Vinyl remains officially the least popular way to listen to music albums in the UK

[captain paranoia]

I would have thought it would be cassette tapes.

The author discounted cassettes as being, essentially, a novelty item.

As for the idea of selling CDs in 12" packaging. Hmm... that would need roughly 5x the space...

There's no way I would pay the prices being asked for new vinyl, when I can get secondhand CDs for as little as 20p. I've got my old vinyl collection, but I haven't touched it in more than 25 years, I'd guess. I prefer the 'master tape' quality from CDs...

 

[Robin L]

The author discounted cassettes as being, essentially, a novelty item.

As for the idea of selling CDs in 12" packaging. Hmm... that would need roughly 5x the space...

There's no way I would pay the prices being asked for new vinyl, when I can get secondhand CDs for as little as 20p. I've got my old vinyl collection, but I haven't touched it in more than 25 years, I'd guess. I prefer the 'master tape' quality from CDs...

Cassettes, right now, are as much a novelty item as 78s. Yes, some scribes speak of a "revival", but the real news is the abandonment of physical media.

 

[Hypnotoad]

Cassettes, right now, are as much a novelty item as 78s.

It won't be long and Cd's will be a novelty item as well, with all the streaming sites and HiRes files that people download, even most cars built today don't have a Cd player.

Sales of CDs plummeted by 23% last year, as consumers flocked to streaming services for their music.

Just 32 million CDs were sold in 2018 - almost 100 million fewer than in 2008; and a drop of 9.6 million year-on-year.

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-46735093

 

[anmpr1]

It won't be long and Cd's will be a novelty item as well, with all the streaming sites and HiRes files that people download, even most cars built today don't have a Cd player.

I think mine (2018 model) has a CD player. In the glove box. But I'm not sure. I've never used it, or wanted to. I guess I should check it, see if it works, before the warranty expires.

 

[Frank Dernie]

It won't be long and Cd's will be a novelty item as well, with all the streaming sites and HiRes files that people download, even most cars built today don't have a Cd player.

Sales of CDs plummeted by 23% last year, as consumers flocked to streaming services for their music.

Just 32 million CDs were sold in 2018 - almost 100 million fewer than in 2008; and a drop of 9.6 million year-on-year.

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-46735093

There are 7 billion people on earth, most of them from areas where streaming may not be a useful option.
For them (and me) CDs will keep going for a long time yet.

 

[Robin L]

There are 7 billion people on earth, most of them from areas where streaming may not be a useful option.
For them (and me) CDs will keep going for a long time yet.

Back when the Beatles started, their first singles were issued as 78s in India.

 

[Hipper]

When I was around ten years old this girl, Leslie Humphreys, came up to me in the school playground and said to me 'you're a square'.

I didn't know what that was but the way she said it, it sounded like something I wouldn't want to be. So I responded 'no I'm not'.

'You're a square' she repeated. 'How many Beatles are there?' - this was 1963.

I didn't know but she wasn't getting away with this. 'Three' I said, pretending to be confident, but I wasn't.

'No, there are four. Your a square'.

I was done for. There was no getting out of it. It seems I was a square.

When I got home I asked my mum what a square was and she told me. I really was a square.

Perhaps I still am because I still buy and listen to Redbook CDs.

Anyway, I notice in the OPs link that they say that streaming accounts for 74% of 'music consumption'. Later it says that 'streaming equivalent albums’ numbers 114.2m, CDs 23.5m and vinyl 4.3m. The thing is, when you stream an album, is that the equivalent of one listen? Do you still have to stream it again to re-listen (I'm a square remember)? CDs and vinyl are of course a one off purchase where repeat listens lead to no extra costs.

 

[Sal1950]

If a CD came in a larger package, the size of an LP, so I could display it, I'd buy more CDs.

The tried that, remember the long package? Retailers complained that the took more room to stock.

 

[captain paranoia]

'Three' I said, pretending to be confident, but I wasn't.

If you had really been a square, you might have said "actually, there are approximately 400,000 species of beetle"...

 

[Wes]

I thought it was bangin rocks together.

ancient Celtic music

 

[beefkabob]

The tried that, remember the long package? Retailers complained that the took more room to stock.

Yeah, I remember that. Replaced by the long antitheft devices. No difference in space taken.

 

[Robin L]

The tried that, remember the long package? Retailers complained that the took more room to stock.

But the end product was still a miniaturized LP cover. Still too small to see from the other end of the room.

 

[Hipper]

If you had really been a square, you might have said "actually, there are approximately 400,000 species of beetle"...

Thanks. That's given me more confidence. When I get my time machine I'll show that Leslie Humphreys.

 

[Wombat]

Melbourne record store to close:

https://www.theage.com.au/culture/m...institution-to-shut-shop-20200123-p53u4k.html

 

[anmpr1]

Melbourne record store to close: https://www.theage.com.au/culture/m...institution-to-shut-shop-20200123-p53u4k.html

Mr Karis said. " ...no one wants to have a giant record collection these days, it focuses your listening a little bit. If there’s only 200 records you really love, and you have them all on vinyl, that’s a beautiful thing."

In this age of turntables costing as much as a high performance Italian or Japanese motorcycle--no, as much as a top end German luxury sedan, I've wondered how many own record players costing multiples of all the records they own? As kids we listened to Garrard or BSR entry level players, yet owned a closet full of records. No one much cared about the player, since it was the music that was important.

In the 1980s I think a lot of folks ditched their records when they discovered they needed a new needle; it just wasn't worth the hassle given the sonic benefits of shiny disc-digits, digits now streaming off an Ethernet connection. That, plus a lot of their records were beat up from crazed years of all night parties. As the poet retells:

And does she want to see the stains,
The dead remains of all the pains
She left the night before?

For someone now getting into records, 1) are they spending most of their dollars on gear instead of plastic? 2) And will their hobby wind up a fad that probably won't last more than a couple of years? Unless they have a Crosley in their listening room, my guess is that the answer to the first question is yes. If they make Crosley the stop then the answer to the second is definitely yes. RIP Polyester Records.

 

[audiophile]

In this age of turntables costing as much as a high performance Italian or Japanese motorcycle--no, as much as a top end German luxury sedan, I've wondered how many own record players costing multiples of all the records they own?

I got into records about a year and a half ago. My analog setup is around $1000 (vintage Pioneer direct-drive turntable, vintage Shure cartridge, Schiit phono stage). So far I spent at least three times more than that on records (close to 300 of them I guess).

For someone now getting into records, 1) are they spending most of their dollars on gear instead of plastic?

I think young kids are mostly getting new records, which costs $20-30 each. After they purchase their first 20 albums they'd already spent more than the price of a beginner Pro-ject or Rega model.

 

[MattHooper]

For someone now getting into records, 1) are they spending most of their dollars on gear instead of plastic? 2) And will their hobby wind up a fad that probably won't last more than a couple of years? Unless they have a Crosley in their listening room, my guess is that the answer to the first question is yes.

I've been back listening to vinyl for about 4 years now (more randomly before that). Rather than wane, my interest has only grown to the point that these days I'm listening mostly to vinyl. So in personal terms it sure doesn't seem to be a fad.

I confess that I have spent more than is reasonable, in a practical sense, on my turntable. But I have spent quite a bit more on my vinyl collection.

In the big picture Vinyl passed "fad" status quite a while back as it has only grown over the past 13 years and shows no sign of waning away. (If that's a "fad" then you can term practically anything a "fad" including the dominance of CDs).

Having observed many forums in which vinyl is discussed, it seems exceedingly rare for it to be a personal fad for a short time. Many have been in to it for a long time, and the people who buy a good turntable and only dip their toes in and then abandon it seem few and far between.

 

[Frank Dernie]

I think young kids are mostly getting new records, which costs $20-30 each. After they purchase their first 20 albums they'd already spent more than the price of a beginner Pro-ject or Rega model.

That is part of my problem. I have 4 turntables and have been buying LPs since the mid-60s but a full price LP when I bought most of them was £1.50 and in sales frequently £0.30 to £0.75.
Current LP prices are outrageous IMO, so I play what I have when that is what I want to listen to.

 

[captain paranoia]

I suspect that there is still a base level of support for vinyl (among the 'audiophiles'), and these people will be the ones trawling the second hand record shops, charity shops, Discogs, etc. The re-introduction of new vinyl, as a fashion thing, allowed these people to buy new vinyl again. Not from a huge catalogue, since record company policies on what they actually pressed and released seems to me to be bizarre (although only really judging by the small selection in places like HMV). However, this reintroduction of production has been supported by sales, and a slow growth, probably as more titles (including new titles) have been added to the new vinyl catalogue.

I think it might be interesting if the sales of second hand media were available. I'm pretty sure there's still a healthy trade in physical media, just that it doesn't register with the like of the RIAA, because it's effectively a grey market.

The great advantage of digital media is that, once sampled and stored, the duplication cost is zero, and production capacity is infinite (server bandwidth aside). The catalogue of available 'new media' is everything ever sampled and stored, not just what we have managed to shove through a small capacity vinyl or CD pressing plant, and stored in a stockroom. There is never a "I'm sorry, sir, we don't have that in stock, and it's out of print" problem.

 

[captain paranoia]

Current LP prices are outrageous IMO

A £1.50 album bought in 1965 would, with inflation, cost £29.27 today.

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator

A quick glance at the HMV website shows albums going for about £23-£35, with plenty of offers at £14.