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Vinyl Sales Plummets 33% After A Decade Of Rapid Growth


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myluis617

Has anybody ever thought about

😂

When ever a solar flare destroys all satellites orbiting earth and we lose access to the internet and the human race is forced into connecting like they did in the old days… Vinyls records will be one of the only source of music for a good time…

Edited by myluis617
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Roughhouse Dandy
1 minute ago, PartySick said:

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 :chica:

There were a lot more tbh but idk if they're too niche to mention and I'm not tryna get bullied on here for being a nerd about it haha 

I think the decline is a product of cost of living increases. Same reason people are going out to eat less. Besides travel, frivolity is at a low point. 

This is my Hannah Montana™️ lipgloss.
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CatelynnMarie

with vinyl prices that have been on a massive skyrocket, it has been bound to happen. less people are going to buy a single LP for anywhere between 40-70 USD at retail. i'm having a hard time remembering which vinyl it was, but i recently saw a 7 inch priced at 25 USD, without tax and shipping. 

hoping the excessive variants will slow down as well. it's been really exciting for this music medium to have had a revival, but it's been so overwhelming. i enjoy my vinyl, but it definitely is an extremely expensive and semi time consuming hobby. last year i really took a massive step away from vinyl in it's entirety. i slowly got back into it again this year a bit, but the hype i once had, kinda has dwindled mainly because of how unjustifyingly expensive it has gotten

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PartySick
3 minutes ago, Roughhouse Dandy said:

There were a lot more tbh but idk if they're too niche to mention and I'm not tryna get bullied on here for being a nerd about it haha 

I think the decline is a product of cost of living increases. Same reason people are going out to eat less. Besides travel, frivolity is at a low point. 

That's fair tbh.

Idk about globally but the US economy is doing much better lately and prices are beginning to chill tf out. Hopefully that saves the medium 'cause I like physical releases :gayhat:

The excitement I experienced when I found MJ's Invincible at Amoeba Records in LA :giveup: four vinyls with those colors?! I don't even think it's particularly rare but it's gorgeous :bradley:

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nATAH
18 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 :laughga:

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

you're better off asking what DIDN'T get a vinyl release tbh, the list will be a billion times shorter

Edited by NATAH
mother, what must i do?
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Roughhouse Dandy
1 minute ago, PartySick said:

That's fair tbh.

Idk about globally but the US economy is doing much better lately and prices are beginning to chill tf out. Hopefully that saves the medium 'cause I like physical releases :gayhat:

The excitement I experienced when I found MJ's Invincible at Amoeba Records in LA :giveup: four vinyls with those colors?! I don't even think it's particularly rare but it's gorgeous :bradley:

Our economy is great but unless you're rich it sure doesn't feel like it BUT you're right. 

And Invincible?? B*tch. Taste. Rare taste. Elite-level taste. My favorite album of his if we're being honest and vulnerable in this moment. 

This is my Hannah Montana™️ lipgloss.
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HIM820
2 hours ago, Hyperobject said:

I’m hoping this will finally stop this unnecessary vinyl craze tbh, it’s just annoying atp 

people don’t listen to them, no one needs 10 versions of the same song or album on a freaking vinyl disk lol, like CDs are just way more convenient, invest in that, labels?! 

Comments like this always puzzle me. Just don’t buy them if you don’t like them. Annoying? Are people shoving vinyls in your face? I can’t comprehend getting annoyed at a product I have no intention of buying. 
 

Our cars, computers and other tech would all have to redesigned to have a significant CD resurgence similar to the vinyl one. But that’s not going to happen. 

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HIM820
1 hour 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 :laughga:

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

 

1 hour ago, PartySick said:

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 :chica:


Literally every major pop album had vinyl releases this year… 

and I would actually say that helped cause sales to go down because there simply was too much. I feel like people aren’t actually reading what OP said though. Sales in general are down for lots of different industries, especially entertainment. For instance, toy or specifically doll sales have gone down recently after many years of growth. Vinyl isn’t dead or a fad because of this. It’s still making a lot of money. So unless it goes down drastically next year, I think this could be a good thing for the industry to reassess their practices. 
 

Taylor also had 2 major releases in 2023 (plus midnights from the fall before) vs only 1 this year so that definitely makes a difference. 

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PartySick
1 hour ago, HIM820 said:

 


Literally every major pop album had vinyl releases this year… 

and I would actually say that helped cause sales to go down because there simply was too much. I feel like people aren’t actually reading what OP said though. Sales in general are down for lots of different industries, especially entertainment. For instance, toy or specifically doll sales have gone down recently after many years of growth. Vinyl isn’t dead or a fad because of this. It’s still making a lot of money. So unless it goes down drastically next year, I think this could be a good thing for the industry to reassess their practices. 
 

Taylor also had 2 major releases in 2023 (plus midnights from the fall before) vs only 1 this year so that definitely makes a difference. 

I don't know of any major releases, that's the problem :icant: I stay pretty unplugged from the MPG scene, the only thing that pierced that veil this year was brat and that's mostly due to the Kamala memes and @FATCAT's obsession :icant:

But yeah, @Roughhouse Dandy made that point. Frivolity spending is down universally, vinyl sales falling are probably just a casualty of that.

1 hour ago, Roughhouse Dandy said:

Our economy is great but unless you're rich it sure doesn't feel like it BUT you're right. 

Doesn't feel like it YET :vegas:

Pray this election goes out way and Biden's policies are continued with Harris' new blood juicing them up :pray:

2 hours ago, Roughhouse Dandy said:

And Invincible?? B*tch. Taste. Rare taste. Elite-level taste. My favorite album of his if we're being honest and vulnerable in this moment. 

Dangerous is my favorite but Invincible is immaculate :firega:

It was the very first CD I ever bought with my own money way back in the day. It also happens to be the first vinyl I've ever bought :firega:

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StrawberryBlond

I think we've over-indulged and exhausted this trend for now. Multiple variants being introduced that every fan wanted to collect really killed it. In the beginning, it was all about choosing your favourite cover art but now fans want them all and it's leaving them out of pocket. And for younger fans, maybe parents are putting their foot down. I can honestly say that if I had kids, I'd never pay for this madness with all their favourite acts. Myself, I don't see the point in buying them unless you have a record player. Would be interesting to poll how many vinyl collectors actually own them and how often they play them if they do. The players take up lots of room and you have to turn the vinyl which you don't have to do with a CD or streaming. The public moved on from vinyl happily because it was a faff, they're just going back to it now for aesthetic value. From what I can see, most people just buy them to display on their walls, especially if they're YouTube video essayists. I get that, I really do, but ultimately, why not just buy a poster, like everyone used to.

I'm such a 90's kid, I still buy CDs and even then I usually only play them once on release day and then they gather dust after that. But seeing as I don't pay for streaming, I feel like I'm still doing my bit for my favourite artist by purchasing their music in some way. My room's so cluttered I'd have no room for vinyl anyway and the prices are atrocious even for standard editions. Definitely the trend has caused it to go up in price and the public still buy it. Stop buying it and they'll have to decrease to sell them off.

2 hours 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 :laughga:

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

The most major is The Tortured Poets Department. Taylor was, no joke, putting out new variants every week at one point with no new tracks, just acoustic versions of existing tracks and voice memos. And her fans continued to buy them to support her, which is why she remained at #1 for weeks on end. It became a thing where she was accused of deliberately blocking younger female artists whenever they had a new album out as well (most notably, Billie, Charli and Chappell). It sold 700k vinyls in the US in the first week alone and it's the bestselling vinyl record this year. To date, its sold over 859k in the US. Worldwide, it must be well over a million by now. That doesn't even include the sales of her 1989 re-release. Those 2 albums alone bolstered vinyl sales incredibly. As for other artists, vinyl sales are also really huge for Arctic Monkeys and Lana Del Rey. 

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clementine

I knew something was wrong when Chappell wanted $60 for her “one year anniversary special edition” variant of her vinyl… gurl bye :ladyhaha:

Can I... borrow a piece of your chicken?
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GagaSuperfan1

Everyone is sitting in the reality that they’re in debt and can’t afford vinyls or the cost of living.

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bpmMonkey

Well, all them little standoms who spend their parents money on vinyls seeing them as yet another item of merchandise probably got their allowance cut and are still sitting there, trying to figure out how to stream that disc of pvc, wondering why Taylor Smith still hasn’t send them a personal thank you card

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Bronco

Honestly the reason this is happening is because Record Companies saw it as a Golden Goose and have exploited it. 

It grew massively during COVID from where it was as a market because everyone was at home picking up hobbies. You're never going to get that kind of market for growth again. 

People who get into it for the first time go mental in that first stage getting every album they love on vinyl - especially if special formats arrive. After that, they stick to just getting the odd one or 2 that are deemed special enough to get a vinyl of on average. I've legitimately bought 4 this year and there's currently no more I want besides hard to get collectors editions of old albums on the 2nd hand market. 

And then seeing this massive growth, record labels have put up the vinyl prices for the big acts massively. When I started collecting a standard double side single disc album cost £25 on average. The same format is now £45. 
A double LP or some form of special edition was between £30-35. I've seen em now for £55. And production costs aren't going up that much - because the smaller acts are still able to keep to the original prices most people got used to. 

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PatrickMonster
11 hours 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 :laughga:

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

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