Vinyl Sales vs Streaming Sales

Mike.......Pundits continue priming the well writing articles proclaiming the resurgence of vinyl sales while their editors project generating advertising revenue from LP sellers, turntable manufacturers and vendors, phono cartridge and phono stage amplifier manufacturers who spend big bucks on glossy full color single and double truck ads in publications, both print, on the web and magazine sponsored audio shows. The fact is CD sales are by far and away still leading recorded music sales despite an overall reduction in CD sales compared to their top sales figures of years past. Ten years ago these same pundits were proclaiming the CD is dead. Much to their chagrin 2014's marketing data shows CD sales at 257 million sold compared to 9.2 million vinyl albums sold last year. Looked at another way, 2014's vinyl sales represented 3.5% of compact disc sales. Sure, vinyl sales are growing, particularly when compared to its nearly nonexistent presence just a decade or so ago, but it remains a distant runner up and highly unlikely to ever surpass sales of the venerable compact discs. Quite frankly, this doesn't strike me as anything to be that excited about. None the less, the industry continues to pump the handle. No doubt there is money to be made but the industry's perceived excitement coupled with the small number of vinyl consumers doesn't exactly parallel the true sales figures. Of course like always, my opinion and $7.00 will buy me lunch at Mickey-D's.
 
Dan

I am sure you were one of those pundits that said vinyl was dead by the mid 90's :D
 
 
XV-1 said:
Dan

I am sure you were one of those pundits that said vinyl was dead by the mid 90's :D
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XV-1.......That's funny but not true. I am an old audio enthusiast who began buying vinyl in 1967. By the time the digital era was upon us and I purchased my first CD player around 1984 I had a record collection that amounted to nearly 2000 albums. Like many foolish stereophiles I shifted my purchasing to compact discs and by the early 90's I began selling my vinyl collection. I was tired of moving heavy wooden boxes full of LP's as I moved around in my younger days. I still owned my Micro Seiki DD-40 turntable and kept a couple hundred of my favorite albums and still spun vinyl from time to time. I never proclaimed the death of vinyl but I was full steam ahead into digital. Now I have a 1500 CD and SACD collection and a few hundred albums. Once again my LP collection is growing but it is happening slowly. I have embraced vinyl playback to a much higher degree than ever before and have about $7k in my vinyl rig in the studio, something I would have not done 15 years ago. My regret is I let a lot of vinyl slip through my hands when I should have kept my collection. Hind sight is always 20/20.

So, no I never declared vinyl dead. I simply took a long term hiatus that detoured me down digital lane for many years. I think vinyl playback sounds fabulous when you have good gear to spin LP's on and a high quality system to support vinyl playback. I am now one of those individuals who enjoys digital and analog playback. Both have come a long way since 1967 when all I had was my old Dual 1019 automatic turntable with the Shure V15 Type II moving magnet cartridge. That old work horse spun a lot of vinyl but could not hold a candle to what I now enjoy.
 
The point is that the best media source (in my opinion of course), all things considered, is growing and people HAVE to buy an album, they can't download/steal it. That's a good thing for the music industry.

I had Sonny over this weekend and he wanted to compare albums on the best digital format I had to the vinyl. Suffice it to say, he's now hooked. The questions about tables, arms, carts and phonostages were flying after that! LOL.
 
Mike said:
The point is that the best media source (in my opinion of course), all things considered, is growing and people HAVE to buy an album, they can't download/steal it. That's a good thing for the music industry.

I had Sonny over this weekend and he wanted to compare albums on the best digital format I had to the vinyl. Suffice it to say, he's now hooked. The questions about tables, arms, carts and phono stages were flying after that! LOL.
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Mike.......Vinyl is not pirate proof. I can make a copy of an LP on reel to reel or cassette any time I wish. Granted, coping analog with another analog format in real time is not as convenient as dragging a file to a USB thumb drive and plugging it into someone else's laptop or file server, but vinyl is not immune from being copied. These days vinyl can be easily converted to digital and then copied as easily as any other digital file.

I don't want to be misunderstood here. I am happy to see a comeback in vinyl. It provides us with an additional source for musical material and enjoyment, plus it serves as a driving force to generate new interest in audio for a younger generation. All good things. None the less, there are some flies in the ointment. I am a bit disappointed in the limited catalog being populated with old recordings, some remastered and some not. Remastering is no guarantee of an improved recording. I have long since tired of hearing much of the old music from the 60's, 70's and 80's, particularly rock. I lived through all of those years and got my fill of that music then. I would much prefer to see new music recorded on master tape and pressed into vinyl. The fact is most new music is digitally recorded, converted to analog and pressed into vinyl. I don't see much point in owning a vinyl recording of a digital master. Then there is the price, typically $29 to $39 for single LP's, plus considerably higher prices if an LP is cut and pressed at 45 RPM. Add shipping if the LP's are ordered online and a single LP purchase averages nearly $40 to $50.

Another thing that reduces my enthusiasm for vinyl purchases are pressing defects. If I order an LP that arrives defective, and I have on several occasions, I have to pay return shipping and be bothered to repack it and go to the post office to ship it back. Now I have an additional $6 to $8 dollars invested in return postage and have to wait while the return gets processed and a fresh copy is shipped to me. Twice I have experience a replacement copy arriving defective. Once I had a third replacement arrive defective and I still have that LP because I was too pissed off to spend another $6 to $8 shipping it back again. This type of experience takes the fun out of buying LP's online. Unfortunately for me when it comes to purchasing vinyl, I live in a rural area where no record stores are within 60 miles or more, so it isn't like I have many alternatives for shopping vinyl beyond online shopping. Despite the disappointing purchases from time to time, getting a new pristine LP always lifts the spirits, but the above experiences dampen my enthusiasm for buying vinyl at the same pace I buy compact discs or download high-res recordings.
 
The numbers just don't make sense. It is possible that the tracking data for streaming is too far behind. Tidal is the smallest of the services and with 1 million subscribers must take in between $10 and $20 million per month. That puts Tidal on a annual track for about $180m alone. Now add in Spotify, Rhapsody and Apple and paid streaming will blow past $300 million easily.
 
Whatever the market forces were that drove it's comeback, I will say it was a bit fortuitous that such a treasure trove of classic analog music (50's-90's) is being saved for a few more generations in a pure analog format while the tapes are still viable.
 
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