Vinyl sales double in 2008 to almost 2 million units (almost 3 million for 2009)

[dobyblue]

http://www.canada.com/topics/enterta...tml?id=1143511

A music-buying public enamoured of digital downloads may be abandoning the compact disc in droves, but one physical medium is staging a tiny comeback.

Amid otherwise gloomy music sales numbers released by Nielsen Co. this week, vinyl record sales doubled compared with the year before.

The number of long-play vinyl records sold in the United States rose to 1.88 million units, compared with 990,000 the year before.

"From what I'm gathering, strangely enough, it's the younger generation that are really kind of going back to (vinyl),'' said Roy Trakin, editor of the U.S. music industry website Hits.

And that 990,000 from 2007 was a 15% overall increase from 2006, so 2008 has really seen some leaps and bounds in vinyl sales.

The highest selling title was Radiohead's "In Rainbows", Abbey Road was 2nd.

CD sales were down 20% last year.

CD - 361 million
Digital Downloads - 66 million
Vinyl - 2 million

[xtop]

its the 'cool' thing right now with the younger crowd. be interesting to see how long this will keep up

[Johnny Vinyl]

I actually never stopped buying records, but it's nice to see that new releases are becoming more widely available (especially on the local scene).

Vinyl

[Crim122]

Apparently Elivs Costelleo only released his new album on Vinyl and Download, but he eventually has signed a deal to put it on CD

[richteer]

Originally Posted by xtop

its the 'cool' thing right now with the younger crowd. be interesting to see how long this will keep up

Agreed. As an almost-only-vinyl buyer*, I just hope the record companies don't lapse into their old, greedy ways of using crappy thin vinyl and packaging. Keep giving us decent 180g+ releases in decent packaging (and don't try to squeeze longer albums onto one disc), and we'll keep buying.

* I do occassionally buy CDs, but I can't honestly remember when my most recent CD purchase was. Probably sometime in 2007 or 2006.

[tron3]

I remember seeing a TV story that the last vynil record was made in 1990. I guess it is making a comeback. Anyone know when they stopped making glass records?

[dobyblue]

Originally Posted by tron3

I remember seeing a TV story that the last vynil record was made in 1990. I guess it is making a comeback. Anyone know when they stopped making glass records?

Huh? That TV story was dead wrong, they have never stopped making vinyl records. I don't know when they ever made glass records - there is a record label called Glass Records, but they release on vinyl.

Rubber, shellac, and vinyl have all been used for records, but vinyl has been used pretty much exclusively since the 40's. I've never heard of a glass record.

The house/DJ scene has always used vinyl. Vinyl has NEVER gone out of production.

[dobyblue]

According to Nielsen Soundscan vinyl sales through end of November have hit over 2 million and are on pace for almost 1 million more than last year which is excellent news, 37% increase year over year.

Still accounting for only 1% of sales, but with CD sales dropping another 20% any physical medium gaining in popularity is good news.

Rock and Alternative showed almost 60% gains over last year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/nyregion/07vinyl.html

In even better news these numbers generally don't include independant record stores or online record shops which is where a LOT of vinyl is sold. I'd like to see numbers combined from all the pressing plants to the number of records pressed in 2009 so far.