As strange as it may sound to modern people, vinyl continues to grow in sales and has surpassed CD for some time.
In the RIAA’ s just-released annual report, we read that vinyl sales continue to rise, surpassing CD sales for yet another year in a row. Still, it is not all doom and gloom for the (mostly) silver discs: sales of these are starting to pick up as well. But all in all, sales of physical media are totally dwarfed by those of streaming. The latter comprises 84% of US music sales, versus 11% physical media. Digital downloads (the official ones…) almost completely fail to participate at only 3%.
Risks to streaming, too
Because “we” as music listeners do depend largely on streaming, potential troubles also arise. The hassle with rights, disappearing albums from streaming services and so on may one day make you unable to listen to your favorite music. More obscure music also runs the risk of eventually being discarded, if it was ever streamed at all. And given the slowly (but surely) rising sales of LPs and CDs, more people are seeing the benefits of having a tangible music collection. In terms of shelf life, then, vinyl does not immediately strike us as the basis for a sustainably sustainable collection. But that is a choice each person must make for themselves…