Vinyl album sales outstripped digital downloads for the first time last week

Who said vinyl sales were slowing? According to new data revealed by the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA), more money was spent on vinyl album sales than digital album downloads in the UK last week.

Sharing the data with The Vinyl Factory, ERA confirmed that £2.4m was spent on vinyl albums in week 48 of 2016, while only £2.1m was spent on digital downloads. It marks a huge swing from the same week in 2015, when the £1.2m spent on vinyl albums was eclipsed by £4.4m of digital downloads.

An indication of what an ERA spokesperson has called “a significant shift in consumer spending habits over the last 12 months,” it is believed this is the first time that the value of vinyl album sales has overtaken digital download value over a seven day period.

Using Official Charts data which is typically representative of the whole market, the ERA also suggested that the upswing in sales this year could be down to a number of factors, including Record Store Day Black Friday, the popularity of vinyl as a Christmas gift and the greater number of retailers (like supermarkets Sainsbury’s and Tesco) now stocking vinyl.

Earlier this year it was reported that vinyl sales exceeded YouTube revenue for UK artists.

[thevinylfactory.com]

Good to hear.
I've never owned an mp3 player, and have never paid for a digital download.

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Cool!

I would assume, and this is just a guess, that its because its much easier to steal digital music and you can't really "steal" vinyl. Can't "steal" CDs either. You have to make the physical purchase, whereas if you're gonna be buying music digitally online, its also fairly easy to just illegally download it. Or listen to it on something free like Spotify. Or listen to it for free on Youtube. There's just a lot of options. Whereas, if you want the vinyl, the only way to hear it is to buy that vinyl. There's no real alternative, hence the higher sales numbers. But I would doubt its as if people are listening to music less "digitally". They just probably aren't legally buying it.

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Hairball
Good to hear.
I've never owned an mp3 player, and have never paid for a digital download.

Me either!
And I have never sent a text yet.. and if I die without ever sending or receiving a text it will be fine with me.

I think there's a very important distinction here between digital downloads and streaming. Downloading mp3s and other files is on the wane, while streaming -- of which a large part is not free or illegal -- is the biggest source for music listening today.

"According to new data from the BPI, streams accounted for over a quarter (27.3%) of the UK’s chart-eligible album ‘sales’ in 2015."
(Although album sales in this context is somewhat ambiguous; [www.musicbusinessworldwide.com])

Vinyl's share of the album market is circa 4%
(http://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/uk-vinyl-sales-61-8-yoy-q1-2016)

Here's another, somewhat differing, survey:

Radio 35%
CD 20%
Free streaming 19%
Download 15%
Paid streaming 6%
Vinyl 2%
Other 2%

[www.emarketer.com]

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kowalski

According to new data revealed by the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA), more money was spent on vinyl album sales than digital album downloads in the UK last week.

The ERA says only that more money was spent on Vinyl - yes of course, in regard of the prices:

Blue & Lonesome - Vinyl: EUR 27.99 -- [www.jpc.de]

Blue & Lonesome - MP3: EUR 8.49 -- [play.google.com]

The ERA should better compare the quantities ....

Still pretty cool records are out selling downloads. Didn't think that would happen these days.

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LieB
Here's another, somewhat differing, survey:

Radio 35%
CD 20%
Free streaming 19%
Download 15%
Paid streaming 6%
Vinyl 2%
Other 2%

[www.emarketer.com]

Radio must be very expensive these days

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frankotero
Still pretty cool records are out selling downloads. Didn't think that would happen these days.

I wonder if streaming services are included in these numbers, as there really is no point in buying downloads anymore. You can get everything with the same quality on Spotify etc.

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DandelionPowderman

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frankotero
Still pretty cool records are out selling downloads. Didn't think that would happen these days.

I wonder if streaming services are included in these numbers, as there really is no point in buying downloads anymore. You can get everything with the same quality on Spotify etc.

Not quite true. If you buy HD downloads (24-bit) you won't have this quality on streaming services (or on CD).

I'm just happy that you can easily buy music on vinyl again.

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kowalski

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DandelionPowderman

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frankotero
Still pretty cool records are out selling downloads. Didn't think that would happen these days.

I wonder if streaming services are included in these numbers, as there really is no point in buying downloads anymore. You can get everything with the same quality on Spotify etc.

Not quite true. If you buy HD downloads (24-bit) you won't have this quality on streaming services (or on CD).

We were talking about vinyl vs. mp3 here (see the thread title).

"Downloads have been in sharp decline as consumers switch to streaming services.
The ERA has suggested the surge in vinyl sales could be attributed to the popularity of vinyl as a Christmas gift and the growing number of retailers - including supermarkets such as Sainsbury's and Tesco - which now stock vinyl."
[www.bbc.co.uk]


"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"

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Deltics
"Downloads have been in sharp decline as consumers switch to streaming services.
The ERA has suggested the surge in vinyl sales could be attributed to the popularity of vinyl as a Christmas gift and the growing number of retailers - including supermarkets such as Sainsbury's and Tesco - which now stock vinyl."
[www.bbc.co.uk]

Petrol stations are selling vinyl here now, too

I sure am glad that they came up with the mp3 !

Now my music collection weighs one gram rather than 150 kilos, and takes up less than 1 cubic centimeter, rather than 2 cubic meters.

Plus: NO MORE SCRATCHES !

And I am very happy with the sound quality. Mp3 sound is just fine with me.

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Chacho
I sure am glad that they came up with the mp3 !

Now my music collection weighs one gram rather than 150 kilos, and takes up less than 1 cubic centimeter, rather than 2 cubic meters.

Plus: NO MORE SCRATCHES !

And I am very happy with the sound quality. Mp3 sound is just fine with me.

You don't get to hear everything, though...

So for the unimitiated like me who haven't as yet dabbled in it .

How does streaming work in terms of sales & paying for it ?

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Spud
So for the unimitiated like me who haven't as yet dabbled in it .

How does streaming work in terms of sales & paying for it ?

About £10 per month over the phone bill for Spotify (by norwegian subscription prices).

So you pay your subscription and may then stream anything the vendor has available ?

So what happens with artist royalties etc ?

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Spud
So you pay your subscription and may then stream anything the vendor has available ?

So what happens with artist royalties etc ?

The artists get royalities from our streams (I believe it's approximately £0.002 per streamed track). The vendor (for instance Spotify) has most of the albums by any artist available for streaming.

Many of the vault releases by the Stones are missing, though (some are there).

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DandelionPowderman

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frankotero
Still pretty cool records are out selling downloads. Didn't think that would happen these days.

I wonder if streaming services are included in these numbers, as there really is no point in buying downloads anymore. You can get everything with the same quality on Spotify etc.

If you don't have a subscription to Spotify then, bizarrely, on a phone you can not listen to what you want to listen to, it's only shuffle. On a PC it's different.

So maybe a download would make sense in that aspect. How many people store music on their device? I don't.

Thanks Dandy.

What resolutiuon are the typical streams on offer these days ?

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Spud
Thanks Dandy.

What resolutiuon are the typical streams on offer these days ?

It used to be Ogg Vorbis, but now it's mp3 320, I think. Pretty good.

I'd want something better than that as my everyday source I'm afraid.

It'll come in time I guess

Spotify is running a 3 month special for .99 cents. I jumped on it this time as I passed 9ver it this past summer. It's so nice not having commercials and on mobile devices not having t9 listen in shuffle mode.

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GasLightStreet

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DandelionPowderman

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frankotero
Still pretty cool records are out selling downloads. Didn't think that would happen these days.

I wonder if streaming services are included in these numbers, as there really is no point in buying downloads anymore. You can get everything with the same quality on Spotify etc.

If you don't have a subscription to Spotify then, bizarrely, on a phone you can not listen to what you want to listen to, it's only shuffle. On a PC it's different.

So maybe a download would make sense in that aspect. How many people store music on their device? I don't.

Of course you can. I have many gigabytes of music on my phone of songs and albums that are not on Spotify.

You'll have to store them as albums and playlists, though.

Or did you mean a free Spotify-subscription on your phone? If so, you mean that the controls (shuffle etc.) won't display?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-12-06 18:20 by DandelionPowderman.

Somewhat related: What's old is new...hope this long as* link works.

[www.nytimes.com]

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dmay
Somewhat related: What's old is new...hope this long as* link works.

[www.nytimes.com]

Thank you for the link. Very interesting reading.