Vinyl Records Just Broke A Record No One Could Have Ever Expected
For the first time in decades, vinyl record sales are beating CD sales.
If you’re a Millennial, or part of Gen Z, you’ll be happy to know that you can finally clap back at your parents when they try to explain to you what vinyl records are (here’s a hint: they’re not just for classic rock anymore). According to NPR, vinyl records have outsold CDs for the first time since 1987 this last year, and sales only seem to be rising. If you were around for the beginning of the vinyl renaissance in 2007, then you probably predicted that this day would come sooner or later; it wasn’t a matter of “if,” but rather “when” you could listen to your favorite music on a reliable 12 inch LP.
So what’s the reason for this sudden rise in popularity for vinyl records? There are a lot of moving parts to consider; for the last 16 years, vinyl has increasingly made up a large part of artists’ marketing campaigns, and as a result revenue is way up. In a way, we can thank the popularity of streaming for the increase in vinyl record sales.
Now that you can access any song anywhere with your phone, the need for physical media to be in the form of a CD has diminished tremendously. In other words, if you’re going to have a physical music collection, it isn’t going to be for the sake of convenience.
From a marketing standpoint, artists can now have more robust visuals for vinyl releases than they can for CDs. Now that an album cover is back to occupying 144 square inches, vinyl records aren’t just used to deliver music to their audiences, but rather work as display pieces for a collection. When an album has amazing art, you want it to be front and center.
In 2022, 71 percent of all physical media sales ($1.2 billion) were from vinyl records . This is a massive increase from 2019’s numbers which were reaching just below $500 million. One huge factor in this large spike in vinyl record sales was the COVID-19 pandemic; artists had to put a pause on touring, and they had to find a new way to promote their music.
For a while, the music industry was at a standstill due to piracy. Now that streaming music on Spotify or Apple Music is more or less ubiquitous, those who are still enthusiastic about collecting physical media gravitated towards vinyl records to satisfy their need to collect. Sure, a growing vinyl collection may not fit under the seat of your sedan, but collectors are now supporting artists by purchasing a piece of their discography, and the industry is thriving.
So next time you’re at your parent’s house, check out their basements and attics for their old vinyl records. Not only can you take a trip down memory lane, you can continue to make new memories with a functional turntable and some speakers. You might be able to take home a few classics for free if you ask nice enough.
