Vinyl Sales Plummets 33% After A Decade Of Rapid Growth

[Westerosi 1,837]

9 minutes ago, Hyperobject said:

so it’s all your fault, huh? 

7 minutes ago, alsemanche said:

sorry @ vinyl industry for i have failed you

I think it's @ARTPOPKISS's fault. 

She is the gap in the market. 

[gagzus 14,236]

I think this means the hipster trend is finally over, I thought we’d have gone onto cassette tapes as collectibles and stuff again

[killme89 876]

Blame Taylor swift and Adele 

[Anderson123 34,672]

I got a record player on sale just to try vinyl quality and it's fine I guess, the experience is cool if you're in your bedroom listening and looking at the pictures. I still collect some of them and mostly just my favorite artists but Apple Music and it's quality is so good that I usually just listen music there.

People started getting these for the Instagram/Tik Tok aesthetic with the Lana and Vitrola record player pictures then artists made it even bigger and now with variants you have collectors going crazy. It's fun but expensive and in the end people just give up on all of these editions.

[guccic0och 1,314]

I remember when I was collecting back in 2015-2019, a standard 1LP was £15-£20 and a gatefold 2LP was £22-30. Lockdown really messed up vinyl production, quality, and pricing. Also, when Adele and Taylor had caused major vinyl pressing plants to have to delay production of other/smaller artists albums for like 6 months really didn’t help. The first vinyl I bought in 2 years was Brat and it cost nearly £40 in Rough Trade. It was the standard variant. I was absolutely astounded. I couldn’t believe it had risen so much. I no longer collect or even desire buying records now mainly for this reason.

[Ziggy 10,713]

50 minutes ago, River said:

the moment they started to abuse it with variants, people just stopped buying, it's nice to collect things until it's not

This is what I was going to say. None of the factors listed mention this yet it’s probably the biggest one. Sure, vinyls are expensive but they’re justifiable if you make them so. But labels and artists have been gouging collectors by making the whole concept of vinyl collecting into a sham to make *them money. That was never why people wanted to participate. So if you have people with limited money and a cheaper option that has all the songs at the ready they’ll take it. Vinyl collecting went from a hobby to an extortionist’s playground. Where’s the fun in that anymore? It’s like literally anything else being squeezed for profit these days. There’s no integrity and fundamentally the nostalgia collecting of vinyls is about a care for musical integrity.

i think that if you’re going to bring an outdated format back, you really need to find a creative way to make it worthwhile. It’s just not creative anymore, and it’s insanely expensive. I don’t blame anyone for passing on it lol

Edited 5 hours ago by Ziggy

[Ziggy 10,713]

40 minutes ago, Hyperobject said:

The way Japan ALWAYS gets this cool and fun deluxe editions… why?! do they even stream and buy foreign music that much?! I think not!!!

also, who the f**k wants to feel like a trophy wife in the 60s spinning them vinyls when you can feel like a cool kid from the early 00s with your CD player?! like c’mon!!! 

Millennial and zillennials did. Bc they didn’t romanticize what they had in a cd player. Now you would and so the cycle goes lol

[NATAH 40,460]

food and bills are expensive

almost every major artist has about 10+ variants 

digital/streaming completely wins when it actually comes to listening to music (there's a reason i digitise my CD collection, i only listen to actual CDs on rare occasion)

vinyls only really shine as a pretty collectible now but thanks to the variant infestation, that factor has clearly started to turn people off... even if you only plan on buying one, how tf do you work out which one to pick?

and then suddenly a deluxe edition comes out? and then a signed one? and then one with a signed card/poster? and then one that moves as it spins? and so on... staggered releases probably have avid music buyers hesitant to nab the standard edition and may opt to wait for potential deluxe editions later on and simply forget/move on

Edited 5 hours ago by NATAH

[chewing on pearls 209]

I definitely prioritize buying used/vintage vinyl because it's way more fun to source – going to the used record stores almost always yields an incredible treasure. I'd be interested to know how used vinyl stores' sales have increased or decreased in the last few years. I only buy new vinyl from artists that are super important to me (Gaga, Lana, Twigs, Beach House come to mind), and those also happen to be artists that don't release more than 2-3 variants, so I can pick my favorite and be done with it. 

[elijahfan 24,764]

1 hour ago, HelloHangoverz said:

The fact is, vinyl looks cool on the internet. Then you try it for yourself: firstly, it's expensive. Then, it's a pain in the ass to listen to because you've got to get up and change it round every 20 minutes. It's all for show in my opinion. My Chromatica trifold vinyl is gorgeous and has pride of place on my shelf, but I've never listened to her. Vinyl is a big fad that will pass and yes I will die on this hill. Roll on the CD revival.

This comment is so 80s

[ARTPOPKISS 3,003]

48 minutes ago, Westerosi said:

I think it's @ARTPOPKISS's fault. 

She is the gap in the market. 

CDs are better and are coming for little miss vinyls job 

[Roughhouse Dandy 7,691]

Good. Y'all ruined record stores the way y'all ruined thrift stores. What used to be cheap hidden gems to find are now snatched up before they even hit the shelves and sold for way too much. Go back to cd's or hitclips or whatever and leave the vinyl to me. I was here before the tumblr generation brought it back and I'll be here when y'all leave. This family is three generations deep of collecting records and it ain't stoppin 

[PartySick 141,896]

Has anything major even been released this year on vinyl? I feel like Brat was the only universally loved album and idek if that made it to vinyl

(I'm out of touch with the music scene, don't come for me)

[Roughhouse Dandy 7,691]

6 minutes ago, PartySick said:

Has anything major even been released this year on vinyl? I feel like Brat was the only universally loved album and idek if that made it to vinyl

(I'm out of touch with the music scene, don't come for me)

Harlequin. 

American Idiot anniversary repress and Cowboy Carter come to mind. 

Brat and all it's versions have, in fact, made it to vinyl. 

Edited 5 hours ago by Roughhouse Dandy

[PartySick 141,896]

Just now, Roughhouse Dandy said:

American Idiot anniversary repress and Cowboy Carter come to mind. 

Brat and all it's versions have, in fact, made it to vinyl. 

But that's it though?

I'd be interested to see the numbers for 2022 and 2021 to see like...a trend or something or if this year was just particularly bad for the product