Both formats can bring such long term enjoyment that spread over the years of ownership/enjoyment ,economics are almost irrelevant.
All I know is last year was the year I started noticing "new" people in the record shops. Before that you had your standard music junkies, myself included. Now I see families and kids record shopping. "Vinyls" are trendy at the moment and will likely continue to grow this year and the next until new buyers realize how much they are spending and grow out of it, that is, if they even do grow out of it. Records are expensive but I justify it this way: if I spend $30 for a meal it's a one time experience. If I spend $30 on a record I get to have that meal as many times as I want. As for managing cost, unless it's something I absolutely have to have, I go for whatever's the most cost effective, meaning the mass market release vs. marked up limited editions, as long as the pressing (music/mastering/track listing) is the same. I'd rather have more to listen to than less but collectible.
Definitely, but you get what you pay for: I've spend like 10x as much time, money and effort on my analogue setup in order for it to surpass the sound quality of my mediocre DACmagic Plus, but I get so much more for it than just the sound quality, because it's more immersive in many ways.
You won't get any new releases from proper labels for that price in Ireland, single lps of new releases are around €30 (see below from a recordstore in Dublin City) you'll only get grey area ones like Jazzwax etc for 20 -25 BEN PLATT - Honeymind - LP - Vinyl [MAY 31]
Same here in the Netherlands. Official release LPs start typically at 30 euros. Crappy grey market releases are all over the place so it might not seem that expensive when just randomly browsing through a store… but those seem to be a non-issue at the other side of the pond.
Really? Well… the grey market crap is so abundant over here that I have a hard time separating the wheat from the chaff these days. Makes record shopping very annoying, especially because filtering based on label is often next to non-existent in most online stores…
The mass market went records -> CDs -> MP3 -> streaming. The vinyl revival is niche, because physical formats in general are now niche. Within these, vinyl outselling CDs is US-specific, in most of the world CDs are still the best selling physical format.
I’ve run out of room for records and have turned back to CDs for the moment. Way cheaper and easier to store, and sound way better when listening with headphones.
The common man binged on stocks in the run up to the Great Depression. The common man binged on real estate (and mortgages that he couldn’t afford) in the run up to the Great Financial Crisis. These are simply historical facts. Now, if you wish to say that alongside that, the game was rigged by the wealthy and powerful, who profited enormously… I will not ever disagree with that. Because, that too is a historic fact. .
That seems strange for them to say, considering that vinyl did $1.35 billion in business in the US alone in 2023 (not counting used). .
Max I will spend is $40 for an album I really want, usually OJC or Tone Poet type of pressing that is likely to be high quality. Any quality issues and I have no qualms returning it for another. I’ve definitely slowed down and you’re much less likely to find me walking out of the store with a stack of records these days. Used prices are out of hand and I very rarely find a used record with no signs of previous playback, which should be the case when they are asking $20-$30 or more for something that isn’t that rare. I plan to keep my collection to around 300-400 records max and resist buying things that I sort of want or that I feel like I “should” own,
New cassette sales overtook new LP sales in 1983. CD sales didn’t overtake cassette sales until 1992. Walkman introduced in ‘79.
I bought five lps this year. They are all framed, and hanging on the wall as art. Two of the albums were new, and while I did remove the shrink wrap from the new albums, I didn't listen to them.
If you take Taylor Swift vinyl sales out it wouldn't be so healthy. I think the small percentage increase in sales indicates we are near to a peak. One thing most titles now readily available and the FOMO has gone out of the new vinyl market. Another factor may be that more sales are counted. A few years back Michael Fremer obtained figures for number of records pressed by the major plants and they well exceeded reported sales figures. I still wonder if specialist audiophile records get fully included in these figures. Also there are still reports of a high proportion of sales to fans and collectors with no turntable. I think this part of the market is likely to be fragile going forward. If you compare overall physical media sales from even ten years a ago there is nothing to shout about other than vinyl is around half and both CD and vinyl sales are pretty stable.
Yes, the LP record has served us well and continues to do so for such an archaic technology. I believe Thomas Edison himself would be shocked at how far his analog technology has come through the years if brought back to life and listened to some of our member's systems!
Edison invented the phonographic wax cylinder… but disc records were Emile Berliner, IIRC. (To be fair, Edison liked to believe that he himself had invented everything. ) .
Edison's cylinder technology was not that dissimilar to lp disks. I believe there were Edison disks as well, I think I remember seeing one made out of glass.
Now find that you don't actually like that album so much after a year and try to sell the download. How good the value is that? Mine as well. I go to the used bins ~once a month just as a way to relax but don't always pick up anything. There's definitely been a steady increase in the number of youngs and normies in the store since several years ago, which is good to see. I cherry pick some new reissues series - Tone Poets and Blue Note Classics mostly. The only time my wallet gets into serious trouble these days is when I discover a new artist or series I hadn't been into before. Right now that's the Dylan Bootleg Series, which for some reason I was completely ignorant of until recently. Going to be picking up a few of those this weekend....
