The Beatles broke up 45 years ago and they had two of the top selling vinyl albums last year. That’s staying power. I knew I should have kept my Sears three in one stereo system. I’m betting 8 Tracks and Cassettes can’t be far behind.
2014 saw a streaming boom which has significantly altered the music landscape. People have flocked to streaming services like Pandora and Spotify while digital downloads and CD sales have plummeted. However, vinyl has remained unaffected by the shift, and its remarkable resurgence has continued unabated.
Vinyl LP sales topped 9 million in the United States last year, accounting for more than 6 percent of all physical album sales. What sort of tunes are all of those vinyl lovers listening to? Jack White was 2014’s LP champion. His album, Lazaretto, was the year’s most popular vinyl record, selling 86,700 copies. AM by the Arctic Mondays came second with 58,700 while Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die came in third with 42,100.
You will find more statistics at Statista
I have about 3,000 LP’s – Original Blue Notes, RCA Shaded Dogs, Mobile Fidelity, lots of European pressings, and ‘Indie’ records. About 50% of them I inherited from my dad, who was somewhat an audiophile.
Not only is vinyl dead – but so is music.
For vinyl, you actually have to sit down and listen – nobody want’s to do that.
Secondly about music being dead – think – when was the last time you heard a ‘new’ jazz piece that was as good as Take Five?
I go to stores and I’m still amazed that you can still buy blank VHS tapes (compact and regular) and cassette tapes. When I moved and downsized several years ago the local Salvation Army loved all the old VHS tapes I gave them (they were used for shows/movies I had recorded). Apparently they were still popular because people would use them to record shows and then on weekends watch them at their lake homes.
Are quadraphonic 8-tracks and players coming back, too? Cassettes? Reel-to-reel tape?
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Strange- I unloaded my $5000 worth of “boutique” audio equipment and massive collection of vinyl about 10 years back, after listening to a friend’s sound system that sounded better- and discovering that this great system was a set of 2.1 speakers plugged into a computer playing MP3s.
Well, I like the idea of having a massive collection of music in a box the size of a laptop, and I like doing as much as possible with one main device and a couple of “peripherals” such as portable hard drives and USB sticks for backup. I like having all my documents, photos, music, and essential books in this one handy, portable container.
There is a tiny, almost imperceptible loss of sound quality in the MP3s, but this tiny flaw is more than offset by the ease of use, small storage requirements, and low cost of MP3 downloads. I have been able to assemble a collection of classical and jazz music on my hard drive (backed up by CDs and usb sticks) that I would have had to have been a radio station to own back in the days of vinyl and tapes. I have about 25 gigs of music in MP3, as well as my old CD collection that I have “ripped” to my hard drive.
I think all of my many kids have bought a total of about 6 albums ever. It’s all Spotify or Spotify Premium. Music sales are down year after year. Artists used to tour to support their record, Now they put out a record so that they can tour. The money’s in touring, merchandise, Spotify revenue and, to a much lesser degree, YouTube revenue.
My old but beautiful Marantz 6300 direct drive turntable still works like new. Cassette decks are wonderful but when the intricate clockwork mechanisms malfunction (usually due to worn belts) they are too difficult and/or expensive to repair. If three separate motors were used instead to direct drive the spindles and pinch roller reliability would go way up and tape would make a comeback.
The wife & I combined have several hundred classic vinyl albums, plus we’ve purchased a shit load of reel to reel versions of 60’s rock, which I think are probably the rarest of the rare. I still have an Akai 4 channel reel to reel that works just fine.
I prefer the “warm” sound of vinyl since it’s analog and not just digitally sampled at 44,000, but it still amazes me that I can load 1,300 or so tunes onto my mp3 player that fits in my palm!
I used to manage a used record store from mid 194 to later 1986 in Atlanta. It is still around (see http://fantasylandrecords.com/). Went by there last late April/early May when I was on a visit to the U.S. from my new home in New Zealand. It was both the same but better than ever in a newer/larger location but close to the old location. The guy that was hired by the owner a couple months after me became the manager after I left and is still at it! Ah, old times and more innocent to me due to my lack of understanding. Both neat to think I could have been in the job for 30+ years and to think how different my life would have been, yikes!
As for LPs, have quite a few and a great Harmon Kardon belt drive turn table from 1985 that cost about $400 in 1985 dollars (finally had to replace the belt this year) with a Shure Type V MR (or whatever it is) cartridge that is still in excellent condition that cost another $400 or so 1985 dollars and probably is worth a lot more now as one of the cartridges of legend among many audiophiles. I currently use this to gradually convert LPs to WAV files.
Use a mid 2000s Dell laptop (has surprising good built in audit capabilities) connected to my mid 1980s vintage Yamaha receiver to play audio files from a portable hard drive. Have quite a collection on the hard drive but a large number of LPs and CDs I don’t mind having around. It is hard to believe how good high quality vinyl sounds on good equipment!
Also, still have a circa 1978 “Sound Design” (a low end brand but still did a good job) 8 track tape RECORDER. My parents still have a circa 1973/74 Panasonic 8 track tape recorder!