Huge increase. CD sales also up by 3.8%, cassette sales also up from a very low base. I presume these are US figures referenced in the link
So what does this tell us poppickers? Is it all Taylor Swift related?
Vinyl Sales Up 21.7%
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Vinyl presses have been at capacity for years, so this presumably indicates that the US physical sales have gone up a bit as RoW have gone down slightly?
I know anecdote does not equal data, but I have bought fewer new records as the UK price has gone up beyond common sense. Warners are asking £35 RRP for standard-issue LP? You’re ‘aving a larf!
Given some of the quality of new records can be pretty poor I wonder if the pressing plants are pressing more than before and quality is being sacrificed? e.g. I read (on the Hoffman forum) that it is almost impossible to find a good pressing of Lana Del Rey’s latest, of course their standards are higher than the average punter who is plunking it down on a Crosley player
That’s a bit worrying, as that’s exactly what I’ve got my daughter for her birthday tomorrow!
Keep the receipt!
😂
LOL
When I was in the UK recently I was staggered to see the cost of vinyl. On another thread I complained about an RRP of 30 Euros for the new Dylan here in Spain, but then I saw it in HMV in Oxford for 35 quid! That’s basically 10 Euros more. Who pays that?
I have started working in a record shop in uk.
Top 3 sellers are Taylor Swift, Fleetwood Mac Rumours and David Bowie. Taylor Swift by some distance.
The thing is how do you measure this? If it is in unit sales that is great. If in $ sales not do good as the cost of albums has most lightly gone up by a bigger percentage.
The stats in the link are unit sales
Using the £ turnover, vinyl overtook CD a year or two ago. When you can sell Rumours on vinyl for £35, that’s fairly easy!
Just been thinking about what an album generally cost in 1970. 48 shillings (=£2.40 now). A Mars bar was sixpence (2.5p). The average UK wage was £18.37.
In comparison to general price inflation since then, £35 for a vinyl album doesn’t actually seem so terrible. A Mars bar now costs 51p. The median UK wage is now £640.
If the price of vinyl increased in line with UK wages we’d now be paying £83.61.
If it kept pace with Mars bar inflation (my favourite measure) you’d be forking out £48.96 for Taylor Swift’s latest.
One could further extrapolate that currently the value placed upon music in a physical format is, at best, only 41% of what it was.
Mars bars are smaller now.
As are my horizons/expectations.
Measuring Worth is where I always go for this sort of thing. They calculate that the 1970 £2 8s LP would now cost £39.50. I don’t know if their algorithm has any Mars bar inputs!
firstly, I’d love to know where you’re getting a Mars bar for 51p – chocolate bars round my way are all about 80-90p. Secondly, you will be forking out almost fifty quid for the latest Taylor on vinyl! (although it is a triple)
Sainsbury’s online price for a single bar. I had to look it up as I can’t actually remember the last time I bought or ate a Mars bar.
My tastebuds are more savoury-oriented, these days. As is my musical taste.
I prefer bitter music.
So, you can buy the vinlys, but the vinlys have got a more-than-reasonable chance of being a crock o’ shite? OK, sounds good.
Are these inflation calculators accurate for all items..? I bought With The Beatles in 1963 for £1/12/6d – roughly £41 now according to the one I used. I was 13 and didn’t have that sort of ‘equivalent’ money kicking around. Now, I know that one was probably using gifted record tokens, but I bought a few records in early 1964 at the same price – I wasn’t earning anything and didn’t even have a paper round. Presumably I saved up pocket money, but that’s a lot of dosh to save, especially as I was buying some singles and EPs as well.
I suppose what I am saying is that records seemed cheaper then relative to other goods. Or I may be talking absolute bollocks.
“When I were a lad” I never used to buy the singles I liked until they were out of the chart and in the discounted racks.
Never bought any LPs until I was out of school and working. Even so, I had to save up for a few weeks.
About 3.50 when I started buying (mid 70s), which was around 3 weeks wages! (I was a paper boy). Quick google says a UK paper boy could earn 13.50 a week these days, so maybe slightly more affordable now for a 14 yr old!
Today’s paperboy would almost certainly spend it on XBox/PS games instead.
The price of those games make new vinyl seem cheap.
Back to saving up for weeks, then.