Comments on: More Vinyl

By: DJ C

DJ C — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:36:30 +0000

Interesting numbers in the Rolling Stone article! If there are only around a million LPs pressed a year then my 225-thousand a week estimate is way off. While DJ singles are not exactly LPs, most are in the 12-inch format so to the pressing plants it makes absolutely no difference. Therefore I think my theory holds true that there were millions more vinyl records being pressed 10 years ago then there are now, and that was during the peak for CD sales.

I noticed in the article where they point out the entry-level price of a new turntable is around $70. I’m not sure where Boston.com got the $150 - umpteen-thousand numbers.

And wow! There they go again perpetuating some BS about how vinyl sounds better than CD and/or other digital formats. Blows my mind how such straight-up wrong info can be published as objective journalism. As I said before, it’s all about the mastering!

By: w&w

w&w — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:54:40 +0000

Rolling Stone is flogging the vinyl comeback too –>

By: DJ C

DJ C — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:00:06 +0000

Thanks, Wayne.

Good points there by Eliah related to what Cutups is saying.

In the hey day of dance music you’d probably have at least 100 singles a week coming out, each with a pressing of say 1,000 - 5,000 copies. That’s an average of 250,000 units a week. This doesn’t even take hip-hop and reggae into account, which I imagine would double the number — at least!

Lets say 10 of these pop releases a week are coming out on vinyl now, with pressings from 10,000 to 35,000. That’s an average of about 225,000 units a week.

These numbers are basically total guesses since I haven’t worked at a distributor or record store (in years). I’m making assumptions based on running a vinyl label and as a record buyer, but my gut tells me there are fewer vinyl records bing produced now overall. If anyone has better numbers please let us know.

By: w&w

w&w — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 14:06:36 +0000

I’d be a bit cautious about interpreting that Globe article too cheerfully. Check this response via Eliah Wald (who posted it to a pop music studies list I subscribe to):

As a longtime arts writer for the very paper we are citing, I would add another word of caution. Every source available seems to agree that vinyl is picking up new fans, but a trend piece is not quite the same thing as a trend. I wrote trend pieces for the Globe on the return of cowboy music in the 1990s–accurate, in terms of relative sales, but how many people ever heard it?–and any number of international styles, all of which were selling in unprecedented volume but never came close to reaching a mass market.

I know that a lot of people on this list probably hate math (or maths), but… As long as all the stories are talking only in terms of percentages rather than units or market share, they are to some extent deliberately exaggerating the trend to make their arguments stronger. It is very easy for a tiny market to show an amazing change in percentage–if I’m the only person buying 78s in my part of LA and another person takes up the hobby, that’s a 100% increase, but there are still only two of us.

Obviously, the vinyl buying increase is not that small, but when the Globe article gets to actual numbers, it says that a typical vinyl pressing is 10,000 copies, and the incredible number is 35,000 for a Led Zeppelin box that sells for $60. Those are good numbers for a small specialty label, but not a pop trend. And there is a further display of bait and switch in the way the story is written: we start out with an 18-year-old, to make it feel like this is a new youth trend, but the only solid number is for that Zeppelin package, which presumably did not have the bulk of its sales to 18-year-olds.

Vinyl is great, I still listen to it, but so far we are talking about a cult audience–and I suspect an aging cult audience if the main acts are Elvis Costello and Zeppelin–not a music industry trend.

By: KLOSELINE

KLOSELINE — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:46:41 +0000

true its just about the artform. i”d like to have all michael jackson albums on vinyl including artwork, special editions etc. but really who needs a 12″ whitelabel with a shit b-side ???

By: cutups

cutups — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:54:21 +0000

i think the reality behind this “story” is that for non-dj music, the music fans who used to buy cds are now buying (or downloading) digital files, and are more into buying vinyl because its more unique/lasting. while on the other hand, djs are moving more towards cd(rs) and digital downloads and giving up vinyl completely because of cost and ease of use. i’d be curious to see how much vinyl is being pressed these days vs, say, 10 years ago when dj music was really huge. i’d bet that its not more now. just that the type of music pressed has shifted. less hiphop and electronic music, more LP releases of bands.