CD's and Vinyl Outselling Digital Downloads for the First Time Since 2011

DooKey

DooKey

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As a guy who grew up back in the dark ages of the 60's and 70's I had to smile when I found out that CD's and Vinyl have once again resurged and outsold digital downloads (site detects ad blockers) last year. I have to admit that it's nice to actually hold the media in my hands and know it's all mine. Here's to old school! Thanks cageymaru.

The RIAA released its 2017 year-end revenue report on Thursday, showing that revenue from digital downloads plummeted 25 percent to $1.3 billion over the previous year. Revenue from physical products, by contrast, fell just 4 percent to $1.5 billion.
 
Well if they didn't keep release so much "crap" maybe digital would sell more..

There are a lot of people jumping on the Vinyl train cause they think it is cool, and some even claim the quality is better.....ya..okay...
 
I have hopes the same thing will happen with video streaming and eventually people will catch on that blue disks are a lot better than streaming (and if you have internet like mine, DVD's are often a lot better too)...but VHS and BETA? No wouldn't want those back.
 
vegeta535 said:
Guess people finnaly getting tired of the shit quality of iTunes. Vinly tho ugh. Might as well bring back 8 tracks.
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Sound quality with vinyl is in no way comparable to 8-track. Vinyl is still superior to anything out there and I wish that they would offer digital transfers of vinyl for sale instead of needing to buy the equipment to do it yourself.
 
The lure of collecting CD's and Vinyl was the cover art, lyrics, etc but also the affordability.

Have you guys been into and modern record store? Prices are astronomical. $25 - $35 - $50 for records.

I have seen some new releases / new re-releases for $18 - $22+ dollars but still utter sillyness to me.

They are hitting these silly millennial's with the skinny jeans over the head.
 
Vinyl is about having a big hunk of plastic, a cover, liner ect. Folks around here that buy special collectors edition games with little key chains, bobble heads or what have you should get it.

Imo the big take away here isn't that physical media sales are up but that digital purchases are down. That would make me think the sub services are eating into apples cake. Apple didn't take spotify seriously and that is good for consumers. If your going to listen to lower quality compressed digital crap at least do it as an all you can eat sub instead of bit by bit purcha$es
 
SixFootDuo said:
Prices are astronomical. $25 - $35 - $50 for records
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Hmm, I remember back in the late 80's new albums were typically in the $12-$18 range, so given inflation the $35 and less doesn't sound unreasonable. Of course the bargain bins had $8 and cheaper, presumably those will appear again if records start selling in serious numbers (or well, not selling ;) ).
 
ChadD said:
Vinyl is about having a big hunk of plastic, a cover, liner ect. Folks around here that buy special collectors edition games with little key chains, bobble heads or what have you should get it.

Imo the big take away here isn't that physical media sales are up but that digital purchases are down. That would make me think the sub services are eating into apples cake. Apple didn't take spotify seriously and that is good for consumers. If your going to listen to lower quality compressed digital crap at least do it as an all you can eat sub instead of bit by bit purcha$es
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Well IMO it's the result of two things. One, like you said, streaming is eating into digital purchases. Two though, the price of a CD is really low these days. If you want more than maybe 4 songs, the CD is cheaper most of the time. It's 16 bit linear, and you have an offline backup inherently. Buy it, rip it, it goes into the box of CDs.
 
Armenius said:
Sound quality with vinyl is in no way comparable to 8-track. Vinyl is still superior to anything out there and I wish that they would offer digital transfers of vinyl for sale instead of needing to buy the equipment to do it yourself.
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It's true that producers are more likely to focus on taking care and producing a quality mix for vinyl these days since it stands out as a premium product and affords the extra attention, but this is coincidental and not a fact about vinyl. The truth is, vinyl is no better than CD (and both are far worse than reel). It comes down to the mix, which makes any medium sound amazing. A well mixed pre-cut master is worth the effort, and sounds way better than most CDs because most CD albums were rushed to duplication on the cheap. Low-cost audio production tools and amateur sound engineers have always been a pain in the music industry -- and not just in the independent production stuff. Listening to common albums (CD or vinyl) on quality hardware demonstrates all the flaws and shortcuts of the quick mixdown. It's _terrible_.

It doesn't help that most albums are produced to suit the average consumer electronics -- assuming that CD DACs are all the same was a major influence on the poor state of sound engineering. The self proclaimed sound engineers (amateurs) and easy to use recording software really ruined the industry. So it's refreshing to see some real knowledge come back into producing quality albums.

edit: also, novelty records are really fun. :D
 
I think it is more that people have disposable income and looking for somewhere to place it. Humans like stuff.
 
The many numerous reasons why Vinyl was great to begin with is all but gone. Those days died out years ago. There are new reasons / factors that are driving sales here in 2017 - 18, none of which are good. They are simply latching on to young people that are willing to spend more. The same young people that are ok with using Grubhub to have Chipotle delivered for $20 when it would normally cost $7 dollars are driving sales. They are buying a few albums here and there only because it's the "in-style fashion" thing to do. It's unsustainable, faux and BS. I've ran into these people are after talking to them and listening to them it's very apparent they aren't true fans of the format. These fly by night fans are the ones driving sales. Next year it will be something else.

And that's ok for most people. I'm cool with that. I love music and hope that the younger generations experience older classic Rock, etc along with the new stuff of course. However, I do suspect that these older artists will never see any of this 'new vinyl' money.

For me personally, it's all BS. I wish I was younger and that I didn't have a care in the world and that my eyes were still closed. I hate feeling jaded but that's what life does to you as you get older and understand things for what they really are.

With all that said, get out there and buy some Vinyl and try and experience some of the great classics. Genesis, Chicago, Boston, Led Zeppelin, Yes, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, etc etc. A lot of great stuff out there that sounds fantastic on Vinyl.
 
It's not really a resurgence of vinyl and CD's. While Vinyl sales are increasing, they are still only about 5% of the market. CD sales have dropped. Digital downloads are dropping, but it's not because people are going back to CD's and Vinyl. The trend is leading to streaming services, which are growing in popularity every year. 25% a year is the last figure I saw. People are buying less music.
 
MrGuvernment said:
Well if they didn't keep release so much "crap" maybe digital would sell more..

There are a lot of people jumping on the Vinyl train cause they think it is cool, and some even claim the quality is better.....ya..okay...
Click to expand...

I'd consider the argument that the quality is better, at least until the record has been played a couple times.
Every time it's played the quality gets worse, unless you have a laser instead of a needle.


Cool? Since I still have a record player and records, guess I'm cool again :D

Only goes to show, if you wait long enough, almost everything comes back into style.
 
It may be the quality.. i got sick of how they cut frequencies out of streaming services... No blasting bass playing Beastie Boys... GET THE FUCK OUT. I am still pissed and I cancelled a while ago.
 
It's obviously streaming services causing this. The CD sections of Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart, etc. are just as dead as they were last year. Vinyl has been seeing a little bit of a nostalgia resurgence for a while, but we're starting to see more new/desired content being released that way.
 
I think vinyls are fun. I just recently got a cheap setup and have started collecting. I enjoy the sound but also the aesthetics of the record collection and the thrift shop visits for hidden treasure. I pick up the classics new when amazon has them on sale. Everything else is just scrounging through bins. One think I really like about vinyl is how they lend well to listening all the way through because changing tracks isn't so convenient. I find some cool songs I never would have listened to otherwise every now and then.

No one in their right mind is going to say they are better in practically anyway.

It could be worse, lots of people collect stamps......lol
 
Woo. Nows the time to sell my 400+ CDs collecting dust. I love music, but to have a good collection, you have to store it all. That and I’m always too lazy to dig out the one I want.
 
Revenue from digital and physical sales both declined last year, so saying physical "resurged and outsold digital downloads" is wrong and silly.

Both digital downloads and physical sales are both dwarfed by subscription services at this point. Subscription is $5.7 billion, compared to ~$1.5 billion each for physical and digital sales.

"revenue from digital downloads plummeted 25 percent to $1.3 billion over the previous year. Revenue from physical products, by contrast, fell just 4 percent to $1.5 billion."

"Nearly all of the growth was the result of the continued surge in paid music subscription services like Spotify and Apple Music. Those services grew by more than 50 percent to $5.7 billion last year and accounted for nearly two-thirds of the industry’s revenue."

In other words, digital/streaming accounts for over 67% of the market. Physical sales are about 33%.
 
vegeta535 said:
Guess people finnaly getting tired of the shit quality of iTunes. Vinly tho ugh. Might as well bring back 8 tracks.
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I loved 8 track! I think my Dad had Xanadu (?) and Fleetwood Mac.

I would never have thought CD's much less vinyl would outsell digital downloads.....
 
nutzo said:
I'd consider the argument that the quality is better, at least until the record has been played a couple times.
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It's not, by any measure or known mechanism. Vinyl is in both theory and practice measurably worse in every way we are able to measure.
 
Armenius said:
Sound quality with vinyl is in no way comparable to 8-track. Vinyl is still superior to anything out there and I wish that they would offer digital transfers of vinyl for sale instead of needing to buy the equipment to do it yourself.
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Dynamic range of a CD is greater than vinyl. Frequency response is pretty much the same.
Yes, labels now screw up dynamic range with hyper-compression, but that's not a limitation of the medium.

There have been double blind tests going back to at least the 90s and most people (90-95%) cannot even tell if they're listening to vinyl or a CD, even on studio grade equipment, much less discern that one is better than the other.

Some sound engineers can, though not even all of them could on the one I recall from the early or mid 90s (in Musician Magazine as I recall).
 
Yeah, the new people that are driving sales care a lot less about sound quality than you think. For them, it's more about trying to fit in and be cool, following the new trend. It's a lot like getting a new tattoo ... buying skinny jeans or walking into Starbucks and spending $8 dollars on a coffee. There is a low of shallowness involved.
 
SixFootDuo said:
Yeah, the new people that are driving sales care a lot less about sound quality than you think. For them, it's more about trying to fit in and be cool, following the new trend. It's a lot like getting a new tattoo ... buying skinny jeans or walking into Starbucks and spending $8 dollars on a coffee. There is a low of shallowness involved.
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I'm not so sure. I know several who think it sounds better, though given their cheap turntables, it's unlikely they could hear an improvement even if vinyl was superior. I have a friend who has been buying vinyl and he just likes it because it forces him to sit down and listen to the album, since there's no good way to pause it

I buy some vinyl by bands that I like if they are on interesting colored vinyl or if I think it has collector value, but to be clear I haven't owned a turntable since the mid 80s and I probably won't buy another one going forward, but maybe I'll find a reason some day.
 
My sealed original copy of Tool's Aenima says hi!

Actually financed a trip to Europe selling my Nine Inch Nails CD and Vinyl collection. Had about 100 of them that I sold for about 7k back in 2004. None costing more than $5-10 out of my pocket. Some sold for as much as $100 depending on what it was. Had a mis-pressed copy of PHM that had a Swedish rap group as the last 7 tracks...

Now I just stream... I'm old, deaf, and have been to too many concerts to notice the quality complaints.
 
Records have been dead to me since the 80's. I aim for cd/flac when possible, but will accept 320k mp3.
 
hlfbkd420 said:
My sealed original copy of Tool's Aenima says hi!

Actually financed a trip to Europe selling my Nine Inch Nails CD and Vinyl collection. Had about 100 of them that I sold for about 7k back in 2004. None costing more than $5-10 out of my pocket. Some sold for as much as $100 depending on what it was. Had a mis-pressed copy of PHM that had a Swedish rap group as the last 7 tracks...

Now I just stream... I'm old, deaf, and have been to too many concerts to notice the quality complaints.
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My hearing is pretty messed up, but the last time I tried doing a blind test (about 2 years ago) I could tell which was the MP3 and which was the wav/flac audio. I'll admit it wasn't easy, but I think there were 5 songs (most of them I was unfamiliar with) and I picked the lossless audio 4 out of 5 times.
Azphira said:
Records have been dead to me since the 80's. I aim for cd/flac when possible, but will accept 320k mp3.
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CD->Flac->Subsonic music server-> to MP3 (for streaming).
 
Armenius said:
Sound quality with vinyl is in no way comparable to 8-track. Vinyl is still superior to anything out there and I wish that they would offer digital transfers of vinyl for sale instead of needing to buy the equipment to do it yourself.
Click to expand...

complete and utter BS. Vinyl has shit quality, always has. Vinyl is strictly worth as a audio distribution medium than CDs in every way wrt audio reproduction quality.
 
Wtf are "digital transfers of vinyl"?? Those are called CDs, and they skip the digital -> vinyl -> digital steps.
 
I just have to jump in to the vinyl vs cd flames. I've spent the last year upgrading my stereo for a 15 year old Sony 5.1 amp, Pioneer $100 cheapo CD player and 25year old $100 Stanton turntable with a decent cartrage. CD's were clearly superior on that system. I got a new Teac Tn-300 turntable with a entry level AT-97 cartrage. Vinyl started to sound ok. Updated the cart to a Denon DL-110, got some quality cables and a Shiit preamp. WOW, Vinyl clearly sounded better than CD. Got a new amp (NAD 326BEEE) speakers (Elac UF5) and cables. Everything sounded better but Vinyl pulled even further ahead of CD. So I got a a new Yamaha CD-300 and cables. Well wouldn't you know it, CD's sound REALLY good now. I prefer the sound of most vinyl. My Mofi pressed Lp's are fantastic. Some current reissues don't sound so good. I guess what I'm getting at is that what you're playing your music though makes a huge difference. If your CD player is 10+ years old, thow it away. If you have a cheap turntable and cart, vinyl is going to suck. On my modest system CD and vinyl are very similar in quality to me.
 
kumquat said:
It's not, by any measure or known mechanism. Vinyl is in both theory and practice measurably worse in every way we are able to measure.
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The same can be said of transistors vs tubes, but there are people who like the sound of tubes.

Same with Records vs CD's Some people think CD's sound harsh and like the sound of vinyl.

I'm not in either camp. I'd rather have a good quality CD and a quality transistorized amp.

I'll also add that over 90% of the population wouldn't be able to tell the difference and are ok with low bit rate MP3's and streaming.
 
Uvaman2 said:
It may be the quality.. i got sick of how they cut frequencies out of streaming services... No blasting bass playing Beastie Boys... GET THE FUCK OUT. I am still pissed and I cancelled a while ago.
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I had to add in a full lower octave harmonic in my car DSP for this shit.
 
I've had a number of discussions with Amazon support regarding their music downloads, as all to often the MP3s are ripped at far less than CD quality. In several cases, I've downloaded entire albums to find each individual track on an album released with different sampling rates. Over the last year, I've been ordering more physical media instead to be able to rip the contents to the quality and format(s) I desire- same price and 2 day shipping:D
 
nutzo said:
I'd consider the argument that the quality is better, at least until the record has been played a couple times.
Every time it's played the quality gets worse, unless you have a laser instead of a needle.


Cool? Since I still have a record player and records, guess I'm cool again :D

Only goes to show, if you wait long enough, almost everything comes back into style.
Click to expand...

Since you mention laser record players: http://elpj.com/ ^_^

They're a bit pricey, though.
 
For me it comes down to source and setup. If either is shit, it's going to sound like shit no matter what.

As for the numbers, I have to agree that streaming is taking over. I bounce between Spotify and Pandora. The last time I bought a CD was when a Youtube musician I liked dropped their first album through a small time independent label and I wanted to support them. That was back in like 2012 if I remember right. Now? I couldn't care less about having CD quality, unless it's an artist/group I really enjoy and want to support.

What I would have loved to see actually hold ground against the mp3 would have been either SACD or DVD-Audio.

Now, silly question time for anyone to answer: Do you think Blu-Ray Audio will ever take off? Or will it take aggressive pricing to make it happen?
 
MrGuvernment said:
There are a lot of people jumping on the Vinyl train cause they think it is cool, and some even claim the quality is better.....ya..okay...
Click to expand...

compared to mp3, hell f'n yeah they got better sound quality especially cd's. if you got a good set of speakers the difference between mp3 and cd/vinyl is night and day.
 
SpeedBump said:
If your CD player is 10+ years old, thow it away. If you have a cheap turntable and cart, vinyl is going to suck. On my modest system CD and vinyl are very similar in quality to me.
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FYI, what matters with CDs is not necessarily the CD player. A $50 CD player can give world-class results. What matters is the digital to analog converter. If you're using analog outputs on your CD player, then the CD player's D/A converter is being used and a cheap one will not sound as good as a good one.

However, if you're using digital outputs it doesn't matter if you're using a Macintosh MCD550 or the cheapest Aiwa you found at Walmart 20 years ago; the digital stream is for all intents and purposes the same. Those will sound equally good or bad depending on the D/A converter (and amplification, speakers, etc).
 
nutzo said:
The same can be said of transistors vs tubes, but there are people who like the sound of tubes.

Same with Records vs CD's Some people think CD's sound harsh and like the sound of vinyl.

I'm not in either camp. I'd rather have a good quality CD and a quality transistorized amp.

I'll also add that over 90% of the population wouldn't be able to tell the difference and are ok with low bit rate MP3's and streaming.
Click to expand...

Tubes can be really, really good when used within their spec. Transistors aren't necessarily better in all regards. Also, tubes can be great for instrument amplification as the breakup patterns can be very organic and satisfying compared to transistor.
 
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