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I imagine that if we were able to tally used record and vintage turntable sales the numbers would be astronomical! Thank you for your hard work.t

I read somwhere that Rega claimed to have sold more tables in 2013 or 2012 than in the company's entire existence.

Similarly read that global LP sales were 177 million for 2012 .

Thoughts? Corrections? Bloviating ballyhoo?  And if we figured in used, holy moley. 

http://www.spin.com/articles/vinyl-sales-boom-177-million-record-1997/

Spin Mag: Vinyl Sales in 2012 Were the Highest Since ‘OK Computer' Was Released More than $177 million sold worldwide

Wonder where they got their facts...  

Cool info, thanks.  For comparison purposes, it would be interesting to have an estimate of the highest-selling year (sometime in the '80s?) and the lowest-selling year (late '90s?). 

Long live the mighty LP . This is pleasent news. 

I've been dying to see what you were gonna come up with here. Thanks for doing some 'real' reporting!

If anyone would have the ability to coax some relevant data out of these companies, it would be you. Thanks for doing it. Pretty impressive volume for a media once declared dead, I'd say. 

Today's vinyl market is so different from the one the industry killed in favor of the higher-margin, lower resolution CD.  It's never going to be like it was - probably a good thing considering the quality of the wafer-thin pressings we had foisted upon us in the 70's & 80's - but perhaps it will get to a point where sales volume for vinyl and the equipment necessary to really appreciate it will allow more companies to offer lower cost options for those without fat wallets.  

It does seem to be going in the right direction, given recent "entry level" turntables are within the budgets of at least some people who want to play records in their dorm rooms or first apartments. 

And it sure doesn't hurt that many commercial, TV & movie producers think showing someone playing a record adds something to their message.  

Mommy - what's that thing spinning around while they're dancing? 

Actually, this incident and Mike's analogy to cables brings up an interesting point. 

Having spent a lot of time in music, not a violinist, but having been around them and playing a brass instrument myself, there aren't two instruments, even by the same maker which play or sound the same. Yes, not even brass instruments by the same manufacturer or even the same model. There is always the element of how musical instruments are made even in an age of cadcams and hi tech manufacturing. So, do all cables of the same brand and model sound the same? I have a friend who makes turntables, very expensive ones, who will admit that in spite of the fact that he makes his tables to the tightest specs he can, each one has its own personality when finished. When we auditon a cable or a component in our system, does the one we buy and listen to happily after the audition sound the same as the try out piece?

that in several months not one commercial record was released. Between 1990 and 2000 it was possible to buy a copy of nearly all new released vinyl. Today, if I visit an electronic megastore here in Vienna they have full racks of new vinyl. How many new records are released now each month? Several hundreds? Last months also more and more new commercial classical music is published on records. Sadly, still a weak point: Classical music wants to jump on the bandwaggon, but are not able to get the technique right. I guess on the recording chain of labels like Decca, DG, Universal everything is wrong: Low quality digital recording, CD digital processing, digital cutting heads. All new recorded commercial (I mean star artists) classical records are unlistenable. I am afraid that there new vinyl will not sell and the bosses will conclude wrongly that lovers of classic music do not buy vinyl and never will.

There are at any one time around 3.5 Million LPs for sale on ebay America alone, then add Germany, France, UK and other countries. 

Then add in Amazon, which does a respectable trade in used LPs, plus GEMM, Discogs and various others. Then add in record stores, bricks and mortar stores. The used LP market must be on the same order or larger. 

It's a good point the poster above made, most of the classical music new vinyl releases I've listened to I have not bought. Why? Digital recording, multiple edits, unnatural sound, low quality sources, digital processing, etc., etc. From the major labels, Universal, DG, etc, putting a modern performance on, then comparing it to a vinyl recording of the same performance from the '60s virtually guarantees the modern performance will never get played again. 

Going back a bit more than a year, I have purchased at least 250 new ones alone.  Nearly all of allowance goes to vinyl these days.  This week alone 4 used and 3 new, all before Saturday which is my shopping day at my local record shop (Soundgarden).  I am finding the used market more attractive but it takes such patience.  Shopping in my basement has been great, digging out old vinyl I thought was history and finding that it sounds great when cleaned (by hand, my preference) is the most rewarding.  But I plan to do my part to keep the numbers Michael has cited going upwards.  Foreverly, La Honda (Rumer), and Graceland 25th are my newbies this week.  Thanks for all of your efforts Michael, your site is really inspiring.      

You have to wonder how much demographics plays into this. WHO is buying these records and what will happen to the trend when these people go away.  Sure, the Regas of the world don't really care - the name of the game is to ride the trend as long as it lasts. Also, the implied connection between the record sales and the slide in CD sales is weak.  One has to consider alternative formats such as sales of digital downloads, including, dare I say, mp3's. 

Micheal no matter how you slice this ,it is a great thing to see. The rise of the LP !  I am  glad .  Been collecting vinyl for years . Now my collection is getting larger .  I  speak with few younger guys that are into vinyl  and vintage stereo  stuff . I always tell them   a little tweak  here and there  good cables, and correct speaker placement and you be amazed by the sound . I have been making   cork isolation mats for the younger crowd now and they are loving the sound they get out of their turn tables . Funny what a little cork can do for sound . I sold a few already and now they want me to make more lol. Come to Brooklyn and see the shops . The scene is really cool .

The only thing that would stop this upward trend would be for a reduction in lps pressed. The vinyl game is on for good. People who have invested in at least a Project Debut Carbon will stay on board and buy new vinyl monthly.   

Marketing 101...it is not what it is, but  what is does that makes people customers. 

For background, I'm a very light sleeper, a vivid dreamer and yes, one whose entire collection (some 6k - I lost count) consists of records purchased at thrift stores 5-75 miles from home and the occasional garage sale or Craigslist buy.  I look at new pressings with great longing, for while I know why they are priced the way they are, I just don't have the finances to investigate that part of the world of vinyl.   Same holds true for most of the new equipment.  I read about it, wish I could afford it, but the most I've been able to do is as finances permit, lay in all the parts to fully restore the Thorens TD-124/II a friend gave me (in need of restoration, but fully operational and he paid $4 for it).

Last night, this discussion about the resurgence of vinyl stuck with me after head hit pillow. I found myself hopping off the interestate somewhere in New Mexico and discovering a small town with what appeared to be an even smaller bookstore.  But when I went in, I saw mixed in with the book displays all manner of brand new records, some by new artists, some reissues of records I've always loved.  You know, the ones we bought early on and never really forgot.  

The records were all nicely displayed face forward on tables you could walk around, and walk around I did.  Every single record was the same price - $4.90.  Now I have no idea why my subconscious decided $4.90 was optimal, but clearly it did.  

I ended up buying one of every title they had.  

Hey!

    Well, that's good news indeed. But two things that bother me with new vinyl are quality of pressing and disclosure of master source.

    I don't mind paying more for albums that I like, $20-40 are except able. But what what pissed me off most sometime is the quality of the vinyl I get, noisy and shaped like a candy bowl that I just spent $20 or $30 for it. 

     And another thing is that they should come clean with the source of the master. I don't want to spend more money for a vinyl that were cut from 16bit file as CD.

    Now someone should bring back 78 shellac with new musics on them so I play them on my Victor, just kidding 

The recent 'message board' spoof from British satirical magazine picked up on this story... apologies if it's a bit small to read easily, but it's good for a laugh.

Thanks for posting. This is very funny and each entry could easily be authentic!

I recently listed a vintage Lafayette turntable on craigslist.  I sold it to the art director for the TV show "LOUIE" (starring Louie CK) to be used in an episode.   So look out for it in season 4!