Noel Gallagher continues his streak of bombastic statements and predictions with a claim that the vinyl revival the music industry has experienced in recent years will come to an end by 2020 and streaming will take over.
According to NME UK vinyl sales have reached 1.3 million for the first time since 1995 with U.S. vinyl sales up 260% since 2009. Noel Gallagher is enjoying the success of the format wit his High Flying Birds' Chasing Yesterday named the best selling UK vinyl album of 2015 so far above The Stone Roses and Royal Blood.
In a recent interview with Q via NME, Gallagher said he's honored to be recognized among such a great group of music lovers, but thinks at the end of the decade streaming will come to dominate.
"For the people who still want to buy and own music, for me to be sat at the top of that list really is great," he told Q. "Until you look at how many people are actually buying it and it's like a thousand albums. F*cking hell, I've probably got more than a thousand sat in my office right now. But it's the streaming thing, there will be no record sales by the end of the decade, I think."
Looking at the numbers, there's not much to back up his claim other than a gut feelings. According to Nielsen, U.S. album sales between January and March of 2015 were 53 percent higher than during the same period last year. Most of that growth came from catalog album sales and the popularity of monthly subscription based vinyl collection services. It's been a great half-decade for vinyl and there's not much to suggest it's slowing down.
Watch the "Ballad of the Mighty" music video below off Chasing Yesterday from Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.
