[DonnieW]

Granted I work with some of the biggest music labels in the world, I have a lot of insight into the numbers those guys are moving.  During our last TAAS meeting there was a sidebar as to the dominance of vinyl over CD and a few people asked me how that could be.  There are many statistics out there claiming one format over the other - the fact that you can make a statistic mean anything you want doesn't help but cloud the issue.  Therefore, rather than come up with more statistics, I thought I'd post some facts to help you draw your own conclusions.  The report below, regarded as the 'state of the nation' summarizes physical sales (and value) of the different formats.  This is 2005 year-end, 2006 is available but we've not been told it can be shared yet.  The information below is publicly available on RIAA.  While at face value CD sales completely shadowed vinyl, its interesting vinyl (singles and EP/LP's) completely buried the holy grail of digital audio - SACD and DVD-A. 

You may be thinking that, based on these facts, vinyl is dead and there is NO way any claims of vinyl outselling CD's could be true??  Believe it or not there is more to it.  In the above reference of SACD/DVD-A (hi-res), it appears that they are significantly dominated by vinyl.  What you don't see is that the available titles of hi-res are no challenge to vinyl - that is, there are approx. 4000 hi-res titles out there, while there are some 120,000 active in vinyl.  Do you think that will skew sales in vinyl's favor?  Maybe, maybe not.  Similarly, CD's sales are not all they're cracked up to be.  Compare title to title, or better yet, genre to genre and you can see vinyl outsell CD (or digital in general). 

When I posed the question of individual album sales to one of my clients, she claimed they have all the details of which albums sell more in vinyl versus CD and also have breakdowns by genre.  She acknowledged, what most audiophiles already know, that certain genres will command and dominate in certain formats.  Jazz does tremendously well on vinyl, often pulling ahead of CD.  Certain classical titles have since moved exclusively to hi-res as their sales outranked both conventional CD and vinyl.  Unfortunately neither of the two clients I spoke with would provide me with permission to publish those numbers.

While there may be over-all dominance to CD sales when viewed in summary reports or newspaper articles, it must be further broken down and rationalized before drawing any conclusions.  The bottom line is, people are going to gravitate to what they want, and to a large extent dictate where the market goes, regardless of these numbers. 

[woodsyi]

Very cool stat, Donnie.  I wonder if the overall trending down on sales is attributed to online music download sales, which is not listed here. 

[Wayner]

What the report doesn't show is how many LPs are bought and sold as "used". I have purchased most of my vinyl in a used condition because I have a local retailer that sells used albums and I can buy 6 or 7 used albums in fantastic condition for the price of one new pressing. If that amount, at least in units sold is tagged onto normal new retail units sold, the number might be staggering.

Vinyl is not dead. It is spreading again. My neighborhood kids are buying turntables and records and playing their old man's records!

W aa

[lcrim]

Very interesting information, thanks for posting it.  Most of the vinyl I own is used which can't be accounted here but the resurgance of vinyl doesn't seem to be reflected in the sales of new LP/EP which have declined over recent years.  Probably explained by the death of disco (thank God for small mercies.)
The lack of titles in the hi-rez formats is such a marketing disaster.  I have never been very sure if this is a "build it and they will come" issue or if this is like the marketing of soccer in the US, i.e.-who cares.

I see Wayner beat me to it, while I was typing and thinking.

[DonnieW]

What the report doesn't show is how many LPs are bought and sold as "used". I have purchased most of my vinyl in a used condition because I have a local retailer that sells used albums and I can buy 6 or 7 used albums in fantastic condition for the price of one new pressing. If that amount, at least in units sold is tagged onto normal new retail units sold, the number might be staggering.

Vinyl is not dead. It is spreading again. My neighborhood kids are buying turntables and records and playing their old man's records!

W aa

I hear ya Wayner, but you want to really talk staggering?  The same can be said for CD's being sold used (report doesn't mention that either).  CD's tend to do WAY better because of the amount of people who copy their CD's and then sell them (without deleting the files when they no longer own the pressing).    In reality the sales of used media is meaningless.  Same for almost anything we buy.  Used sales generally don't affect the longevity nor popularity of media moving forward.  But that's an unsubstantiated statement on my part. 

[TheChairGuy]

Great stuff Donnie, thanks 

[Rocket]

Hi Guys,

I'm the opposite as i prefer to buy new vinyl instead of secondhand.  I generally find that whilst the lp looks in good condition when i get it home and listen to it is generally well worn.

Regards

Rod

[JimJ]

I think to get the most out of secondhand vinyl you need a good cleaning machine, like a VPI or Nitty Gritty...I've got my eyes on one sometime in the future

[DonnieW]

Hi Guys,

I'm the opposite as i prefer to buy new vinyl instead of secondhand.  I generally find that whilst the lp looks in good condition when i get it home and listen to it is generally well worn.

Regards

Rod

Advantage: CD

Even if a CD is really scratched up, its easy to fix.  They don't wear out!

[Wayner]

I have bought many used albums with almost zero surface noise. You have to pull them out of the sleeve and look at them. Record wear and dirt can easily be spotted. If they aren't clean, I let someone else buy them. I'm a patient buyer. I also wash my records in the laundry sink with dishwashing detergent before I first play them. Yea, the lable gets wet...so what. I've been doing this for 40 years and my collection is very clean.

I have bought some new vinyl and have been very disappointed with the pressing quality. Some have had the vinyl heated too high and the vinyl is full of bubbles, that "pop-corn" sound.

W