For the last several years we've been watching and writing about the fastest growing format of music...vinyl. Yes, the format that was left for dead in the wake of the CD in the mid-80s has continued to slowly come back, and 2014 was a transcendent year, with vinyl sales increasing a whopping 50% while other formats (even mp3s) continued to experience double-digit declines. To give perspective, vinyl sales have increased over 1000% in the past decade. The numbers are still relatively small (still under 10 million units per year and only around 2% of total sales), but they are meaningful, especially to independent retailers for whom vinyl has become essential for survival. It is difficult for those stores to compete with Amazon.com and iTunes when selling digital formats, but they have a huge advantage with vinyl and they are the source of over half of the vinyl LPs sold in the US.
For the last several years we've been watching and writing about the fastest growing format of music...vinyl. Yes, the format that was left for dead in the wake of the CD in the mid-80s has continued to slowly come back, and 2014 was a transcendent year, with vinyl sales increasing a whopping 50% while other formats (even mp3s) continued to experience double-digit declines. To give perspective, vinyl sales have increased over 1000% in the past decade. The numbers are still relatively small (still under 10 million units per year and only around 2% of total sales), but they are meaningful, especially to independent retailers for whom vinyl has become essential for survival. It is difficult for those stores to compete with Amazon.com and iTunes when selling digital formats, but they have a huge advantage with vinyl and they are the source of over half of the vinyl LPs sold in the US.
Vinyl also has its first star artist: Jack White, who not only records on vinyl but operates his own record company and store in Nashville that pushes the format, has sold over 80,000 copies of his album Lazaretto on vinyl. And many other artists are selling at least a few thousand copies, usually at prices of around $20 per unit, making vinyl also a very profitable format. The format's rebirth has been driven by rock, but with increased resonance in jazz and classical. And vinyl is finally making some small inroads into the R&B world.
The rebirth of the format has also helped push sales of vintage albums from the 60s and 70s, and has even led some stores to premium price mono recordings from the 50s, which now can run $50 or more.
One of the major challenges facing the continued growth of vinyl records is the lack of manufacturing equipment. The majority of the records now are being pressed on machines from the 60s and 70s, and keeping the equipment working and even getting the raw material (polyvinyl chloride) in sufficient amounts has become a real challenge. It remains to be seen whether demand continues to grow such that the vinyl records industry can be completely rebuilt after three decades of disinvestment. But as of now, it's a great developing story.
By Chris Rizik
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