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  3. All good news.

    Given that, pre-Covid, vinyl sales were hindered by lack of production capacity, it shows the investment in new pressing plants is paying off – UK sales are roughly 50% higher than in 2019.

    And CD sales have stabilised, after falling for years.

    I’m genuinely astounded that cassette sales are that high, not that long ago cassette duplication firms were having to bulk-buy blank tapes from the dusty corners of the Richer Sounds warehouse. Someone must have set up to manufacture blank tapes again – I did not see that coming.

      • They’d be up a lot more if the record companys hadn’t got greedy. There’s only so many copys of Rumours they can flog for £30.

        If I ever need a laugh i just go look at the prices in HMV. £50 for Parklife. Bargin!

        • Arch, selling several copies of Rumours every month in the little store in Lichfield. Replicated across the country that is still healthy sales for a record released around 50 years ago. Still no match for TS and LDR.

    • Me too, but it doesn’t seem to have stopped people buying them. I can only assume that the supply/demand hasn’t topped out yet.

      I rarely pay more than 25 quid for anything, and most new LPs start at £30+ now. I’ve bought more CDs this year than the previous decade.

      Out of dull curiosity, I’ve been on the Bank of England inflation calculator this morning. An LP at £32.50 today would have cost £10 in 1983. I don’t remember LPs costing that much back then. Mind you, a 1983 CD at £14 would be £45.50 today!

      • I would say more around the 20 pound mark in Canada for a single album or less. Last 2 I bought were Wilco which was only about 15 pounds and Stones was about 25 (expensive). I guess Parklife mentioned above is a double LP (44 pounds on Amazon UK)

        I remember paying around 3.60 pounds in 1978 which equates to 19 pounds today

        • Its still possible to buy new vinyl albums for £18 to £20. The new albums from Large Plants and Vic Marrs both cast that, and the double album from Hack-Poets Guild was £27. These are all from tiny labels making and selling very small numbers of records, presumably with little purchasing power and economies of scale.
          Someone somewhere is presumably making an awful lot of cash, particularly with re-releases. Then again, that’s what happens even things essentially become luxury items. Margins increase exponentially to whatever the market will bear. Kate Bush, for example, has persuaded people to part with £130 for the latest reissue of Hounds of Love, purely for the privilege of some new artwork and a little solar powered light of about the same value you would find in a £5 children’s book from the Works.

  5. I think much of the (relative) increase in vinyl sales is due to the proliferation of variations (TMFTL) of colours, alternate covers etc.
    Also, more evidence that TS *is* the music industry. 😉

    These two statements are not necessarily unrelated…🤔

    • Yes I think it is certainly a significant factor. TS will also be responsible for a large amount of sold CDs, streams, general merch, cinema and concert tickets.

      * And a few hundred cassette sales

  7. I started up buying vinyl again a couple of years back and tend to go
    for albums I had previously bought on CD and/or that I either never
    owned – or were never previously available – on vinyl.

    There are lots of bargains out there if you look around. Even more
    if you are prepared to buy something you weren’t fussed about buying
    but was available at a price that was too good to resist.

    My best deal to date is a 3-LP 45 rpm version of Blonde on Blonde
    Got from AUK for just under £20 (current price £90 to £145).

  8. While obviously there are people who have stopped buying physical product altogether, in favour of streaming, I suspect that a fairly large proportion of today’s music-streamers are people who previously only ever listened to music via the radio.

    • I can only repeat, and yes this is not statistically valid, that I personally don’t know of a single “civilian” still buying cds/vinyl and most of those people used to buy I would guess one or two cds a month…..

      • Yes, physical media is for oddballs. Streaming has almost completely taken over. I lurk at a Kate Bush message board, there were complaints there that her Christmas single wasn’t available on streaming. Presumably these people would have had many chances to own it physically on vinyl, CD or even mp3 (and they probably do), but they want to stream it.

        However, there have apparently been layoffs at Spotify and Tidal because profits are low or non existent. It is possible subscription prices may increase considerably or less tracks will be offered by each service. That may be very interesting going forward.

        • Price rises are on the way across all streaming platforms, be it music or video at least here in the UK. And some kind of consolidation is bound to follow; those with the deepest pockets will win out. Figures vary depending where you look but Spotify seems to have just under a third of the market and double that of Apple or Amazon. I’d expect Deezer and Tidal to be the first to get hoovered up.

          I don’t know whether the layoffs at Spotify and Tidal were just over hiring on the back of the Covid bubble or closer to the general tech trend of shrinking headcount because of rising financing costs and just general copy cat. Either way the major labels won’t let the streaming sites fail because without streaming their golden goose is cooked. Plenty of margin to play with.

  9. The demographic of this place gives a totally disproportionate emphasis to and interest in physical product – not surprising given we’re pretty much all music obsessives who’ve have been active consumers first via vinyl, then CD and then (in some cases) finally to streaming. Streaming speaks to a legion of people who never or rarely bought physical product in the first place, and will have little more than a fleeting experience of music radio. Prime in this group are people who are reaching mid 30’s (or below), of which many are primarily interested in hip hop / R&B which is streaming’s most listened to genre. Streaming subscription rates are the highest amongst this group, and more than double the sliver streamers at 55+, where ad supported listening remains the most common. Freeloaders – pah!

    Not everyone has been a happy traveller amongst the new formats as these threads repeatedly show. Each to their own would be my motto but from time to time the “format wars” seem to mirror some kind of faux religious crusade. One that demands a grisly demise for the digital infidels, almost always based on a total misunderstanding of how musicians actually get paid, ironically still venerating the physical product from the exact same music companies who are getting even fatter and richer as they now add streaming income to the list of things they are screwing their artist base over, just as they did with CDs and in most cases vinyl too.

  10. Although it would be nice to have a top of the range audio system, it has never been a priority for me. The joy of a pop single was hearing it on the radio, seeing it on TV, playing it on a jukebox, chucking the single on an old record player from a great big pile on the floor. Some singles in our household never, ever had a sleeve – not even a paper one. LPs were different, they were largely taken care of because they cost someone significant money.

    It’s like bicycles. Back in the olden days, as an adult, you might have a bike and that was that. Today’s adults need to gather in groups and spend half their salaries on Lycra and cleat-warmers.

    So as I became an adult, my record player was nicer – but not 5 grand nicer! The biggest thrill from music remains the spontaneous cranking up of a good tune from wherever you happen to be. Or soundtracking a bit of exercise, or washing up, or (shudder) gardening. This is why streaming is perfect.

    I used to put on chunky headphones to serious albums. I actually loved doing that – but those days are long gone. At the moment, I simply cannot imagine sitting down and listening to an album for its own sake anymore. Those days might return if I have to adjust to being immobile, or someone else is taking care of the household admin.

    • I have a good hifi set up (in my view) – very far from top of the range, and mostly picked up second-hand. Nevertheless, I find I agree with 89.23% of what you’ve written here, BC.

      But this: “I used to put on chunky headphones to (listen to) serious albums. I actually loved doing that – but those days are long gone. At the moment, I simply cannot imagine sitting down and listening to an album for its own sake anymore” – this makes me sad…

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