In a new report from the Recording Industry Association of America, we get a lot of the same old sad news: album sales are down, digital downloads are down... everything is down.
Everything, that is, except vinyl sales.
"Among physical formats, CD sales continue to plunge while vinyl records grow into a surprisingly robust niche," The New York Times wrote. "Sales of albums on CD fell 19 percent by revenue to $716 million, while LP sales grew 43 percent to $146 million. A decade ago, LP sales were barely significant. But with vinyl now firmly established as a premium-priced collector's item and an audiophile favorite, they represent about 4.6 percent of the total."
So there's a ray of hope — we all knew hipsters would save the music industry. Let's take a look at some of the other numbers from the report (via NYT):
- Just under $3.2 billion was generate from music sales in the first half of 2014. That is down 4.9 percent from the same period in 2013.
- In the first six months of 2014, downloads and streaming together amounted to $2.2 billion — virtually unchanged from the same period last year.
- BUT — the proportions changed. Last year, downloads were about 69 percent of this category, by revenue, with the rest made up by streaming; this year, downloads were only 60 percent.
- Digital sales of all kinds now make up about 68 percent of total sales revenue for the recorded music industry.
Lastly, a Moody's report on Wednesday reported an overly crowded marketplace of streaming services, but stated that this is good for the industry as a whole thanks to licensing fees that will likely become ultra-competitive.
From the Moody's report: "Technology companies' deep pockets and intensified rivalry to attract and retain paying users within the respective ecosystems is a credit positive for the content owners, providing a better return on their music catalogs."
