Study shows 50 per cent of US vinyl buyers don’t own record players
Although vinyl has seen a recent resurgence in sales, not very many of the customers have actually been playing them. According to a recent study, only half of the population of Americans that own vinyl records have a record player to play them on.
Luminate had conducted the study surveying various music enthusiasts in the US, remarking, “50 per cent of consumers who have bought vinyl in the past 12 months own a record player, compared to 15 per cent among music listeners overall”. Even without playing the records, the rise of vinyl has skyrocketed, quickly outselling the CD market in terms of the prime physical medium for music for the first time since 1987.
When mentioning the statistics of record players, though, the study attributed the mass influx of vinyl to superfans of a respective artist, going on to describe these enthusiasts as, “music listeners who spend above average (median) time AND money on music, actively discover new music, participate in music-related activities on social media, and plan on attending a live music event in the next 12 months”.
Over the past year, the music sales have actually risen to almost £2billion, marking the first time it has gone upwards since 2003. Despite the recent influx, most of the money that comes from the music comes from streaming, which holds 84 per cent of the total revenue.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Music Newsletter
All the latest music news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.