Vinyl sales at 18 year high

Exactly:

Streaming and subscriptions surge

Subscription services, part of an increasingly diverse mix of industry revenue streams, are going from strength to strength. Revenues from music subscription services — including free-to-consumer and paid-for tiers — grew by 51.3 per cent in 2013, exceeding US$1 billion for the first time and growing consistently across all major markets.

IFPI Digital Music Report 2014

Dave

One million. Still a fair number for what was once considered a dead medium. I wonder if the day will come when vinyl sales surpass CDs? The overall quality of new pressings really is very high and generally exceeds what was available back in the day. And the inflation compensated cost of a LP has held steady since its heyday.

Yes I can certainly see a day when vinyl exceeds CDs. I'm of the personal opinion that people that buy CDs are much like people that like MP3 downloads so it's not hard to see how the average CD buyer will quickly hope over to a download alternative.

No offence intended for all you CD lovers out there! :-)

Humans eh? Rum buggers. Give 'em pure, perfect digital sound (ha ha!) on a shiny beer-mat and a lot of us still love to enjoy our music 'hands-on' dragging a bit of carbon through plastic.

I guess the shiny beer-mat won't go down without a fight either; though the industry must be in favour of move toward 'download only' for music sales.

John.

I consider myself reasonably media agnostic, I think thee days CD buyers have more in common with vinyl buyers. I would group the mp3/AAC users with the mass lossy streaming users - and I suspect the rise of lossy streaming will have the biggest impact on the lossy download market rather than CD or Vinyl - in fact it might be that lossless streaming encourages CD and Vinyl sales. I think its more a lifestyle thing...

Simon

I agree, Simon.  As a CD lover I am las ikely to buy an MP3 as I am an MP5, though I suspect with the right target the latter might be more fun.

Back on subject, I'm pleased to see the resurgence of vinyl sales. And I don't think it's all due to us oldies. A colleague at work says her teenage daughter has got into vinyl and has put several on her Xmas wish list, which is giving Mum a challenge in trying to get them!     

Thanks for the link. I saw recently that here in the U.S. vinyl is projected to hit around 8.3 million LPs for 2014. Quite a welcome turnaround from a few years back.