Vinyl Sales Plummet by 33% in 2024 After A Decade of Rapid Growth

You need to rectify that, Steve. It’s a brilliant album!

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I know the story is BS but it wouldn’t surprise me if sales did slow down. There’s a lot of rubbish albums at high prices and a lot of good albums at even higher prices. Things are pretty tight for a lot of people right now people don’t have the money to throw around like they use to.

I don’t have vinyl but a mate mine is a mad collector and his tied of sending them back and/or the high prices. He’s even started buying CDs again.

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You might consider buying downloads. I find it difficult to get beyond the habit of having an actual LP/CD, but for music that I want to explore, it is a cheaper alternative. The best downloads give you a PDF booklet. I can always buy a physical copy later, if decide a record will be a much played disc.

I have a pretty vast CD collection, plus my pre CD era Vinyl. Some of the vinyl has probably not been played for 40 years, and most of my CD’s never get played after a few months of ownership.

I will certainly continue to buy physical copies of my favourite artists.

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I’ve just looked at my Amazon purchases for the year to see what I’ve bought. Surprisingly I’ve only bought 2 new albums this year along with 3 from HMV last week. A couple of EBay and Discogs. Mostly I’ve been trading stuff I haven’t listen to for years. I’m now down to 3 eight bay kallax units with space for a few more purchases. No more boxes under the stairs. A lot I put into the RSPCA charity shop my wife runs and raised over £1200 in a little over a month the rest have all been swapped at my local record shops or sold to a dealer neighbour.

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Lol…I meant ages since I played the Blu-Spec CD. Tend to play the LP usually.

Agreed, this and IMF were and remain timeless & spectacular.

High voltage energy, verve and passion - unlike sadly a lot of the fusion bands that followed them.

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You can stream from your own store of files, in full ownership of the file and right to play, without paying any subscription.

Well they are massively over priced, I was speaking to a guy in HMV in the Vault Birmingham and he said CDs sales are really picking up, but these stupid car manufacturers have stopped putting CD players in ,i had no interest in streaming so i had to go to Spotify in a new car i purchased, mind you once you get used to streaming in a car it’s easy, even though i hate it, ah well nevermind

People do realise that’s it’s illegal to rip CDs then keep the copies and dispose of the discs.
Just saying. :scream:

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I am certainly not saying new LPs are cheap but looking at the price relative to inflation over the years I am not so sure they are as expensive as people think. Also although cheaper CDs are not that cheap compared to the cost of manufacture which is much smaller than producing a vinyl LP.

When I was buying LPs in the mid-1970s (no CDs in those days) they cost £3-4 for a single album and up to £6 or so for a double album. Inflation from 1975 compounded over the years means that £1 then is worth around £9 now give or take a bit. So, £3 then is about £27 now and so today’s prices are about the equivalent of the prices back then.

It is also true that the production run of any release these days is a fraction of the production run of 40 years or more ago so the cost per unit is higher.

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I was pretty low paid back in the mid Seventies, as I was doing a day release in Engineering. I guess things like rent and food must have been cheaper, because I did not find records to be a major outlay. I remember the scandal when records breached the £3 barrier.

I wince when I go to my local record shop and see vinyl selling at €40. I think the record companies are exaggerating.

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That is a matter of relative perception but the fact remains that adjusting for inflation £3 in 1975 equates to about £27 now and £3 in 1972 equates to about £40 now.

I remember not feeling the pinch too much buying records in the 1970s but it is also true that life was simpler then with fewer things to drain you of money like broadband charges sky TV or mobile phone bills for example all things that did not exist then.

I don’t get how I can buy a top quality new vinyl album for £25 whilst another bit of top quality new vinyl costs £35. Like petrol, I can pay £1.28 or £1.48 for exactly the same product.

It’s not just the cost of the vinyl though.

What is it then, just out of interest? I don’t remember the disparity when I first started buying records around 1970.

That’s business boyo! They will charge what they think they should or just as important what they think people will pay. It is hardly ever just cost plus profit margin.

The Vinyl LP market is very small compared to streaming and the like. The income from record sales is quite limited these days unlike in the 197os when it was huge.

That’s how I see it but I think @Guinnless sees more to it than that?

The artist and record company all get a say too. The pressing quantity would also affect the retail price. Sleeve costs and so on.

I don’t see any difference in pressing quality (I’m not thinking about the audiophile stuff) or the sleeve tbh. This is £25.99 and has a beautiful sleeve:

image

So I think the artist/management/record co etc are pushing it as far as they can. Some of the prices in an independent record shop, a famous one in Manchester for instance, are staggering. CD deserves to survive. For me it’s the best SQ to price hard copy music carrier ever.

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Retail will always sell at the highest price that they can.

The artist is significant here not just because of how much they want but what demand they command.

If that’s a Val Doonican record then it’s probably overpriced and unlikely to sell :joy:

People are happy to spend thousands and thousands on nice amps, decks, speakers, bling cables, power boards, room treatments etc etc but balk at forty quid for something to actually use em for…

LOL.

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