Streaming music has become the main way people listen to music nowadays, growing to nearly 65 percent of the market in 2017. But as other means of listening to music become passé — digital downloads, CDs, etc. — one familiar format has seen a remarkable comeback and even growth: vinyl records
Though initially dismissed as a fad powered by nostalgia, the revived interest in records has led to a decade of continued growth. After buying fewer than one million LPs in 2007, American consumers purchased more than 14 million records in 2017.
With the rise of CDs in the early 1990s, record sales cratered and the medium seemed to be in its death throes. But today, the vinyl record business is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Record stores are cropping up again. Vinyl pressing plants are so slammed with demand for new records that new production facilities are being opened throughout the country. Fans will spend extravagant amounts of money for limited edition pressings.
Records are certainly still a niche market, but their warm sound and collectible nature have been effectively leveraged to keep the market growing.
So what’s going on? Why is an outmoded music delivery system enjoying such significant growth even as the industry, and the rest of the world, churns in a digital direction?
Cynics will spout the nostalgia angle. This is nothing more than kids pining for an era they never lived in.
But the demand for vinyl is no different than the demand for artisanal food, craft beer or print books (all of which are have enjoyed increased sales figures in recent years). Sometimes it can be nice to slow down and take the time to relish something that you can look at, hold in your hand and enjoy at your own pace. Perhaps everyone could afford to take a few notes from the predispositions and desires that have fueled the vinyl revival.
So pull the turntable out of the attic and blow the dust off those 45s. Vinyl is back and it doesn’t seem like its resurgance is temporary or exhausted.
First Published January 7, 2019, 11:15 a.m.
