Vinyl beats CD for the first time since 1987. Yet another bubble?
According to a new report from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), vinyl records have experienced a resurgence in popularity, with sales exceeding CDs for the first time since 1987.
The RIAA report, released on Thursday, said that in terms of physical units sold in 2022, records surpassed CDs with a total of 41.3 million sales, while CDs had 33.4 million sales. The industry group said that vinyl sales have seen sixteen consecutive years of growth.
The vinyl boom has come for several reasons. During the pandemic, when concert halls have been forced to close, some artists and their labels have released music on vinyl to enhance the experience for fans without having to leave their homes and to offer a new untapped revenue stream for artists and labels.
“I think the record companies saw this as an opportunity to generate revenue during the pandemic,” Lyndsey Havens, senior editor at Billboard, told Gizmodo recently.
“That's why you see a lot of live albums reissued on vinyl or pressed on vinyl for the first time. It's a great way to generate extra income and I think fans have responded well and are now requesting it from their favorite artists,” Havens said.
Last year, vinyl record revenues increased 17% to over $1.2 billion. This growth has been particularly significant during the pandemic. The RIAA said vinyl contributed 71% of the physical format's revenues.
Meanwhile, the RIAA said CD revenues fell 18% last year to $483 million. As we already noted in 2019, record sales were expected to outstrip CD sales.
This vinyl renaissance comes with a big “but”: half of the buyers of this stand don't have a turntable
So the boom is supported by a collecting point that could translate into yet another
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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/il-vinile-batte-il-cd-per-la-prima-volta-dal-1987-lennesima-bolla/ on Mon, 13 Mar 2023 08:15:49 +0000.