When it comes to technology we hardly ever go back in time and continue to move forward. Trends come and go but they usually are inspired from older decades and generations. In this story, revenge never sounded so sweet. Vinyl records have finally turned the tables on CD’s and it’s magical.
Rolling Stone recently reported that people are preferring the scratch of the needle over the scratch on the back of that CD skipping out your favorite parts of the song. The records will start generating more annual income than compact discs for the first time since 1986. In 1986 you could the top albums at the time from Madonna, Bon Jovi and the soundtrack for Top Gun.
With the sales gap closing fast that means record sales are on their way up and CD sales have plummeted. Their sales are still ahead but not for long. Vinyl records earned $224.1 million over the first six months of 2019, moving 8.6 million units. CD’s earned $247.9 million, selling 18.6 million units. Crazy right? CD sales are declining three times as fast as vinyl sales are growing.
All of this talk about CD’s being outpaced doesn’t mean that you have to trade in your iTunes for turntables any time soon. Streaming is king and remains the most popular way to listen to music and it accounts for 80% of industry revenues and growing by 26% in the first half of 2019 alone. Let your music live on however you wish.