Why millennials are buying more vinyl records
Kate Rogers | @katerogersnews (CNBC)
Friday, 6 Nov 2015 | 11:24 AM ET
The entertainment industry always loves a good comeback story, and
music's latest resurgence is no exception. Despite an explosion in
digital and streaming music — including Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora
and Tidal — consumers are spending more money on vinyl records, and more
vinyl buyers are millennials.
In 2014, more than 13 million vinyl long-playing albums, or LPs for
short, were sold in America. And the first half of 2015 is showing
similar sales strength with more than 9 million LPs sold, according to
the Recording Industry Association of America.
The association says the last time it has seen such high LP sales was a
quarter century ago, in 1989. At that time, nearly 35 million LPs were
sold. Then in 1990, compact disc sales took off, and vinyl sales fell by
the wayside.
The current surge in LP sales is partly being driven by younger
consumers. Industry researcher MusicWatch reports half of vinyl record
buyers are under 25, and men are more likely to buy LPs than are women.
"It's definitely a bright spot for the business," RIAA's Josh
Friedlander said in a statement to CNBC. "In an increasingly digital
age, vinyl records can provide a deeper, tactile connection to music
that resonates with some of the biggest fans," said Friedlander, the
association's senior vice president of strategic data analysis.
LP shipments increased 52 percent to $222 million for the first half
of 2015, according to the association. But that's still only 7 percent
of the overall market by value in a music industry dominated by digital
and streaming sales.
The vinyl demand is driving production at Independent Record Pressing in
Bordentown, New Jersey. The plant opened about 10 months ago and just
launched production in the past few weeks. The company wants to make
more than a million records per year.
Adding to the overall spike in vinyl demand, the New Jersey location is
among only a handful of U.S. plants still making LPs.
"Our demand far exceeds that," General Manager Sean Rutkowski said. "We
could run these presses 24 hours a day, seven days a week and still not
be able to meet demand. Capacity is really the choke point in the vinyl
industry right now," said Rutkowski, a music industry veteran of some 20
years.
Independent Record Pressing has contracted with about half a dozen
independent labels and has four full-time employees.
The plant machines are some 40 years old, and have been refurbished by
Dave Miller, the plant manager. Miller said the technology hasn't
changed much at all in that time. Each record takes about 25 to 40
seconds to make. The process includes molding and heating vinyl up to
350 degrees and hitting it with about 100 tons of pressure on the press.
Each record is then listened to individually before being packaged and
shipped.
"It's still heat and compression," Miller said. "Digital timers and
things like that have come into play, but really nothing has changed."
The equipment's age, however, can sometimes be problematic. "When stuff
breaks you have to either redesign it and have it reworked or
remanufactured," Miller said.
And while vinyl may be the contrary to digital, Rutkowski said digital
music may be adding to interest in LPs.
"Digital strips out the tangibility of music. It really is just a file,
and a record is such a great tangible piece. It's something you can
hold, something you can touch, something you can listen to in a way that
just putting something on your computer doesn't [compare to]," Rutkowski
said.
"I think a lot of younger kids are just discovering vinyl. They were
yearning for something different, and it's sort of a badge of what they
listen to."
--
*================================================ Duane Whittingham -
N9SSN (ARES/RACES, EmComm, Skywarn & Red Cross)
http://www.radiodude.info ================================================*
_______________________________________________
Medianews mailing list
Medianews@etskywarn.net
http://etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews_etskywarn.net
