Amazon report 745% increase in vinyl sales

I've contributed my share over the years. 

I am infinitely more solvent than two years ago, but I am still not rich!

ATB from George

I always had you down as a "hipster newcomer" Steve.

Couldn't they just say 7.5X increase?!

An old journalistic tool Loki - "745% increase" sounds more spectacular (and will hopefully draw in readers more easily) than "7.5 x increase".

No, because a 745% increase would be an 8.5 times increase. Which actually sounds more impressive. Though 745% of very few is still very few.

Vinyl still only represents 3% of overall music sale in 2013. There is a quite a way to catch up to digital download. 

This is why Naim no longer invest in any analogue front end.

Vinyl replay will stick around, I suspect as a niche market but never be like the glory days.

Though the overall number would point to that, I'd expect the mix among Naim current and potential customers (more meaningful than overall market) to look quite a bit different from that,

If that were to be the reality, then Aros would be selling fast enough to justify continued production, which clearly is not the case.

ATB from George

George, the Aro wasn't a fast seller even when vinyl was the predominant format.

I am absolutely not surprised!

A monster to use in reality, and no surprise that it never caught on. No matter that it was at least as good as many much easier to use tone-arms in replay terms!

ATB from George

That's one of the issues - the other the fact that it doesn't have a slotted headshell. It was just too much for most.

The Armageddon, being a not-inexpensive power supply that did not rely on fancy tech or offer 45rpm playback was also doomed to be a niche product.

Naim was always an outsider in the vinyl world.

Naim always have made the most appealing and useful models of amplifiers and CD players, but their efforts on the vinyl front are as un-Universal in their appeal as the speakers!

Not to say that Naim speakers are not fine, but rather that they require more effort to get right than most retailers, let alone purchasers were prepared to put in.

To plough a lonely furrow is brave and sometimes foolhardy activity ...

ATB from George

I believe it to be even more nuanced than that, given the number of multi-format re-issues. If one were to examine new releases, perhaps by genre, the vinyl numbers might be higher (but so might also be the digital downloads), which creates a problem: are purchases being driven by an older demographic that prefers quality over convenience?

Dear David,

It might even be more nuanced than your nuanced post suggests, as quality in the digital domain is most obvious on classical and naturalistic recordings.

It is an interesting point, but unlikely to be untangled from statistics till after the trend becomes clear by the moves the commercial companies make in terms of future releases, based on their own sales figures as analysed by genre and style.

LPs can be a great pleasure on the less demanding classic style in un-dynamic recordings [though less easy to take with a large choir for example], but digital has the benefit of stable pitching, and much quieter recording and replay induced noise. By now the actual timbre possible with digital can equal the best of analogue and vinyl as well, so the contest is that much less unclear!

ATTB from George

When comparing high quality CDs to their analog recorded vinyl counterparts, I've sometimes been more impressed with the timbre aspect of digital. At the same time, I wonder if it is in reality a natural timbre, or whether it has been digitally enhanced. Maybe it's the "bright" aspect of digital that can play a more appealing timbre than vinyl, but not necessarily a truer timbre.

Dear Joe,

I am particularly fussy about the timbres of the violin family of instruments, even to the point of refusing to use the easy option of steel strings on my double basses over the years. I used plain gut or on the lowest two strings silver round wire wound on gut. Much less convenient, but altogether better timbre and range. 

I think that digital can now be so finely brought out in the home that such subtleties can be usefully made clear. I am particularly fussy about timbre.

ATB from George

George,

You have a large advantage over me in that you are keenly aware of the true sound of acoustic instruments and often hear them directly. Like many here, my exposure to hearing instruments in person is largely limited. And for the rock music I most often listen to, instruments are amplified and may be intentionally distorted. Therefore, I would not really recognize the "true" timbre. For me, it becomes a matter of what is more appealing rather than what is more accurate .

I'd expect the numbers in new releases to be skewed towards vinyl due to younger, not older generations. Then again, you have copious amounts of digital being consumed by mainstream youth, so it may not actually look that dissimilar overall.

It would be interesting to see the age break down of current vinyl buyers.

Often, I am the oldest who hang out at my local record shops. 

I assume that average age of download buyers will rise over time. There are still some music that is not available as download. ( King Crimson not on itunes!? )

Well, there was this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/22208446

Having visited HMV stores in Bluewater and Kingston-upon-Thames this week I was pleasantly surprised to see vinyl sections in both.  I converted to CD long ago so won't be buying HMV's vinyl but I took it as positive sign of the growth in market for genuine music lovers.    

We had two HMV stores here in Norwich until last month the largest of which, which sold vinyl, closed down. Yesterday I was pleased to see that the smaller one which remains open in Chapelfield Mall, has more vinyl than the large shop ever did!

Should have added that it's nice to see HMV back in business.  While I still buy some stuff on-line, I still enjoy browsing in-store and walking away with albums there and then.  I've also found HMV's CDs quite often cheaper than Amazon's. Don't know if that applies to vinyl, though.   

I wish there was still Virgin mega Store operating.

They had the best inventory, and knowledgeable staff on all genre. ( like small ma and pa shop ) They were savvy enough to hire good staff.