Vinyl Record Sales Increased Almost 30% in 2020, RIAA Says: Streaming expectedly continued to grow throughout the pandemic while downloads and CD sales continued to decline. The RIAA has released its annual year-end revenue report, surveying the state of the recorded music industry at the end of 2020. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, trends across the past several years carried on: Streaming is up 13.4%, generating $10.1 billion last year compared to $8.9 billion in 2019, accounting for 83% of the total revenue of the industry. Vinyl sales have continued to rise, too, increasing a whopping 29.2% to $619.6 million, compared to $479.5 million in 2019. The rise in vinyl sales made up for the continued decline in CD sales, leading to a marginal 0.5% decrease in revenue across all physical media from to 2019 to 2020. Music downloads continue to trend downwards, too, decreasing by 18% to $674.4 million last year as compared to $822.8 million in 2019. The RIAA report concludes that streaming has driven the industry to grow for the fifth consecutive year, with revenues increasing 9.2% in 2020, generating $12.2 billion in total.
Medicine Hat, CA | Hatter fulfils lifelong dream with downtown record store: Hatter Pete Rose has worked just about every job imaginable. He spent time with law enforcement, worked as a painter and served in the military for years — to name a few. During all the time, his love for music stayed with him, which has fueled his latest venture: Round Again Records. Rose opened his record store in October in downtown’s Arcade Plaza, and he has already had to move to a bigger space in the building to keep up with demand. “It’s really good so far,” said Rose. “Every week seems to get a little busier and we keep seeing new faces.” Rose’s store specializes in used records, which people can sell to him or trade for different material. He carries vinyl, CD, cassettes and even has 8-tracks. He also sells turntables and speakers. “We’re always buying, trading and selling,” he said. “We post a lot on our Facebook page and in different groups to let people know what we have down here.
San Angelo, TX | San Angelo now has a vinyl records and more store: When you think about Vinyl Records, chances are most of you think back to 45 singles and albums on vinyl from back when. That’s not necessarily the case as you would see with a visit to San Angelo’s new Sonny Records and More store. Vinyl Records never completely went away and numerous artist continue to record their music on vinyl in addition to all of the current formats. There has also been a popular resurged interest in buying and collecting Vinyl Records for quite some time now. Sonny Records and More actually opened back in late January of 2021 and are located at 1504 W. Beauregard Ave. Not only do they sell new and used vinyl records, but you’ll also find T-shirts, stickers, buttons, posters and more. Sonny Records and More was envisioned by owner and operator Sonny Gammill. He would love for you to drop by and browse his store from noon-8 pm Tuesday through Saturday and noon-5 on Sunday.
Richmond, CA | Richmond resident finds vinyl album he sold as a child in Maple Ridge garage sale 16 years ago: Jeffrey Liu found the album while sifting through 3 Dawgs Vinyl in Richmond recently. Jeffrey Liu was surprised when he found a copy of a prized vinyl album in a Richmond retro record store that he’d given up 16 years ago for 50 cents at a garage sale in Maple Ridge as a young boy. However, Liu – who moved to Richmond, age 12, just after that garage sale – was about to get an even bigger shock when he took the album home from 3Dawgs Vinyl on No. 5 Road. For as soon as he started playing Frankie Laine’s Greatest Hits he realized, due to the position of a couple of scratches on the vinyl, that it was actually his record from 16 years ago. “Regrettably, I made markings on it as a kid and got scolded by my grandparents for doing so. I recognized it as soon as I got it home,” said a stunned Liu, who moved back to his native Richmond from Maple Ridge with his grandparents in Grade 8. …Liu, now 27, said, instantly, a ton of memories came flooding back of him growing up with his grandparents in their Maple Ridge ranch and acreage.
Is the vinyl record comeback here to stay? Since vinyl started its resurgence in 2006, it has steadily been rising little by little each year. However, in 2020, even the experts of the music industry were surprised when vinyl surpassed CD sales. Yes, it could probably be because the CD was dying but it’s more than that. The numbers have increased dramatically. In 2020, 27.5 million vinyl records were sold in America alone. This is 46% higher compared to vinyl sales in 2019, which is the dramatic entrance vinyl needed to officially show the world that there is a vinyl record comeback. We can now all say with 100% certainty that vinyl has reclaimed its throne! But the important question is…will vinyl records be sitting on its throne for a long time or is this just a fad that will go away quickly? According to James Hill, the CEO of an LA-based custom vinyl records manufacturer, Unified Manufacturing, they didn’t expect vinyl records but especially custom vinyl pressing records to take over too soon.
A look inside the rise of ‘Vinyl TikTok,’ where Gen Z is making record collecting cool again: When Frank Camarda first found out about “Vinyl TikTok,” he was a little surprised. The 22-year-old, who lives in Perth, Australia, has been collecting records for eight years, since he was barely a teenager. That’s an impressively long commitment for someone whose generation listens to nearly 80 percent of their music on a phone. On TikTok, Camarda found so many people like him — young, vinyl-obsessed music fans who just wanted to talk about records. “It’s so amazing to see so many collectors post about their collections and come together and chat about different variants, artists and all things vinyl,” he told In The Know. On TikTok, those collectors number in the thousands. Videos using the #vinyl tag have been viewed almost 900 million times on the app, and some users, like record collector @tomcsawyer, have six-digit follower counts. The rise of Vinyl TikTok has also coincided with a broader, more striking phenomenon. Throughout the pandemic, record sales have been surging.
