It's Record Store Saturday..All Sales Vinyl

by Felix Richter, Statista

Music lovers around the world will come together on Saturday to celebrate Record Store Day. Conceived in 2007 to highlight the cultural significance of independent record stores and celebrate vinyl record culture, the occasion is now widely honored with live performances, special vinyl releases, artist meet-and-greets and other events taking place at record stores across the globe. One of the original objectives of Record Store Day – keeping vinyl records alive – is no longer a priority though, as they are alive and well.

In fact, vinyl album sales in the United States surpassed CD sales for the first time since 1987 last year. There’s an old adage in Germany reminding people to be nice to others on their road to fortune and fame, because you always meet twice: once on the way up and once on the way down. The same apparently is true for music recording media, as the CD is now awkwardly waving hello to vinyl records, which it once drove to near extinction.

According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), 41 million vinyl records were sold in the U.S. last year, up from just 1.3 million in 2007, the year that Record Store Day was conceived. In the meantime, CD album sales plummeted from 500 million units in 2007 to just 33.4 million last year, marking the first time in 35 years that vinyl had the upper hand against its digital descendant.

You will find more infographics at Statista

Aside from the usual sales statistics and year-end charts, Luminate’s 2022 Year-End Music Report contained one interesting piece of information that was easily overlooked: 50 percent of vinyl buyers own a record player. What’s even more interesting is the part of the equation that Luminate (formerly Nielsen Music) didn’t mention: 50 percent of vinyl buyers DON’T own a record player.

You will find more infographics at Statista

So if a sizeable proportion of vinyl buyers don’t even have turntables to play those records, what are they buying them for? According to IFPI's 2022 Engaging with Music report, there are several reasons for buying vinyl records that have nothing to do with actually playing them. Having asked vinyl buyers from 22 countries for their main reason to do so, IFPI found that wanting to “physically own” the music was the most-cited reason, followed closely by “liking to have physical records to look at”, both possible without a record player. Granted, reasons number three and four, “liking the ritual of playing a vinyl record” and “liking to fully immerse oneself in an album” do require a record player, but five and six, “wanting to support the artists” and “reading liner notes”, certainly do not.

 

This all goes to show that even in the digital age, when pretty much anything can be stored in and streamed from the cloud, physical goods still hold value to people, whether it’s to touch them, to look at them or to actually use them the way they were intended. For artists, especially small and independent ones, pressing and selling vinyl records independently not only creates an opportunity to connect more directly with their fans, but it also opens up another revenue stream which many desperately need in the absence of any meaningful streaming renumeration.