Vinyl Dead?

Vinyl Dead?: "

Consequence of Sound wrote an article today inciting that vinyl records could be on their way out. We read through the article, crunched the numbers, and realized that CoS is missing the most important point about vinyl -- it's a niche market! 

Vinyl is catered towards a number of genres that rely on it as a medium (i.e. djs, indie rock, hip hop and dance to name a few), and to music collectors and fans like us who love how it sounds. Sure the numbers aren't increasing by 89% year over year, but they are still increasing and occupying a pretty large slice of the music buying pie. 

So is vinyl on the way out? Hell no! It's the only medium to outlasted everything -- be it 8-tracks, cassettes, CDs or mp3s. Here's a snippet of the article below, let us know what you think!

Article Via CoS:

There’s another music format out there – vinyl. The last decade has seen a massive flux of nostalgia, and the musical frisbees are just one example. So how are the sales doing? No better than anything else. During 2008, 1.88 million units moved in the U.S, a massive 89.9% increase. 2009 saw more movement at 2.5 million units sold, but the increase was only 33%. In the first half of 2010 compared to the same span of time last year, there has only been a 9.1% increase.

90 percent to a potential 18 percent in two years is what economic statisticians call a bad sign. If products don’t continue to grow, their value to companies evaporates. Given, that ’08 upsurge data is a bit skewed due to the fact that vinyl was considered passé until the mid-aughts, with shipments not even breaching the million mark in ’06.

The question might be is this really even a problem? An increase is an increase, after all. This is true, but when sales begin to flatten out at marginally insignificant numbers, the validity of the product comes into question. General album sales, including CDs, LPs, and digital downloads, reached 373.9 million in 2009, with digital sales eating up a whooping 76.4 million of those. In juxtaposition, vinyl’s 1.3 million so far this year seems paltry.

So perhaps it’s true that vinyl’s popular resurgence is reaching an apex. Whether that means record companies will abandon the format as they did in the ‘80s is yet to be seen. Does this mean you should take ‘turntable’ off your holiday gift list? As always, the decision and the power really lies with you, the consumer. Audiophiles swear by the dinner-plate-sized format, and bands are always glad to find a solid income source. If you want this platform to stick around, then it’s up to you and your wallet. Though as our source Digital Music News all too accurately points out, “no matter how distinctive and collectible, LPs are still competing with free.”

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