Vinyl as an aberration among formats .. an outlier.

IMHO .. the format (physical media) days are coming to an end. To be replaced by the "portal" days who's content are ephemeral (think of the Netflix model). My guess is … there will be no permanent portals (think Mog, RDIO .. etc) or content for that matter.
 
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One problem with used is those who place insane prices on records with values nowhere near the sticker price. Case in point: A local pawn has about three tubs of LPs that must've come in on pawn. Number one...the owner must've loaned the guy waaaay too much $$$ for what he had...and Number two he's trying to recoup his mistake at $9.95 a pop. I went through all of them...saw a few that I might give $5 or so for. The rest? Garage sale fodder at a buck a pop IMHO. Tried offering $5 each on a few and was flat turned down. I tried to explain to him that condition was EVERYTHING but he maintained that "Records are HOT...they'll sell." I think they're going to be there a long time. Unfortunately, the owner might get tired of them taking up space and they'll be dumpster bound.
 
4-2-7 said:
This is not the topic at all.
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It's very relevant to the topic.

There's plenty of evidence that vinyl is not a medium widely used for publishing music, like it used to be. Only a fraction of published music (either newly released or back catalogue) is released on vinyl. Thus, it's hard to find music on vinyl to buy, except secondhand; and the quality of that is inevitably declining, due to the fragile nature of the medium.

It's hard enough buying new, back catalogue CDs.
 
The OP originally noted there is anecdotal evidence Vinyl sales are declining in New Zealand .
The opposite seems to be the case in the US as shown by RIAA sales data. I assume it's reliable, but don't really trust an organization that sues its customers for sport. :) Sorry, couldn't help myself.
Anyway last night I listened to Mark Knopfler's new release on Tidal and then spun some Doors vinyl from the big box set I bought a couple of years ago.
The vinyl experience was way more fun for me, and the sound was better.
As long as those two things remain present - better sound* and a fun experience, vinyl will continue to do well.
I sure hope it does.
Tom

* better sound in this case is totally subjective because from an objective point of view hi-rez digital checks all the boxes and then some. I guess I've learned to live with vinyl's foibles.
 
I think that there is a question that bares asking as we discuss this topic. Are we talking about new vinyl sales only? Or are we talking about used vinyl sales? Or total vinyl sales of both in the end of new and used combined? I think it makes a difference as prices for new stuff here in my West Michigan market are so high it keeps people from buying new stuff. I will just listen to it in my digital library before I buy it at thoughts prices. I talk with others while at the music bins and they say the same thing. They look but don't buy because of price. So in my opinion price can be surpressing sales. But if you add the used market were prices are much more reasonable the numbers go up but you run the risk of not being able to finding your looking for there. So this is also a road block of sorts. Just a few thoughts.
 
As someone who returned to vinyl after switching to cd and then to streaming, I don’t really care what the masses do. I’ve never been a follower, and I would suspect many on AK aren’t.

I don’t collect records for an investment. I do it because I find music I never expect to find. Case in point, and why I do this: I bought a Donovan record at the thrift on Thursday. While my wife and I were listening to it, we suddenly hear the opening cords to a song from one of our favourite movie soundtracks, Children of Man. The song is called There is an Ocean from the album Essence to Essence. I never would buy this album new. I never would have heard this song except in the digital format from Children of Man. But by picking records from a thrift, I find music just from liking a cover, an artist, or genre. I’ve discovered great soul, blues, funk, and classic rock because I mostly pay $2 each record, and that is a small price to pay for great music, with great visuals. I have record covers framed and on display because these are some of my favourite visuals. Yes, I have too many and haven’t organized it all, but I’m working on it.

One thing all the streamers don’t get, are all the b-tracks that don’t get airplay and never made the top 20. If you don’t listen to a record right through on a fairly regular basis, the songs that grow on you over time will never do so. We will just skip to a different song.
 
Great question! The only thing we have any reasonable data on is new vinyl sales. I'm not aware of anyone or any way to track down used vinyl sales. I think there is plenty of situational and anecdotal evidence around used vinyl sales ,so this will always be a rich topic of discussion with no resolution.
 
BilboBaggins said:
One thing all the streamers don’t get, are all the b-tracks that don’t get airplay
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If you subscribe to a streaming service that chooses music for you, maybe.

But, if you stream music by browsing, you can achieve the same serendipitous finds as your Donovan find, only you have enitre back catalogues, b-sides, obscure tracks and all to choose from. If you're prepared to expend the effort to go out to shops, trawl though piles of dross, and pick out albums that 'look interesting', then you could expend a fraction of that effort trawling streaming catalogues...

I go out and trawl secondhand shops for CDs. I don't subscribe to any streaming service.

But that doesn't blinker me to thinking that my way is 'best', or that it isn't a delivery mechanism that is in decline.
 
bimasta said:
It will always be a niche market. Talk of 'resurgence' only means maintaining a small niche.
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And “we” as a community forget we are a extremely small niche. I have been able watch the “resurgence” via my 23 and 28yr old daughters and thier friends, most of them got into it. The only ones out of that group of 15 or so that actively pursued buying vinyl is down my daughters and one other, all the rest gave away or sold their vinyl and stream to their vintage equipment. They are this hobbies future and the ones I know personally are streaming, except for a small niche.
 
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BilboBaggins said:
One thing all the streamers don’t get, are all the b-tracks that don’t get airplay and never made the top 20.
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I am a streamer and I get all the b-tracks, not sure what you mean. Every single physical media I have vinyl and CD I also have the complete album in my Tidal account :dunno:
 
I started my second LP collection in 2008. I have yet to buy a new LP. I guess I'm close to 500 now. I have over 3000 CD's and am pushing 2000. DVD's. I have about 150 down loads on the computer shared with my iPhone 10X and they are all backed up on CD. I still have about 50 LP's from my original collection. They are mostly Sheffield, Telarc and Mobile Fidelity. I have always wanted to try some Reference recordings. LP's, but haven't yet.
 
What sux for me living in a tiny house is my designated Vinyl storage area is only good for about 125 LP’s. The up side is I will only have what I really want. That’s the whole reason I tried going to CD’s again but vinyl won again for me.

:beerchug:
 
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