Priced out of saving music: Why is vinyl so expensive?
Do you remember the days of picking up second-hand Beatles, Bob Dylan, or Pink Floyd vinyl records for a handful of spare change? Well, those days are long gone, despite vinyl records being currently more accessible than they have been in decades.
Once resigned to obsolescence, the format has had quite the comeback story over the past decade. It was the prevailing music format for the vast majority of the 20th century, but the advent of CDs and, later, digital downloads rendered the comparatively cumbersome, scratch-prone, and often expensive vinyl an artefact of the past. As such, you could quite easily pick up entire vinyl collections back in the early 2000s for little more than the price of a meal deal. So, how, then, did we get to the point where a new album could set you back as much as £50?
The colossal inflation in the price of vinyl over the past decade can be put down to myriad factors, but it is certainly worth remembering that the format has always been a little more expensive than its competitors. Back in the 1980s, for instance, an average new album would typically set you back around £4.99. When you adjust that figure for inflation, however, it becomes closer to £15.50, which is much more in keeping with modern prices.
In contrast, compact cassette tapes tended to be much cheaper in the 1980s, and although CDs were expensive when first introduced, those prices quickly went down. What’s more, the emergence of digital downloads and, in more recent years, music streaming, means the general population is much less willing to spend £15–£20 on a physical album, given that they can buy it digitally for a fraction of that cost.
There’s also a lot more music being released in the modern age than ever before. Every week, hundreds of albums hit the market around the world, and listeners are becoming increasingly consumerist. While you could have gotten away with buying one or two albums every few months back in vinyl’s heyday, the overconsumption of music means people are looking to buy multiple new releases every month, which quickly adds up in price.
So, vinyl records are certainly more expensive than other formats in the modern age, but are those prices really all down to manufacturing costs? It should go without saying that it’s much more expensive to manufacture vinyl than to upload some files to Spotify; the raw polyvinyl chloride material is not overly cheap to acquire, and the equipment needed to press records can cut a serious hole in your wallet.
Adding to this issue is a shortage of pressing plants. With the downturn in vinyl production during the late 1990s and early 2000s, many pressing plants went out of business, and the few that kept going owed their continued existence to small, independent record labels typically pressing small runs of records. In turn, these small production runs would usually be sold at a premium, as the cost per unit was greater. However, this normalised higher prices for vinyl records, even if the production run was colossal.
Now that the format is back in full force, the strain on those pressing plants is much greater. This has led to many major record labels forking over a bit more money for priority access to the plants, thus driving prices even higher.
As discussed, there are very real, tangible reasons for vinyl to be more expensive. However, the steep rise in the format’s cost is also down to some good, old-fashioned capitalist exploitation. Vinyl is now presented as more than a music format but as a form of collectable merchandise.
Week after week, more ‘limited edition’ represses and collector’s edition releases are unveiled, such that fans are routinely known to buy vinyl records without even owning a turntable. Of course, record labels and artists have quickly cottoned on to this fact, and thus more collectable records are released, and prices only tend upwards.
Take one of the biggest albums of recent years, Charli XCX’s Brat, for instance. Since its initial release in June 2024 (just over one year ago), there have been over 20 different vinyl variants released, each on different coloured vinyl and many exclusive to specific retailers. Yet, Charli boasts such a dedicated, often obsessive following that there are those determined to collect every variant of the album as though they were Pokémon cards.
Not only is this consumerist nightmare driving the price of vinyl sky high, but its also devaluing the nature of vinyl as a music format, given that a focus is being placed on things being limited edition and collectable, rather than the actual audio being of as high quality as possible.
Ultimately, the vinyl revival of the past decade doesn’t show any signs of subsiding in the near future. In terms of physical media, the format still reigns supreme over the music industry. However, we are rapidly approaching a world in which buying vinyl is increasingly unaffordable for the average music fan, and if the exploitation of the industry by major record labels continues, it seems as though the prices are only going to remain untouchable.
