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 …
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 …
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 …
