The albums nobody hears: How many vinyl records actually become hits?
Who actually buys physical records nowadays? The ‘6Music Dads’? The army of Taylor Swift fans? You’d have thought anyone who wanted a copy of The Dark Side of the Moon or Rumours would already have one by now, right? Well, that’s not the case. It is, in fact, these old classics which still make up the majority of physical vinyl sales across the globe today.
As major record companies continue to re-package, re-issue, and re-master these albums seemingly every week, there is never a shortage of devoted fans keen to tear open the shrink-wrap and sling their shiny new 12-inch rainbow splatter record on the turntable. For the record (no pun intended), I have neither The Dark Side of the Moon nor Rumours in my collection. I’m sick to death of both, as you all should be, too.
According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, 80% of albums sell less than 100 copies, while 94% of albums sell less than 1,000 copies. These statistics reveal a slightly shocking reality of the music industry today, disproving the popularly held belief that record companies aren’t interested in vinyl anymore. Well, they are, and they’re making tons of them—it just appears that nobody is buying them.
To play devil’s advocate for a moment, it’s important to note that vinyl production is notoriously expensive. So much so that many indie labels press a run of fewer than 1,000 copies per release. With that in mind, we should take the statistics with a grain of salt. Many of us in the music industry, myself included, hold a nostalgic affection for physical media, a sentiment that today’s younger generation likely doesn’t share. Makes me sound like a grandpa at 26, doesn’t it?
What the younger generation today is interested in, however, is merchandise. Last year, Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department sold almost 800,000 copies, according to the BBC. Clearly, people buying records now aren’t the people who bought them when they were the only way you could physically listen to recorded music. I dare to think how many of those Taylor Swift records sold have never been opened or played.
This new information about vinyl sales reflects an uncomfortable financial dichotomy within the music industry. Basically, money is really only being made exclusively at the top by the small group of kingpins dominating the charts.
It isn’t trickling down as much as one would hope, making it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, for indie artists to rub two pennies together. Indeed, a recent study by The Atlantic revealed that 1% of artists represented by streaming platforms account for 77% of the total revenue earned. It’s a depressing but not totally surprising conclusion. If anything, I’m surprised the percentile isn’t larger.
To the lucky ones who manage to find the money to press copies of their album onto wax, it’s a tricky, not to mention an expensive product to sell. Without proper distribution and marketing spending, a lot of smaller releases gather dust or end up in landfills. Well, that ended on a sombre note. But eh, sometimes, such is the course of life. At least Taylor Swift is happy.
