by: Peter Wilgoren Posted: Jun 20, 2024 / 04:42 PM PDT Updated: Jun 20, 2024 / 04:42 PM PDT The kids thought they had it all figured out. You could access all of your saved music and millions of other songs on a phone or digital device for eternity (or at least until the platform shuts down). It was so cool .
.. until it wasn’t.
Welcome to the Vinyl Revival, as it’s being called, where even the youngest kids have decided their grandparents had it right all along. Good old-fashioned analog LP records are back big time. The Recording Industry of America says revenue from record sales climbed to $1.
4 billion in 2023 and accounted for nearly ten percent of all music format sales. In 2022, vinyl surpassed compact disc sales for the first time since Def Leppard’s ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’ and Belinda Carlisle’s ‘Heaven Is a Place on Earth’ topped the charts in 1987. So why is vinyl back in style? Maybe it’s artists like Taylor Swift and Beyonce fueling the resurgence with special vinyl releases.
Maybe it’s that people want control over their own music without paying streaming platforms or paying per download. Maybe it’s that people want to hold and feel – and even smell the albums they love so much. There’s the collectability factor, too.
There’s cash in that stack of vinyl. Digital downloads are intangible, mostly non-transferable, and generally worthless. Or maybe it’s all those factors.
The Vinyl Revival has spurred Record Store Day, held in April each.
