Recent reports have said that Vinyl sales are bringing in more money than revenue from streaming sites like Spotify, Apple Music or Tidal. While this says a lot about the piss poor wealth distribution of digital streaming services, it also means that that black disc your granddad reminiscences about, brings more money to the coffers of your favourite artists. Awesome!
So why is vinyl so much better than streaming? On the surface, it’s expensive, cumbersome and outdated. A bit like Bruce Forsyth or Sir Paul McCartney at a Jubilee. But in many ways it’s part of the charm. So let us tackle some notions about vinyl below.
The Money Is Better Distributed
This one may not make sense to some; surely digital sales or physical C.D. sales would be the most beneficial to an artist, considering they are the two highest selling mediums available? Wrong. While we obviously concede the fact that for most artists, vinyl sales might as well be pocket money, the artist is likely to see a higher cut of the cost of a vinyl as opposed to CD’s.
Many smaller artists will often fund vinyl runs themselves, so once they’ve covered their own production costs (and if applicable, any costs due to record companies and publishers) then the only two parties left divvying up the takings are the band and the retailer.
While most CD’s are sold via supermarkets, Amazon and HMV. A fair amount of vinyl is purchased at independent record stores or directly from the artist (online or at concerts). The main difference between these two sales avenues is that it’s unlikely that little record store is going to be pushing for the same sales discount as Tesco. When supermarkets and the like stock records, it is often done in one of two ways. Either a lot of a record is stocked, with a discount being agreed from the distributor in return for this potential sales windfall…thus reducing the revenue percentage for the artist. The second is on a basis of per sales, which essentially means that unsold stock is written off and makes the artist nothing, meaning that after costs of production, a poorly promoted album can in many cases lose an artist money. Point one to vinyl!
Big, Curvy and Beautiful
There’s just something about vinyl that’s so much sexier than a jewel case. The phrase “plastic festish“ immediately brings sex dolls and gimp masks to the mind, whereas everyone loves a bit of vinyl PVC …right?
Awful analogy aside, there’s something so much cooler in having that huge cardboard sleeve infront of you, the album artwork in technicolor, widescreen glory. It’s cinema compared to TV. TV will do the job, but the cinema will always feel like a special treat.
Then there’s the actual record itself. CD’s are always going to feel like anonymous discs of 1’s and 0’s, whereas you can literally see the grooves of a vinyl record, each tiny alteration in depth affecting the sound of the record. On a technical level, your copy of Dark Side Of The Moon is always going to be a little different to the next guys. You likely won’t notice it in the sound, but it’s a form of nerdiness that your iPod shuffle just doesn’t allow.
Better Quality Control
While it is possible to own rubbish artists on vinyl (my girlfriend’s copy of Katy Perry‘s Prism holds testament to that), it’s much more unlikely. Here’s a little challenge. Go and find a copy of One Direction‘s latest offering on vinyl from any retailer but HMV. It’s likely going to be a difficult task.
That’s because indie record store owners are mainly in the business for the love of music. Their stock often reflects a little of their own taste, with concessions to sales here and there obviously. Yes, it might mean we have to face the awkward staredown at the counter as we bring over our copy of a supposedly inferior album by The Fall, but it’s what helps us onto new and awesome music instead of being stuck in a rut where there’s no sense of challenge to your purchasing habits from the dolly at the checkout in ASDA.
And that’s before we go into vinyl being a loss-less format of audio…
