Can anyone explain the vinyl renaissance?

[Jaxjax]

Or any obsolete mechanical format.
But do remember that any LP pressed before around 1980 was cut from a highly
modified reel to reel tape recording.

Yep, DSOTM 16T 2"
A high percentage of my favorite stuff was originally done to tape. I don't actually care which way it's done as I'm fully aware good AD/DA is now & has been for a while. I run my LP's right into a dsp speaker & loose no sleep. I sure wish we had todays tech 50+ years ago when I locked myself in rooms & relentlessly broke tape & LP's learning all my favorite guitar riff's. Alot of the LP thing today is collecting & then of course those looking for the high $ sh. to sell or trade.. Some of the people with large quality collections are sitting on huge $. It's actually pretty insane for what certain records go for & the list is long.

 

[pablolie]

Yep, DSOTM 16T 2"
A high percentage of my favorite stuff was originally done to tape. I don't actually care which way it's done as I'm fully aware good AD/DA is now & has been for a while. I run my LP's right into a dsp speaker & loose no sleep. I sure wish we had todays tech 50+ years ago when I locked myself in rooms & relentlessly broke tape & LP's learning all my favorite guitar riff's. Alot of the LP thing today is collecting & then of course those looking for the high $ sh. to sell or trade.. Some of the people with large quality collections are sitting on huge $. It's actually pretty insane for what certain records go for & the list is long.

No different for CDs. Very time dependent market though.I once learned an artist had died because there suddenly was a ridiculous Ebay bidding war for a CD I had listed.

 

[egellings]

Yup. I find the 20 minute-ish amount of time sitting for a record side to feel just about right, and getting up to change the record keeps me from feeling like I'm becoming a couch mushroom. Gets the air through the lungs/blood going again ready for the next side. And I never tire of interacting with the turntable.

On the other hand, when I've been listening to records for several days and I go back to my digital source, I love not having to get up to flip records, and just sit there without any care at all that way. And that too can sometimes get me in to the music.

So I just go back and forth, appreciating aspects of each, and mixing it up keeps each fresh for me.

Also, that a good time to do a beer run to the fridge, too.

 

[deweydm]

2023 RIAA stats.

 

[levimax]

2023 RIAA stats.

Do these numbers include used LP's and CD's? It doesn't appear to. I would be curious to know those numbers as from my perspective used sales of LP's and even CD's would exceed new sales but I really don't know as new LPs have picked up a lot of large chain store distribution the last several years.

 

[CleanSound]

The craziness defies logic:

Vinyl records outsell CDs for the second year running

Some people will never give up a spinning disc.

www.theverge.com

 

[Robin L]

2023 RIAA stats.

Interesting - though LP sales exceeded CDs by a small margin (LPs 43.2 million vs 37.0 million), the retail value of LPs vs CDs is much greater ($1350.2 vs $537.1 million).

 

[Robin L]

Do these numbers include used LP's and CD's? It doesn't appear to. I would be curious to know those numbers as from my perspective used sales of LP's and even CD's would exceed new sales but I really don't know as new LPs have picked up a lot of large chain store distribution the last several years.

Seeing how the record stores I've gone to have a lot fewer CDs than LPs, and the used CDs are so cheap these days (in spite of having a much better chance of not suffering from sonic damage), my guess is that sales of new LPs are very much on the upswing compared to used. This town has one store with new and used product, has many more new LPs than used, and very few CDs at all. The other store has nothing but used product, very few CDs compared to LPs.

 

[deweydm]

Interesting - though LP sales exceeded CDs by a small margin (LPs 43.2 million vs 37.0 million), the retail value of LPs vs CDs is much greater ($1350.2 vs $537.1 million).

No stats to back this up, but used CDs are even more inexpensive relative to used LPs. Like often ten times less for a used CD than the same album on used vinyl, in my recent experiences.

 

[Newman]

Exactly. If one is “all about the music”, the choice makes itself.

 

[deweydm]

Seeing how the record stores I've gone to have a lot fewer CDs than LPs, and the used CDs are so cheap these days (in spite of having a much better chance of not suffering from sonic damage), my guess is that sales of new LPs are very much on the upswing compared to used. This town has one store with new and used product, has many more new LPs than used, and very few CDs at all. The other store has nothing but used product, very few CDs compared to LPs.

Yes, I think this could be happening. For popular, older releases. Why chance $20 for an original pressing when there may be a good, new repress or remaster for $24? And if it isn’t a trend with LP buyers yet, it probably will be if used prices for older, popular, common LPs continue to increase. Too bad there don’t seem to be any stats for used physical media.

(Most people of course think, why buy music on physical media at all when it can just be streamed for far less.)

 

[deweydm]

Do these numbers include used LP's and CD's? It doesn't appear to. I would be curious to know those numbers as from my perspective used sales of LP's and even CD's would exceed new sales but I really don't know as new LPs have picked up a lot of large chain store distribution the last several years.

Nah. I would be very interested in used stats too.

 

[levimax]

Exactly. If one is “all about the music”, the choice makes itself.

Just going by price, value, and practicality yes, but sometimes there is more to the story when it comes to "art".

One point I have been rehashing is that for LP era releases the vinyl mastering can represent the "original" version and what the artist intended their audience to hear. The push back I get is "the original master is the art and it is far superior when transferred to digital than any vinyl version ever could be". I believe there is some truth to both perspectives.

If you have the patience to read through this story https://audiophilestyle.com/ca/the-best-version-of/the-best-version-of…-steely-dan’s-aja-r772/ you will see that even for one of the most iconic audiophile popular recordings of all time, Steely Dan Aja, a lot can happen from when the original master tapes were used to cut the original vinyl release, supervised by Fagen and Becker, and when it is released (and re-released) on digital.

 

[levimax]

This town has one store with new and used product, has many more new LPs than used, and very few CDs at all. The other store has nothing but used product, very few CDs compared to LPs.

Kind of the opposite in San Diego. Used records are far more prevalent than new in the dedicated record stores and CD's are taking up more room. I do agree though that the "trend" is toward more new.... I think the world is starting to run out of enough used records to satisfy demand.

 

[Robin L]

Kind of the opposite in San Diego. Used records are far more prevalent than new in the dedicated record stores and CD's are taking up more room. I do agree though that the "trend" is toward more new.... I think the world is starting to run out of enough used records to satisfy demand.

More to the point - the world is starting to run out of enough used LPs in playable condition to satisfy demand. On the other hand, used CDs seem to last longer and all of the used CDs I've acquired recently are spotless, pristine. Of course, they are Classical, less likely to be abused than a pop title that finds its way into a boom box or car stereo, more likely to be played back only a few times on a home stereo.

 

[Jaxjax]

Exactly. If one is “all about the music”, the choice makes itself.

Nah......
music is enjoyed on the same level with multiple mediums.

 

[Brian Hall]

Well, the people who are into Reel to Reel swear that it beats any and every other format with ease!, so there's that, all anecdotes of course.

They aren't fooling anyone. The people who prefer reel to reel are actual masochists. They want everything has to be as inconvenient as possible.

 

[Brian Hall]

It's funny how we all have our individual tolerances. Here I am all happy and fine with the demands of playing records, yet there's been an upswing in the niche popularity of Reel To Reel in the audiophile world, and to me that medium would be utterly intolerable. I couldn't imagine a more off-putting medium...from the hassle of putting on the tape (I don't like tape!) itself, the finickiness, the price of decent tapes and the lack of content. Yuck.

I can tolerate playing records about once a week and then I remember why I prefer CDs and streaming. I would never put up with reel to reel.

 

[Newman]

They aren't fooling anyone. The people who prefer reel to reel are actual masochists. They want everything has to be as inconvenient as possible.

I agree Brian, and add that the exact same argument applies to people who are into vinyl for the same reasons as the R2R crowd.

 

[Sal1950]

Stat's, you asked for stats,
Where did all those CD buyers go?
NOT to vinyl. LOL

Music Streaming Statistic​

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4. Americans stream on average 75 minutes of music per day.
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7. Spotify is the dominant music streaming service with 180 million subscribers.
8. The #1 reason for a paid subscription is to avoid ads interrupting the music.
9. Gamers are 14% more likely to be paying for music streaming services.
10. 
    

Music Streaming Statistics in 2024 (US & Global Data) - Musical Pursuits

Streaming is the driving force of the music industry, making up the lion’s share of...

musicalpursuits.com