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Vinyl outselling CDs? Not so fast.

Botch

MetaBotch Doggy Dogg Mellencamp
Superstar
Found this video about the growth of vinyl sales, while CD sales are "tanking". He brings up some surprising points, such as "50% of current vinyl buyers do not own a turntable!" He does make one error, he states that the days of inexpensive used CDs are numbered; I don't quite agree with that as, taking myself for example, my time on this rock isn't that much longer, and I certainly hope my CD (and my album) collection makes its way to some shop for someone else to enjoy.

 
I agree that the market for cheap used CDs is ending, not because of my huge CD collection one day being taken to a charity shop, but because I have watched ALL of the local used CD stores close, which were at one time on every other block in my town (and the towns I visited when traveling). Today, the only used CD stores are charity shops, and while I happen to live in a community with a government funded non-profit bookstore (Half-Priced Books) selling used CDs and LPs, their CD selection gets significantly smaller every time I visit.

What I think everyone misses on this topic is that everyone who prefers listening to digital audio because of its relatively consistent high fidelity and longevity, don't care so much about the medium, but how they access their music. Streaming can easily replace CDs, and then some, because it is cheaper per minute spent listening, the catalogs tend to be massively huge (far larger than any of us could possibly afford to purchase on CD), and in some cases offered in higher resolution or updated to remixes and remastered versions without any additional purchases. Why buy a new CD if I can simply look it up on Apple Music or Amazon Music and listen to it on every device I own, from my reference grade 2-channel system to my smartphone to my Amazon Echo Dot?

The mere fact LPs are outselling CDs in and of itself means nothing. A better consumer research study, to me, would be how many hours of listening per year is performed via digital vs. LP vs. Reel-to-Reel, per capita. That would be telling as to what preferences are leading the hobby.
 
And yet I still enjoy/prefer the process of opening a physical medium, walking to my player, watching the door close, and press play. It's part of the process for me. I completely understand someone slightly older than me saying the same thing about vinyl over CD's (album art; inserts; etc)

But I also prefer to listen to entire albums - and not a song here and there.

I get it - I'm an old stubborn man.
 
And yet I still enjoy/prefer the process of opening a physical medium, walking to my player, watching the door close, and press play. It's part of the process for me. I completely understand someone slightly older than me saying the same thing about vinyl over CD's (album art; inserts; etc)

But I also prefer to listen to entire albums - and not a song here and there.

I get it - I'm an old stubborn man.
OF course! You should fully embrace your joys.

I, too, and an album listener. If I am sitting down to listen to music, with focus solely on enjoying the music, I listen to full albums - and I stop when the album is over and don't go back for awhile. I find part of the pleasure of the experience is the afterglow of the emotions and joy of the music. I don't leap right away into something else which distracts me from fully savoring the music I just let take my on a huge emotional journey.

I find it extremely easy to listen to albums via streaming services. I don't have that gene that needs to skip around and jump from track to track and through just parts of songs because they are exciting, or whatever. I decide, often well in advance, what album I want to experience and that's all I do for those 45 to 100 minutes. Then I do mindless stuff as I process what just happened. If, much later, I want more of that, I will do another album. But it is rare that I need yet more music.

But, that's just me. We all enjoy our hobbies the way we've learned to enjoy them. I praise anyone who can figure out how to focus on their hobbies and really understand what makes them work for their souls.
 
I buy CD's when I can find them on sale. Most of my listening is done through streaming. Spotify has lossless now so that is what I listen to. I don't have a decent enough record player so that is out for me.
 
I continue to buy CD's. I rip them (FLAC) and play them in the HT through a Bluesound Nano. Lossless format. Hardwired.

I stream on the garage, den and outdoor systems. Amazon Music and Pandora, mostly.
 
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