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Guess they haven't changed in the year since I stopped being their customer; customer service also never answered phones either, so don't waste your time trying that route, either.

I would like to point out that while there's obviously a massive growth in major label releases on vinyl, there's always been a big group of independent labels getting records pressed who are certainly off the SoundScan/Nielsen radar, either selling directly or through smaller distribution chains like Dischord/ CTD/ Midheaven. I doubt it makes up anywhere near the disparity, but could maybe account for a decent chunk?

Soundscan rejects some stores, possibly get rejected by others, and are only in 4 countries. If they account for half of worldwide sales, 18 million sold vs. 74 or even 37 million pressed is still a mighty wide gap.

Wonder why?
That is a huge discrepancy.
Anybody got an email address for Neilson/Soundscan?

Most independent record stores aren't tracked by Nielsen/Soundscan so you will never get an accurate total of how many records were sold but it should be able to get close to what the percentages will be.

I was in Barnes and Noble yesterday and bought Axis:Bold as Love. A man there told me that their record sales are doing very well. It would be interesting to know what the sales numbers would be if you could add in used records.

...counted as only one disc or as the total number of discs contained therein?

Any industry sales reporting system relies on participation from retailers, which is always incomplete. For certain, the global nature of Internet sales makes accurate numbers unlikely. I'm sure like many others, I've bought records from all over the world in 2014, shipped to Canada. I would guess that actual inventory levels of records are growing at resellers around the world. It has to, since so many more titles are available now than even 2 or 3 years ago, certainly not every record made in 2014 was sold.

Its more a curiosity what the actual number of records sold is. If I were in the business, how much inventory is turning over, what margins are being made on making and selling, growth in unit sales, and the average selling price matter more to the profitability. Mostly, I think record fans want to see a profitable industry that is sustainable for the foreseeable future. Boom times create quality problems and shortages, and an over investment in production capacity could also lead to a glut of inventory. Hopefully a balance is worked out.

I high percentage of albums require multiple LP's. Many are also box sets that have even more. While the number of records sold is probably significantly higher than what is reported, this fact probably accounts for a big chunk of the discrepancy I'd think.

I had a chance to visit Welcome to 1979, a great tape recording studio in Nashville on an invite from Cameron Harvey and the owner, Chris Mara. A very nice tour of their place and a great lunch together talking about all this audio. They also can take their tracking work, master it, and cut lacquers right at their place, a very good thing.

Cameron also took me for a private tour of United Record Pressing and I was impressed by the shear volume of the work coming through there plant. Pressing plants are close to "wigget" factories, so glamour is out the door, but what they do does give vinyl lovers some of the most affordable new vinyl pressings out there, and that to me is a good thing. Not everyone can afford $30 to $50 for a new lps and I am happy that many can and do as most of those releases are as state of the art as one can get and sound amazing. There is a place for United in all of this.

I was told that a new plant manager had been brought on board and was a stickler for quality, but the only way for one to know was if a lp buyer knew his purchase was pressed at United, not easy for us to know.

It was still a great trip, most enjoyable and I will be indebted to Cameron and Chris for the most gracious invite. If you are ever in Nashville you might see if they would have time for a short tour. If I was a working musician I would get my tracks laid at Welcome to 1979.

If you want a sampler of Welcome to 1979's work pressed at United go to Amazon and look at the releases from "Upstairs at United" Recorded by the crew from Welcome to 1979, and listen to some of their 45 rpm lps. Great way to find out if you like their work. I sure do.

Does Amazon contribute numbers to Nielsen/Soundscan? This could account for a huge chunk.

Soundscan does not track independent stores, so even their CD sales figures are not entirely accurate, but it is a good snapshot of what albums are selling.Vinyl is rare at your Wal-Marts and Targets, and chains like Barnes and Noble do not participate in Soundscan.

I'm not sure if they figure European sales, which never altogether gave up on vinyl, the way the USA did.

Regardless of the reporting, the fact that new releases from top artists now include a vinyl version, and lots of reissues of older material are increasing, vinyl looks to stick around for a long time to come.

As for United, I have several of the Blue Note limited 10 inch vinyl editions, and I am pretty sure they are pressed at United, and they are all good. Most Third Man stuff have been good pressings, and the one that was bad, they exchanged no problem.So United is getting better, even with all the extra business.

I love the fact that so many LPs were pressed last year.
I believe the difference between the reported numbers vs actual numbers is not that relevant- because the reporting firm needs to be consistent in their survey and data acquisition year over year in order to show accurate trends.
Look at the year to year trends- which is awesome for vinyl lovers- and not the numbers so much.
In order for the trending info to be accurate, they need to keep their measuring consistent, even if it is not complete.

...how many records were pressed in 1980. Using the same criteria, of course. Just a humble thought on an otherwise boring Friday afternoon. BTW, Mikey, a very interesting read, I enjoyed it.

If the size of their backlog is to be believed, then it's easy to understand why United doesn't respond to criticism: they don't need to.

Done

Since a very good portion of vinyl produced is done by indie labels who 1) don't report, 2) don't have registered barcodes, and sold via 1) small stores who don't report, 2)distros who don't report, and 3) at venues who don't report... you have your answer right there.

My label has sold a sufficient number of records every year since '05 and never reported a single one, and i'm friends with dozens and dozens of other labels who are in the same boat. Extrapolate that across all genres worldwide.. and that's a ton of records that soundscan isn't seeing.

Furthermore.. why would URP have to answer your request? its a private business and its proprietary info. Jay's a really stand up dude, and you're going to cyber troll him because you can't get info for what seems to be a rather badly researched article? Don't be a dick man.

Maybe Nielsen only counts the records with true analog masters :)

C'mon, it doesn't take Fellini to figure this one out! Records, for the most part, are too damn expensive. My local record stores that stock new vinyl (a few smaller independents don't stock much in the way of new stuff) say that except in rare cases, the stuff over $20 just sits there. The recent Record Store Day's sales were off, according to the guys at Dimple Vinyl in Sacraemnto. There's still tons of stuff from the last few RSDs. People are tired of paying $30 for an LP and $12-15 for a friggin' 7". What is selling? Blue Note 75 year reissues and sadly, the Euro-trash jazz bootlegs because they're around 20 bucks.

I take it the 74 million is all known plants worldwide and I take it Soundscan only applies to USA retail. It is probable in spite of the size of the US market that it accounts for less than half of LP sales. EU countries especially UK and Germany are major consumers of that pressing figure. LP manufacturing is now a Globalised industry not based on local production. Many independents and on-line retailers do not feature in Industry sales figures nor do independent labels. I would be surprised if the mighty Amazon's sales are included in Industry sales figures either in North America or Europe.

My guess is that on-line sales are the major source of Lps for most people. Even in a relatively small area like the UK there is no decent new vinyl retailer within 35 miles of where I live so all my purchases are purchased by on-line mail order these days.

Some pressing runs sell out within weeks but others would take several years to sell. With predicted sales increases current quantities produced likely reflect the growing medium term market. While labels don't hold inventory larger on-line retailers often do especially for less popular titles that are not under produced. The problem I see is that in many cases labels are being too conservative with orders making some titles instant £100+ 'collectables' that on-line scalpers can profit from.

They have always counted multi-disk sets by the disk--hence it's easier for a double LP to go gold, and the Beatles box charted because each sale was times 13. So their numbers are as far off as it looks, far as I can tell.

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