A great tool for visualizing the current state of the recorded music market is the RIAA’s U.S. Sales Database, which allows you to to filter and sort record sales data in numerous ways. Here’s a screen shot of overall sales since 1973. Although this only represents sales in the US, it still provides some perspective Read More …
According to Statistica, US sales of LP record albums increased about 14% in 2023 to about 49 million. The same site claims that 82,000 turntables were sold in the US in 2021. 2023 was the second year in a row during which LP records outsold CDs. But people still do not seem to be listening Read More …
Bucks Burnett, a Texas record collector, record store owner, and museum operator, died in October, 2023. Burnett was one of the early and vocal advocates of collecting music on 8-track tapes. In the early 1990s, 8-tracks were bottoming out in terms of popularity and value. Bucks was one of many who nostalgically latched onto them Read More …
Wired magazine jumped on the cassette culture bandwagon with a “how to” article on getting started with cassettes. I predict that this marks the beginning of the end for the cassette. Again.
This just in: Apple has discontinued the iPod. This is the worst news since Microsoft discontinued the Zune in 2012. Apple still makes iPods? Who knew. They will be selling the remaining ones until supplies run out. 2024 Update: If you wanted to try to be the last person to buy a new iPod, you Read More …
Ok, this isn’t really sound recording history, but once upon a time I published a how-to article on installing the dust cover and hinges on a Technics SL-1200 turntable. The SL-1200 is a legendary turntable first manufactured in 1972 that became a favorite of DJs in the 80s and later. While it superficially resembles other Read More …
This post originally appeared on the earliest version of this site, back in 2001, when it was hosted at Rutgers University (the old url was www.rci.rutgers.edu/~dmorton). Some body actually asked me about it recently (I dropped it years ago), so here it is, with updates. Why have there been so many different, incompatible audio technologies? Read More …
This one from reddit. A few thoughts: LP records (“vinyl” in the parlance of the young) look to be about as commercially significant as they were in the early 1990s, which is to say not all that important. LPs aren’t so much the comeback kid as a significant niche product with stead sales that hasn’t Read More …
It sort of happened with the LP (“vinyl” if you’re under 40). It sort of happened with the 8-track tape. Now it’s sort of happening with the cassette. Old sound recording formats never truly disappear (even cylinder phonographs are still occasionally manufactured and recorded upon), but it’s rare for one to make a partial comeback. Read More …
Reports of the impending demise of the compact disk have been frequent over the past several years (this article in Business Insider is the source for the chart), especially since early 2018 when retailer Best Buy announced it would drop CDs from its offerings. In fact, sales of CDs peaked right about the time I Read More …
