Can anyone explain the vinyl renaissance?

[Laika2]

Vinyl is better and so are the people who listen to it.

Glad we could clear that up.

LOL, Won't go that far.

 

[Count Arthur]

Absolutely. I loved the era of mixed tapes.
And I certainly avail myself of playlists.

I mostly use those in the car.

If I’m on a very long drive, then it might turn into whole albums.

Shudders.

I remember a particular incidence. I spent many hours making a mix tape, from vinyl; carefully queuing and level matching each track, only to have the cassette player in my car chew it to oblivion about three days later.

All the vinyl went many years ago and I now have everything stored on SSDs, both rips of my CDs and albums I've bought as download. Making play lists would be a breeze, but I've never bothered. I still predominantly listen to whole albums, but do occasionally skip about through my collection, listening to individual tracks.

 

[MatrixS2000]

Absolutely. I loved the era of mixed tapes.
And I certainly avail myself of playlists.

I mostly use those in the car.

If I’m on a very long drive, then it might turn into whole albums.

I use playlists mainly for background music during social events we are hosting. Streaming makes that extremely easy.

 

[Galliardist]

LOL, Won't go that far.

Why not? Just define "better" to make it work.

You're bound to be better than me - I'm just a "digital cultist" who doesn't even know who my cult leader is, after all.

 

[J.M. Noble]

Why not? Just define "better" to make it work.

You're bound to be better than me - I'm just a "digital cultist" who doesn't even know who my cult leader is, after all.

You haven't accepted your Lord and Savior Alec Reeves and His prophet Harry Nyquist into your heart?

("Better" = "I derive more enjoyment from it.")

 

[levimax]

Making mix tapes from LP's for the car was a pain. Recently I loaded most of my ripped CD collection (many thousands of songs) onto a USB storage stick to use in my car. I find I am using "random all tracks" a lot. I can skip tracks easily (without taking my hands off the wheel) and find it fun to hear some old forgotten songs or sometimes a never listened to song along with old and new favorite songs. Much better and easier than making mixed tapes.

 

[Galliardist]

You haven't accepted your Lord and Savior Alec Reeves and His prophet Harry Nyquist into your heart?

("Better" = "I derive more enjoyment from it.")

I'll need the services of a spiritual medium to get my cult orders from either of those two, not that they read as being good candidates anyway.

 

[MattHooper]

Making mix tapes from LP's for the car was a pain. Recently I loaded most of my ripped CD collection (many thousands of songs) onto a USB storage stick to use in my car. I find I am using "random all tracks" a lot. I can skip tracks easily (without taking my hands off the wheel) and find it fun to hear some old forgotten songs or sometimes a never listened to song along with old and new favorite songs. Much better and easier than making mixed tapes.

I still have a bag of mixed tapes I made in the 80s. Much of it was actually recorded from FM radio - a funk/dance station from across the border (WBLK in Buffalo). It wasn’t that long ago we still had a car that played cassettes. It was fun while it lasted, but I still haven’t gotten rid of the tapes, because I had this idea of transferring them to digital that, of course will never happen.

 

[Laika2]

Though I prefer digital perhaps 95% of the time, I am a weak soul, certain works I prefer on vinyl. A few questions.

1. Am I a good candidate for successful deprogramming.
2. Will the deprogamming cost be offset by a future reduction in vinyl purchases......

... and do any of you know of cases of successful Deprogamming where the subject has a huge rare minty record collection they want to sell cheap as hell (and their email address asking for deprogamming information only, I swear)

 

[MatrixS2000]

Though I prefer digital perhaps 95% of the time, I am a weak soul, certain works I prefer on vinyl. A few questions.

1. Am I a good candidate for successful deprogramming.
2. Will the deprogamming cost be offset by a future reduction in vinyl purchases......

... and do any of you know of cases of successful Deprogamming where the subject has a huge rare minty record collection they want to sell cheap as hell (and their email address asking for deprogamming information only, I swear)

Do you mean deprogrammed or reprogrammed?

 

[Galliardist]

Though I prefer digital perhaps 95% of the time, I am a weak soul, certain works I prefer on vinyl. A few questions.

1. Am I a good candidate for successful deprogramming.
2. Will the deprogamming cost be offset by a future reduction in vinyl purchases......

... and do any of you know of cases of successful Deprogamming where the subject has a huge rare minty record collection they want to sell cheap as hell (and their email address asking for deprogamming information only, I swear)

1. As a self-reprogrammed digital cultist, I'd say don't bother, if you have the space for your turntable and records and enjoy using them.
2. Yes, but you may in turn decide to improve your system to further enhance the improvements in sound quality available with your new digital cultist status.

In the case of my record collection, I only had a few rare discs and in any case you're a couple of decades late. But anyone truly deprogrammed will receive advice on the market value of their vinyl collection so as to get the maximum out of the suckers better people who listen to it.

 

[DSJR]

I bought a couple of used LPs last year to replace originals I'd long since sold or all-but given away in moments of madness when first-press classics weren't wanted One was 'Sheet Music by 10CC, the early UK Records cuts (I have two) having no drop-out on a quieter song. From the early 80s Mercury vinyl and ALL the digital releases, there's a drop out on 'Old Wild Men' which drives me bonkers. A wave editor indicates it could be a crease in the tape rather than shedding, but I honestly don't know. There's a multi-disc CD definitive box set of this band's work (15 discs) but no idea if this has been fixed (I suspect the band member who produced all these records may have original mix-masters and certainly has the multitracks I believe).

The other record was 'Colour of Spring' by Talk Talk which we used extensively as a dem record. My mint vinyl copy was disposed of as I had the excellent 'sounding' CD. Wanting a good vinyl cut to check some pickup cartridges out, I bought a used first pressing to find it was basically a 'frying chips' background (not sure it can be cleaned in this case), so I forked out for a current Abbey Road re-cut which I must admit does sound excellent in a more 'organic' kind of way (not sure if it's the cut or my turntable 'sexing it up' just a little).

 

[J.M. Noble]

This summary of the recently released RIAA 2024 annual report comes from slashdot.org (emphasis added):

U.S. music streaming services surpassed 100 million subscribers in 2024 [PDF] while industry revenue hit a record $14.9 billion, up 4% from the previous year, according to the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Physical media sales outpaced digital growth, with vinyl records increasing 7% to $1.4 billion, outselling CDs ($541 million) for the third consecutive year. Digital downloads plummeted 14.9%, now representing just 2% of industry revenue.

The renaissance continues unabated, please continue discussing things that don't explain it.

 

[Galliardist]

The renaissance continues unabated, please continue discussing things that don't explain it.

Full text on physical products:

Revenues from physical music formats continued to grow.

Total physical revenues of $2 billion were up 5% versus the prior year. Revenues from vinyl records grew 7% to $1.4 billion – the eighteenth consecutive year of growth – and accounted for nearly 3/4 physical format revenues.

For the third year in a row, vinyl albums outsold CDs in units (44 million vs 33 million). Revenues from CDs grew 1% to $541 million in 2024.

I didn't believe the revenue numbers initially, but the unit sales seem to confirm this.

Some other things caught my eye:
Ad supported streaming service revenues are down, which explains the apparent slowing of streaming sales growth overall despite more subscribers. I'd suspected that ads brought more in than is sometimes considered and this looks like some evidence.

"Digital and customised radio music revenues" grew to the same amount as vinyl. However, the percentage increase was lower, so it looks like vinyl is set to reach more milestones next year: more revenue than ad supported services, and more revenue than internet radio services. SoundExchange services (SiriusXM) is on the up at close to the same rate as vinyl though. I guess I need to find out about SiriusXM then.

And it looks like the first chink has appeared in Spotify's armour, given that the people I know paying for Spotify started out as ad-supported users. Maybe the new user stream is slowing down for them, and that will affect streaming growth generally. Though I'd suggest that in the US, streaming has matured and will now only grow through price increases. Every household must have a streaming service in place by now?

 

[HammersRocco]

You didn't. So please, stop jumping into this thread feet first like this and show a little consideration for the conversation that is actually taking place.

I admitted my mistake, I cannot be more gracious than that.
Useless with you. I hope that is not the case with the whole forum. To address your concern, I will do whatever I want unless a moderator objects. You are not one, so, well, abstain to ask me to do anything...

[Edit: I don't want to bicker, be aware putting you into ignore list, so replies will go into the void. Have a nice life]

 

[Galliardist]

I admitted my mistake, I cannot be more gracious than that.
Useless with you. I hope that is not the case with the whole forum. To address your concern, I will do whatever I want unless a moderator objects. You are not one, so, well, abstain to ask me to do anything...

[Edit: I don't want to bicker, be aware putting you into ignore list, so replies will go into the void. Have a nice life]

You were hardly gracious.

However, I will leave the forum now.

 

[MatrixS2000]

Ad supported streaming service revenues are down

Ads and listening just don’t belong together.

 

[J.M. Noble]

Ads and listening just don’t belong together.

Amen. Ads don't go along with anything else, either. I have Adblock Pro cranked up to "nuke from orbit". It claims to have blocked over 90 million ads. My settings are so strict that some websites just refuse to work; others put up an adwall. Either way, I don't see many ads.

I get ads with vinyl, though: the inner sleeves are sometimes plastered with e.g. Columbia's 1982 "Great Performances" new releases.

 

[MatrixS2000]

Amen. Ads don't go along with anything else, either. I have Adblock Pro cranked up to "nuke from orbit". It claims to have blocked over 90 million ads. My settings are so strict that some websites just refuse to work; others put up an adwall. Either way, I don't see many ads.

Agreed! We neck deep in ads in when it comes to online life.

I get ads with vinyl, though: the inner sleeves are sometimes plastered with e.g. Columbia's 1982 "Great Performances" new releases.

At least you have to option to not read these, unlike ads that are thrust onto you interrupting whatever it is you are doing.

 

[masterhw]

Ads and listening just don’t belong together.

radio??