Vinyl is crushing CDs as music industry eclipses cinema, report says

[zohaibahd]

Retro reconnaissance: It's a piece of news that would have been unthinkable a decade ago, but it's happening: Vinyl record sales are poised to eclipse CDs in the near future. And in an even more surprising twist, the music industry as a whole has leapfrogged the movie business to become the bigger breadwinner.

These revelations come courtesy of a new report on Pivotal Economics authored by Will Page, Spotify's former chief economist who has been tracking the value of the music business for the past ten years.

Page's findings paint a vivid picture of vinyl's renaissance. His data indicates that in the US alone, vinyl sales are projected to bring in a staggering $1 billion for record labels in 2024. This means that vinyl revenues will soon surpass those of CDs, a feat that will be replicated globally.

Vinyl's unit sales already exceed those of CDs. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, people bought 43 million vinyl records in 2023, which is 6 million more than the number of CDs sold in the same year. This is actually the second time this has happened since 1987.

So far, vinyl sales have been held back due to supply constraints. That's changing quickly, though, with the report attributing it to the entry of major European players like Record Industry (Netherlands), GZ (Czech Republic), and Pressing Business (Poland) into the vinyl manufacturing arena. Their increased production capacity and streamlined international shipping processes are eliminating bottlenecks.

However, vinyl's comeback is just a tiny part of the music industry's wider resurgence. Page's analysis also reveals that the value of music copyrights and performing rights – the royalties generated from record sales, streaming, radio plays, and live performances – has nearly doubled from $25 billion in 2014 to an impressive $45.5 billion today.

In contrast, the movie industry, once the undisputed king of entertainment, has seen its fortunes dwindle, with global box office revenues falling from their 2019 peak of $41.9 billion to $33.2 billion.

The report also highlights that streaming, unsurprisingly, has eclipsed radio and other broadcasting platforms as the primary revenue driver. This is a reversal from "a decade ago" when traditional radio accounted for over 50% of music income compared to streaming's meager 5% share.

Meanwhile, live music performances have overtaken public performance licensing (the fees paid by commercial establishments to play music) as a top earner.

Image credit: Pivotal Economics

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Vinyl is crushing CDs as music industry eclipses cinema, report says

 

[yRaz]

the music industry as a whole has leapfrogged the movie business to become the bigger breadwinner.

Well, so much of today's movies is just over produced CGI garbage. Ignoring the story all together, the digitization of visual media has taken away from the immersion.

 

[NumberNine]

Older movies from the 20th century blow away most of the culture coded, self referencing, hyper aware crap that gets churned out now on streaming services. Occasionally we are treated to something that required actual effort.

Much like gaming, the most superficial elements of cinema have evolved while the soul of it has been used, abused, and neglected when it doesn't fit within the margins. Many have written on this topic lately.

 

[RudyBob]

Not at current LP prices. People are so easily swayed.....

 

[RudyBob]

Older movies from the 20th century blow away most of the culture coded, self referencing, hyper aware crap that gets churned out now on streaming services. Occasionally we are treated to something that required actual effort.

"Am I Racist"

 

[Burty117]

The movie industry very rarely makes anything good anymore.

It’s entirely self-inflicted and pretty easy to remedy

 

[kiwigraeme]

I just think it's a return to a more analog world, a more tactile world

As I went to the library the other day to get my mags. I remembered as a young kid checking the shelves for say another book in the Hardy Boys series or whatever and getting excited if see new one.

It occured to me , that buzz for kids is a lot less, what now pulling a full art mega charizard in endless pokemon packs?

Or people waiting for a second season to launch etc

Remember when you could see good mid tier bands for $10 to $20

I think comedy clubs, live venues will return more

On here so many people had a huge buzz first C64, Apple II etc , swap meets, waiting monthly mag in mail

Ie a lot of pleasure is the process. I'm kind of tired of hearing it's about the journey not the destination as a well travelled person , even if true

How many go golfing , garage sales , fishing , hunting , record hunting and don't care too much if catch something or get a good score . A lot more relaxing to go fishing not having to feed your family

I as a free loving hippy communist , probably hitchhiked over 20 000 miles - I really enjoyed it to meet locals , go anywhere , no time frame etc , generally shunned huge rigs that would actually get me 300 miles quickly to my destination. as an aside never had one bad experience , but I preselected vehicles , blacked out black painted vans an easy no no etc

Notice on one local radio station certain times a week play the whole side of an album

another trite comment sometimes less is more

 

[gamerk2]

Older movies from the 20th century blow away most of the culture coded, self referencing, hyper aware crap that gets churned out now on streaming services. Occasionally we are treated to something that required actual effort.

Much like gaming, the most superficial elements of cinema have evolved while the soul of it has been used, abused, and neglected when it doesn't fit within the margins. Many have written on this topic lately.

Its the natural endpoint of all the smaller studios getting acquired; corporations want the safest thing to guarantee return on their billions, and are not willing to spend even a few million on something not guaranteed to return on investment.

 

[Burty117]

Its the natural endpoint of all the smaller studios getting acquired; corporations want the safest thing to guarantee return on their billions, and are not willing to spend even a few million on something not guaranteed to return on investment.

And now those same corporations are feeling the natural endpoint of their decisions, continuously declining sales and films costing hundreds of millions not even breaking even.

 

[Starfals]

Older movies from the 20th century blow away most of the culture coded, self referencing, hyper aware crap that gets churned out now on streaming services. Occasionally we are treated to something that required actual effort.

Much like gaming, the most superficial elements of cinema have evolved while the soul of it has been used, abused, and neglected when it doesn't fit within the margins. Many have written on this topic lately.

I get it but they also make what sells. Majority of people seem to like these souless horrible movies and games. They even refuse to go see a real movie, as rare as they are nowadays. So this is why its happening. They just give what the people want, and sadly.. the people aint too smart it seems.

 

[gamerk2]

I get it but they also make what sells. Majority of people seem to like these souless horrible movies and games. They even refuse to go see a real movie, as rare as they are nowadays. So this is why its happening. They just give what the people want, and sadly.. the people aint too smart it seems.

Because people want spectacle, and more then that, they want what's familiar. Because to them, whats unfamiliar is *bad*.

 

[TheBigFatClown]

I'm not "in-the-loop" on these new vinyl records. Are they being reproduced to sound the same as the vinyl records that were sold in time past with all the hisses and pops and all that jazz. The warm funny sounds of the playing needle?
Maybe that's part of the draw is the unique sound and not just the more tangible nature of the product.

 

[Burty117]

I get it but they also make what sells. Majority of people seem to like these souless horrible movies and games. They even refuse to go see a real movie, as rare as they are nowadays. So this is why its happening. They just give what the people want, and sadly.. the people aint too smart it seems.

But it’s not selling? That’s the whole point, it’s not selling at all, straight from the article:

That’s in the space of 4 years.

Once they go back to wanting to make good movies again, things will change, I have this horrible feeling it’s going to take another few years before they realise this.

 

[ZackL04]

Its the natural endpoint of all the smaller studios getting acquired; corporations want the safest thing to guarantee return on their billions, and are not willing to spend even a few million on something not guaranteed to return on investment.

100% Everything is a business decision. They choose to appeal to the group that wont refuse their product if not catered to them.

Meanwhile, while this isn't a great example…. if you have heard Mel Gibson talk about why he reuses to censor or modernize (I wont saw woke as thats not totally the case with his movies either) his stories “its not real life”

He has a point IMO. We can pretend the world/people is/are perfect, but we all know it/they/us is not.

 

[p51d007]

Give me a good TUBE (valve) amplifier, some Klipsch speakers and a good turntable will sound better and warmer than all of these digital things. You can oversample a digital track only so many times but it is still digital. It's just analog is a PITA to deal with when you can just click on your phone in your car or at home to listen to something, not to mention wiping the LP's off and flipping them over.

 

[m3diapers]

Both Vinyl and CD are dying products.

 

[PanGrns]

Give me a good TUBE (valve) amplifier, some Klipsch speakers and a good turntable will sound better and warmer than all of these digital things. You can oversample a digital track only so many times but it is still digital. It's just analog is a PITA to deal with when you can just click on your phone in your car or at home to listen to something, not to mention wiping the LP's off and flipping them over.

20.000€ minimum on device, sound traps, humidity control and electricity filter is not exactly something affordable for most people.

 

[trgz]

There's more 50yo+ men bulk buying vinyl records, and never playing them, than I realised (said the 60yo male).

 

[FaTaL]

Music industry has soared mostly due to social media (TikTok/IG) since almost every stupid video posted contains music.

 

[Alfonso Maruccia]

People are effin' weird :-D

 

[Squid Surprise]

This has nothing to do with quality and everything to do with culture. People don’t want to go to a theatre (whether musical, drama or movie) for entertainment and prefer being at home.

If they want “live” entertainment, they go for sports or concerts.

As for vinyl eclipsing CDs, that’s simply because CDs are a dying medium. If you want digital, you can either stream or otherwise download your music for equivalent or better quality.

People will now buy vinyl in order to fully “own” their music - not understanding that the increase in quality can only be heard by less than 1% of the population - and only with high end equipment to go with it.

But hey, the market has never been driven by the intelligent consumer…

 

[captaincranky]

People will now buy vinyl in order to fully “own” their music - not understanding that the increase in quality can only be heard by less than 1% of the population - and only with high end equipment to go with it.

Sometimes I think that 1% only "imagine they hear it", if only to justify how much they have shelled out for equipment,

As it turns out P.T . Barnum may have been wrong. It would seem there's sucker born much sooner than every minute.

 

[KS2 Problema]

"Am I Racist"

Do you KNOW this person you have just publicly and rudely accused of being racist while offering no support for your insulting conclusion?

Racism is, sadly, a continuing problem in our culture. But so is the rush to judge others without knowing any facts about them.

 

[waclark]

I'm not "in-the-loop" on these new vinyl records. Are they being reproduced to sound the same as the vinyl records that were sold in time past with all the hisses and pops and all that jazz. The warm funny sounds of the playing needle?
Maybe that's part of the draw is the unique sound and not just the more tangible nature of the product.

Many are being remastered which can be good or bad depending on who does the remastering. For example, Jimmy Page remastered the Led Zeplin albums, which are good. But some people are remastering using digital equipment which, to me, kind of defeats the purpose. The mastering equipment is definitely better than 50-60 years ago so it's not all bad.

In some recordings it's hard to remove background noise and such but some can be cleaned up. Many of the pops come from either dirt or damage to the vinyl, so you might not be able to get rid of that.

I don't know that the sound is that much better, but I do like the nostalgia of it. And I do enjoy the album covers when they have pictures and info about the music and/or band.

 

[waclark]

Sometimes I think that 1% only "imagine they hear it", if only to justify how much they have shelled out for equipment,

As it turns out P.T . Barnum may have been wrong. It would seem there's sucker born much sooner than every minute.

I no longer have the hearing to hear the difference, but I do believe that better equipment can produce better sound. I took an audio engineering class in college and our professor took us to his listening room which he designed. I don't know how much he spent on it but suffice it to say it was multiple thousands of dollars as he had Klipsch La Scala's (which were pricey then and are still pricey) and McIntosh tube amps. The sound was perfect in any spot in the room. He designed the room for a local stereo retail store so they could demo various pieces of gear.

Now that doesn't mean you have to drop 6 figures to get good sound. As for vinyl versus digital music, I would say that depends on the resolution of the music. Services like Spotify have differing bit rates if you're a premium subscriber so the lower bit rate music may not sound as good as a record on a decent turntable. That said, if you had high bit rate digital music, I believe it would compete favorably against vinyl.