Music industry reports show that in recent years, sales of vinyl albums have grown dramatically. But when most of us can access digital sounds anytime, anywhere, why are old-fashioned, fragile and expensive-to-buy LP records once again so popular?
2022 marked the 17th consecutive year that US sales of vinyl records increased and in the first part of 2023, the numbers grew again by almost 22%. The picture is almost identical in the UK. Last year, Harry Styles sold more than 480,000 vinyl copies of his Harry’s House album in the USA and Fleetwood Mac shifted over 243,000 of their 70s classic, Rumours. In Britain, Taylor Swift’s Midnights sold 62,000 plastic platters in the first week of its release.
Data from Billboard, the British Phonographic Industry, the Recording Industry Association of America and Luminate show that although streaming is still the most popular way the world accesses its music (accounting for about 85% of music industry revenues), in 2022, LP records outsold CDs for the first time since 1987 and in the US, over 43 million of them were sold with sales reaching 1.2 billion dollars. In the UK, 5.5 million new albums worth £116 million were bought, the highest number since 1990.
So how can the resurgence of the once outmoded LP be explained? It is surely not just fad or fashion which has trumped the practical disadvantages of vinyl records; many of which hastened the original demise of a product which hadn’t changed much since its introduction in the late 1940s. Records can be easily scratched and warped out of shape and use up valuable physical storage space. The gear you need to play the album is pretty much immovable and cheaper turntables can cause rumble (the amplified sound of the motor), wow and flutter (a result of the tiny speed fluctuations in the spinning disc) and spoil the listening experience. Styluses can be damaged and are expensive to replace, and if there’s dust on the needle – catastrophe! And it can be hard to drop the pickup arm onto a specific chosen track especially if your turntable doesn’t have a lifting device.
