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Posted: |
Mar 13, 2023 - 4:34 PM
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By: |
.
(Member)
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By Brandon Drenon
BBC News, Washington
March 13, 2023
Vinyl record sales outperformed CDs in the US for the first time since 1987, according to a new report.
Just over 41 million vinyl records were sold in 2022, to the tune of $1.2bn (£.99bn). Only 33 million CDs were sold, amounting to $483m.
It was the 16th consecutive year of growth for record sales, about 71% of physical format revenues.
Recorded music revenue in the US grew for the seventh consecutive year and reached a record high of $15.9bn.
Overall, revenue for recorded music in 2022 increased by 6%, according to the report released by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), driven largely by streaming but also by physical music format sales.
The report found that revenue for physical music formats has steadily risen over the years, marked by a "remarkable resurgence" in 2021 after being muted by Covid-19 in 2020. Physical music revenues as a whole were up 4% last year, propelled by vinyl records which saw a 17% increase. Meanwhile, revenue from CDs fell 18%.
Physical copies of music continued to perform better than digital downloads, the report found, which saw yet another decline in revenue, dropping by 20% to $495m. It's a stark contrast from the peak popularity digital downloads once held, having made up 43% of recorded music revenues in 2012. Since then, downloads have plummeted - to just 3% last year.
Revenue from streaming, which includes "paid subscriptions, ad-supported services, digital and customized radio, social media platforms, digital fitness apps and others," grew 7% to a record high $13.3bn. It accounted for 84% of total revenues.
Last year's vinyl record sales demonstrate that vinyl is "cementing its role as a fixture of the modern music marketplace," RIAA Chairman and CEO Mitch Glazier said in a post on Medium.
"Music lovers clearly can't get enough of the high-quality sound and tangible connection to artists vinyl delivers," Glazier said, "and labels have squarely met that demand with a steady stream of exclusives, special reissues, and beautifully crafted packages and discs."
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"Music lovers clearly can't get enough of the high-quality sound and tangible connection to artists vinyl delivers," Glazier said, "and labels have squarely met that demand with a steady stream of exclusives, special reissues, and beautifully crafted packages and discs."
This part gave me a little chuckle.
Yes, me too. Crazy that a format with limited capabilities, which distorts sound, adds warble and mechanical noise, is preferred over flawless high-end studio sound, but it shows it's not about "sound quality" (which, let’s face it, has always been crap, and I say that as someone who has a couple of hundred on LPs and quite some experience with the format and had good turntables such as the Technics 1200 Ltd.), but it’s about the covers and the "experience" of caressing music.
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It's very easy to be misled by the headline, as it implies that vinyl is more popular now than digital, when in fact streaming has mostly supplanted CDs. So digital is still far and away more popular.
Interesting too that a large percentage of vinyl purchases go unopened - it's the "collector" aspect that drives much of the sales.
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Posted: |
Mar 14, 2023 - 10:09 PM
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By: |
SchiffyM
(Member)
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It's very easy to be misled by the headline, as it implies that vinyl is more popular now than digital
Gee, I don't read it that way at all. It's pretty straightforward: vinyl is outselling CDs.
I understand how much this mystifies (and angers) so many on this board, but as a father of a girl who adores vinyls, I understand it. Streaming is a miracle in many ways, but it's too easy, and has the effect of making none of the music feel special. Digital music files, whether delivered over the internet or on a plastic disc, are pretty much the same. (I know, I know, there are no liner notes on streaming, but most music doesn't come with notes, and few read the notes.) LPs (vinyls) are beloved not despite the inconvenience of them, but because of it. (My daughter also treasures her film camera for the same reason.) The effort of listening to a record forces you to think about it in a way that's easily lost when music is disposable.
None of this would make me go back to vinyl. But I do understand why some others are.
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It's very easy to be misled by the headline, as it implies that vinyl is more popular now than digital
Gee, I don't read it that way at all. It's pretty straightforward: vinyl is outselling CDs.
I understand how much this mystifies (and angers) so many on this board, but as a father of a girl who adores vinyls, I understand it. Streaming is a miracle in many ways, but it's too easy, and has the effect of making none of the music feel special. Digital music files, whether delivered over the internet or on a plastic disc, are pretty much the same. (I know, I know, there are no liner notes on streaming, but most music doesn't come with notes, and few read the notes.) LPs (vinyls) are beloved not despite the inconvenience of them, but because of it. (My daughter also treasures her film camera for the same reason.) The effort of listening to a record forces you to think about it in a way that's easily lost when music is disposable.
None of this would make me go back to vinyl. But I do understand why some others are.
Some here know I spend a fair amount of time writing about home theater / audio and video technologies, so I think my perspective comes from a recent online debate I had with a contingent using the BBC article to bolster their claim that people like the sound of vinyl better than CD. There is a shockingly large group of self-proclaimed audiophiles who will ferociously defend that claim, and this article has been coming up in the debate.
That said, I agree that being able to instantly summon almost every single piece of music ever recorded is both a blessing and a curse. I often find myself skipping from song to song rather than taking in an album as an experience, something that playing LPs essentially forced you to do. Something has been lost in that translation, even when the obvious answer (just let the album play!) is staring you right in the face.
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Posted: |
Mar 14, 2023 - 11:12 PM
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By: |
steffromuk
(Member)
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I understand how much this mystifies (and angers) so many on this board, but as a father of a girl who adores vinyls, I understand it. Streaming is a miracle in many ways, but it's too easy, and has the effect of making none of the music feel special. Digital music files, whether delivered over the internet or on a plastic disc, are pretty much the same. (I know, I know, there are no liner notes on streaming, but most music doesn't come with notes, and few read the notes.) LPs (vinyls) are beloved not despite the inconvenience of them, but because of it. (My daughter also treasures her film camera for the same reason.) The effort of listening to a record forces you to think about it in a way that's easily lost when music is disposable.
None of this would make me go back to vinyl. But I do understand why some others are.
These are the first wise words I've read about the topic since I joined this forum. Thanks for that.
I'm a Vinyl lover and an audiophile. That's why I keep buying CDs and digital music.
Vinyl is about experience and being an active part of it. It makes you slow down and pay attention to how special what you're listening to is.
I'd compare that to opening your photo albums or nice art book. It's like taking a break from the World around you and rest in a cosy bubble for 45 minutes.
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That reporter probably has shares in a vinyl manufacturing company.
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Interesting too that a large percentage of vinyl purchases go unopened - it's the "collector" aspect that drives much of the sales.
I bought exactly one LP this century. And yes, it's unopened, I only bought it for decorative purposes.
Some here know I spend a fair amount of time writing about home theater / audio and video technologies, so I think my perspective comes from a recent online debate I had with a contingent using the BBC article to bolster their claim that people like the sound of vinyl better than CD. There is a shockingly large group of self-proclaimed audiophiles who will ferociously defend that claim, and this article has been coming up in the debate.
The irony of course being that digital sound could easily replicate "vinyl" sound, meaning less dynamic range, distortion, hiss, cracks, warble, etc., you could just mix this in if you wanted to and get vinyl sound. :-) Nobody seriously suggests that, because that would be crazy.
The love of vinyl has nothing to do with sound, and everything to do with adding a haptical experience to music listening. Also, most vinyl lovers seem to like 60s bands etc., I just don't see how anyone would claim vinyl could better reproduce a Mahler symphony (where a single symphony may have a sound range from small chamber like solo instruments to hundreds of musicians, chorus and organ) than digital CD/high-res sound.
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The best would be if everybody could buy the music in the format they prefer.
Of course, that's the best of all worlds.
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Vinyl is about experience and being an active part of it. It makes you slow down and pay attention to how special what you're listening to is.
This may work for some people. When I listen to vinyl, I almost wait to hear anything that does not belong to the actual recording: a click, a pop, whatever... that's because I HATED these things beck in the 1980s when I had to listen to vinyl, because it was more or less the best affordable format.
Also, I don't at all enjoyed that I had to get up, sometimes multiple times, to switch sides to hear a single symphony if it doesn't fit on one LP. I don't see how that is more immersive, I find this terribly distracting from the music. I know some people enjoy the format, and that's fine, but from a listening perspective, I just cannot stand it, I just dislike it. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy the format once in a while (when I have a turntable), but that's more because I find the mechanics still interesting and enjoy putting on one of the many LPs I sill have. And an AVM R. 2.3 certainly looks quite cool.
Come to think of it, I enjoy vinyl LPs nowadays much more than back in the day when I bought them, because now I don't have to rely on the format for my listening, but can put on an LP whenever I want for nostalgia, knowing that I (often) have a (more or less) flawless digital master of the recording as well.
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Nostalgia is a powerful thing.
Yes, and there is nothing wrong with a good ol' dose of nostalgia. I love my old LPs too, I cherish them and have a lot of fond memories collecting them. Sometimes, I even pick up an old LP of mine when I listen to the music from my NAS, so I get the best of both world, the haptic experience and clean, perfect sound.
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