Digital/Vinyl Sales Increases

[Music Head]

from mashable

There’s been a lot of speculation as of late with regard to the future of digital music, but judging by the results of a recent report by Nielsen Soundscan, music sales have only increased this past year.

According to the report, sales were up 2.1 percent in 2009 from 2008, with consumers snagging 1.16 million digital tracks (an 8.3 percent increase from ‘08) and 76.4 million digital albums (a 16.1 percent bump). In fact, 40 percent of all music purchases in 2009 were digital.

The top-selling artists this year were fairly predictable: Michael Jackson, Taylor Swift, The Beatles, Lady GaGa and Susan Boyle came out on top, signaling that pop culture trends (and Internet sensations) really do drive sales.

In addition to the burgeoning digital music market, record sales increased this past year as well — 33 percent. That’s 2.5 million records taken home by vinyl enthusiasts. But here’s the cool part: Two out of every three records were snapped up at an indie music store. And take a look at the top sellers:



You’ve got bands like Animal Collective and Bon Iver right up there with Jackson.

Record sales have been steadily increasing over the years as CD sales decline, indicating that we’re entering a time during which people buy music online for the sake of convenience and storage, and pick up records as mementos.

[gryphon]

It has been interesting to watch the revival of vinyl within the Hi-Fi section of the music industry.................It seems that, those who really like vinyl are prepared to pay for the equipment..................the really esoteric end of the market has no shortage of new products or people who are prepared to pay up to the high thousands to obtain state of the art vinyl reproduction equipment. There is also the fact that gone are the days of poor quality pressings .............most of the reissues or new releases are of tremendous quality and really can show what vinyl reproduction is capable of..........I have kept a vinyl engine and be it only a baby "Rolls-Royce" deck( Its a Linn for those who wonder !) it really can give an expensive state of the art CD player a run for its money......it only seems to come under pressure when faced with SACD or a Blue-ray audio format...............

[TheBluesBerry]

It's aobut time!