Who says physical music is dead? The number of records sold in the U.S in 2015 was just under 12 million (11.92 million to be exact), up from 9.19 million in 2014, according to Forbes magazine. Gramophone record – commonly known as a record, is an analogue sound storage medium in the form of flat polyvinyl chloride ( previously shellac) disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The phonograph disc record was the medium, used for music reproduction until late in the 20th century, replacing the phonograph cylinder record – with which it had co-existed from the 1880’s through to the 1920’s – by the late 1920’s. Record retained the largest market share even when new formats such as compact cassette were mass – marketed. By the late 1980’s, digital media, in the form of compact disc, had gained a larger market share, and the vinyl record left the mainstream in 1991.
Vinyl records are on the rise. More than 9.2 million vinyl records were sold in the U.S last year, marking a 52% increase over the year before. The Wall Street Journal also reports that the vinyl sales are the highest numbers recorded by Soundscan since the music industry monitor started tracking them back in 1991. What’s behind this resurgence of vinyl? And why does the digital download industry seem to be floundering? Two – fold. Vinyl remains popular because the high – quality sound it delivers. The sound is richer, warmer and clearer than what’s being released online. In an article I read online while doing research, Jon Lloyd, a music genre specialist at Juno Records, an international online shop that sells both vinyl and digital music, tells TIME that in many ways digital music has been its own worst advertisement over the last decade. You can set up a digital music label for a [relatively] very low cost meaning the market is flooded with record labels that aren’t particularly high on quality control. That glut of low quality, sloppily produced music. has likely put off many music listeners who have turned away from downloading music online.The labels that are putting out vinyl – which is expensive to produce – and sinking money into the product. But while vinyl sales are seeing of a renaissance, it’s still too soon to worry about excess demand. Yes, vinyl sales are surging but their sales still only made up six percent of album sales in 2014.
