Vinyl Music Sales At A 10 Year High
VINYL bores are a terrible, terrible thing. However, some nice news is that vinyl sales are at a 10 year high. Driving demand are releases from Daft Punk, Arctic Monkeys and David Bowie (and a whole bunch of great compilations and reissues).
Figures are showing that records have crossed the half-million mark already in 2013, which is the first time that’s happened since 2003. Since last year, sales have doubled.
Naturally, the amount of records sold is rather modest, but still encouraging. Music fans have bought 550,000 records thus far, according to analysis of Official Charts Company data by recording industry body the BPI.
BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor said: “The LP is back in the groove. We’re witnessing a renaissance for records – they’re no longer retromania and are becoming the format of choice for more and more music fans.”
So why might that be? Well, obviously, downloads of a legal and illegal kind will far outstrip any other format, but for those wanting to spend money on music, vinyl is obviously the best option of the lot.
Why?
Well, even though some new vinyl releases have eye-watering prices (many new albums are prices around the £20 mark), they offer something that cassettes and CDs certainly don’t.
For a kick-off, there’s the sheer size of them. 12 inches of artwork and that lovely record inside, pristine and shiny. With that, most new releases come with a free download voucher, so you get the best of both worlds (a wonderful marketing tool for record buyers).
Either way, you can’t help but be thrilled that there’s a load of record buyers out there, still filling their houses up to the point of not being able to move and gazing fondly at their music libraries.
Long may it reign. Just don’t bang on about ‘superior sound quality’ or rolling joints on the sleeve.
Posted: 17th, October 2013 | In: Music, The Consumer Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
