Vinyl Outsells CDs For the First Time in Decades

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Leviethan, Sep 10, 2020.

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  1. therockman

    therockman Senior Member In Memoriam


    Could you imagine the industry going from about one billion units moved in a year to just over 20 million units sold in a year. What a difference.
     
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  2. Edotl

    Edotl formerly Rick Goodkind

    Location:
    Columbus, OH, USA
    Yes, we who like physical media are a niche market. I'm a big jazz fan. This talk of CD vs. LP sales reminds me of talk of jazz and classical sales. Such strong genres. Such a small slice of the musical sales pie.
     
  3. thnkgreen

    thnkgreen Sprezzatura!

    Location:
    NC, USA
    I gave up on vinyl a couple of years ago for the same reason - production issues. Albums that looked scratched right out of the wrapper, warped, surface noise, etc. The hassle of trying to return the albums to my local dealer. Nah, I had enough. I'm really enjoying listening to Qobuz through a DAC.
     
  4. thnkgreen

    thnkgreen Sprezzatura!

    Location:
    NC, USA
    I have been buying CD's though. I don't find nearly the quality control issues compared to vinyl.
     
  5. NettleBed

    NettleBed Forum Transient

    Location:
    new york city
    Vinyl does not have a greater profit margin.
     
  6. UltraDNS

    UltraDNS Staying in Seattle?

    Location:
    Seattle, WA
    I only buy cd's for artists I really like. Anything I'm on the border on, I'll just stream it. As for vinyl, I don't own a turntable.
     
    oldsurferdude and audiomixer like this.
  7. Greenalishi

    Greenalishi Birds Aren’t Real

    Location:
    San Francisco
    Streaming trumps both
     
    dkmonroe and audiomixer like this.
  8. audiomixer

    audiomixer As Bald As The Beatles

    Both are dead. Streaming Hi-Rez is the "new fangled thang" and without inner groove distortion and surface noise. Imagine that!
     
    CDV likes this.
  9. dkmonroe

    dkmonroe A completely self-taught idiot

    Location:
    Atlanta
    Understatement of the year!
     
  10. Sneaky Pete

    Sneaky Pete Flat the 5 and That’s No Jive

    Location:
    NYC USA
    My i-pod died so I bought a Walkman. When I walk out to my car I carry a good chunk of my music collection with me in CD quality sound. 10,000 songs burned off my CDs. It connects via AptX Bluetooth and sounds very good.

    I know this is old news but don’t despair just alter your game plan slightly. I’m buying lots of CDs and SACDs these days. The only problem is I’ve filled up my Walkman. I have already installed the highest capacity flash drive it can support.

    Just to stay on point, I still buy records too.
     
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  11. Sneezyachew

    Sneezyachew Forum Resident

    Location:
    Providence, RI
    Doesn’t sound as organic. Never will. :tiphat:
     
  12. ATR

    ATR Senior Member

    Location:
    Baystate
    It's a two way race to the bottom. But I never fail to be amused by the audiophiles who enjoy gloating and snickering over the continued popularity of LP's, which of course relative to the platforms that all listeners are using is miniscule. The most important thing that's happened to home entertainment in the current generation, and I'm speaking here from being a passionate music lover for over half a century, is the ascendance of home theater and video games. Yes, by all means we should be enjoying our recorded music whatever way we prefer, and always believe that the way we enjoy it is the best way to do it, while simultaneously being aware that by no means do we constitute anything more than a majority of ourselves.
     
  13. audiomixer

    audiomixer As Bald As The Beatles

    Pops & crackles are at all organic to me.
    I play my piano at home & don’t hear pops or crackles.
     
    Brudr, ARK, CDV and 1 other person like this.
  14. djnathan7

    djnathan7 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Melbourne
    Vinyl benefts from a warmer sound and less dynamic range compression while CD has a more digital and cleaner sound which has it's pros and cons while Hi-Res is in many ways an enhncenced version of the CD format(despite being digital only) can benefit from well recorded and well mastered recordings but if the original recordings aren't well done and/or well mastered it can be hit or miss.
     
  15. x2zero

    x2zero Forum Resident

    Location:
    Brooklyn USA
    For it to be a race they’d need to be both heading in the same direction.
     
    The Trinity and classicrocker like this.
  16. PoeRaider

    PoeRaider Forum Resident

    So much animosity. Personally I am glad that vinyl records are still being made, and in fact the ones done right are sounding pretty amazing. Maybe better than ever. I prefer vinyl to streaming, but streaming has it's place, mostly for sounding good enough and being extremely convenient. But for tonality, atmosphere, decay of instruments, the "live" experience, streaming will never touch records. (Sounding organic has nothing to do with pops & crackles, washing and vacuuming a record properly works wonders btw).

    Some people dont care, and that's fine. But we should embrace the fact that there are still options, we should want more options, not less. When we're all sitting in our listening tubes, with voice-to-skull circuits streaming in the same DR5 recording to every listener and no remaining alternatives, then music will be dead. Resist assimilation..
     
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  17. Sneezyachew

    Sneezyachew Forum Resident

    Location:
    Providence, RI
    Neither do I on my system. Curious.
     
    The Quiet One and Leviethan like this.
  18. Fender Relic

    Fender Relic Forum Resident

    Location:
    PennsylBama
    If you can afford the new green deal electric charges. :eek:

    Everbody needs one of these for future days.

    [​IMG]
     
    Leviethan, Lynivevoli and Hep Alien like this.
  19. thnkgreen

    thnkgreen Sprezzatura!

    Location:
    NC, USA
    I'll never forget a record store owner snob telling me, after I asked him "what's the best way to clean your albums" (expecting him to say something like "a soft cloth and a good cleaner") telling me in the most condescending voice that the only way to clean albums was with some ridiculously expensive washer/vacuum. That was the first nail in the vinyl coffin for me. I was thinking to myself "I know damn well that people in the 1950's/60's didn't clean their vinyl with an f-ing disc washer/vacuum". Also, this video was a HUGE turnoff for me regarding vinyl. Read the comments of the video.

     
    fretter, CDV, Lynivevoli and 4 others like this.
  20. homeslice

    homeslice Forum Resident

    Location:
    london
  21. PoeRaider

    PoeRaider Forum Resident

    Yeah I see no point for those expensive machines either. I just wash my records in a sink with a $30 label saver, and then use my shop vac with a piece of $2 pvc pipe and a couple velvet pads glued on. Cheap, and nothing to break or need maintenance except new velvet pads every few months. I had an old velvet coat that was ugly as hell, so I've got a lifetime supply of velvet there...
     
    ODShowtime, thnkgreen and Hep Alien like this.
  22. audiomixer

    audiomixer As Bald As The Beatles

    Listen closer...
     
  23. DeRosa

    DeRosa Vinyl Forever

    Even if that's true, vinyl has a higher average selling price, and therefore profit per unit of sales is higher.
    So you'd still make more money selling 8 million vinyl records than 10 million CD's.
     
  24. DeRosa

    DeRosa Vinyl Forever

    nobody measures how many units of used physical media are sold now.
    At the height of the CD boom, consumers could really only buy new CD's.
    Now used media is probably the biggest number of all LP's and CD's.

    Measuring only "new" physical media sales is only part of the story, also dependent on the state of new releases
    for a significant percentage of sales.

    Other reports indicate the "back catalog" sales are an ever growing amount of new sales as well.

    A lot of Cd's and Lp's are still changing hands, the music labels only care about selling new units.
     
  25. Lanark

    Lanark The French for deja-vu

    Location:
    Bath, UK
    This is more about the collapse of CD sales than the small rise in vinyl sales.

    Given the direction of travel, it seems very likely that vinyl will have the higher number of units sold within the next couple of months.

    The more worrying trend for the future of vinyl is that so many vinyl sales are for re-issues of 1970's and 1980s albums - just look at the vinyl charts.
    Can you imagine if the album charts of 1980 had included a bunch of hits from the 1940's?
     
    ODShowtime, CDV and ricks like this.
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