Vinyl IS a hi-rez format! As to whether it is outselling the digital formats, I doubt it, but it would be good news!
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RIAA sales tracking stats Good place to start,keep in mind vinyls deeper catalog and much vinyl trades hands under RIAA radar so short answer is yes! |
Is vinyl getting more issues and wider distribution? Is there more and more vinyl play back gear coming out? Is there more and more SACD/DVD-A in you local disposable electronics/software store in high res formats? When was the last time you heard someone rant and rave about how great thier DVD-A or SACD sounded? As for me the high res fomats are high hype and low performance compared to a standard CD. I had such high hopes but- - - - I think I put my money in a new Koetsu. I have a Sony NS999ES SACD/DVD player, haven't ventured into DVD-A yet, and probably will not. Granted there is a larger selection of software there. Signed, Underwhelmed by High Res, loon |
The numbers I have seem suggest that new vinyl outsells hi-rez digital by a large margin. But who knows how accurate those numbers are? But based on my observation more new vinyl is sold. This of course ignores the used vinyl market which is enormous and not tracked at all by most figures. I would imagine the used hi-rez digital market is very very small. I tried SACD for a while. And even though my tastes are mostly classical, I find more to my liking from vinyl. Plus I can get lots in vinyl from other genres (various genres of heavy metal) where I can't from SACD. So for me, vinyl made more sense than SACD. And vinyl is high-rez, too. |
Long Live Analog! Every now & then I see something on being released on Sacd that makes me think darn I wish I still had a player. Then I remember that 80% of all Sacd's I purchased left me sonically disapointed! Buying a turntable 2 years ago was the best move I ever made! There are just more exciting titles being released by Classic Records, & Speakers Corners on vinyl to satisfy my musical interest. So vinyl will get my hard earned buck for many years to come! |
Ok, let's use the RIAA figures. In 2003 the combined SACD and DVD-A units shipped equal 1.9 million with a value of 34.3 million. Vinyl has 1.5 million units shipped with a value of 21.7 million. It's clear that SACD and DVD-A have the higher numbers. Loon, I rant and rave about SACD everyday!!! I might suggest that you try a better player than you're currently using and I think you will too. And btw, SACD has much, much more software available than DVD-A. |
Manufacturers have for a long time kept ambiguous, difficult to understand, or poorly worded statistics regarding the sale of vinyl. They do not want formats to be dictated to them. They ooccasionally bow to pressure from artists (I use that term loosely!) and occasionally consumers, but they really don't want to sell vinyl. Compaines like Acoustic Sounds or Simply Vinyl keep good records of their sales, but they are in the minority. There really is no accurate way to know what is being sold, especially when one considers the huge 'used' market. People will even admit this if pressed, so just enjoy vinyl while you can, and prepare stories for the grand kids! |
No need to sell me on the hi rez virtues of vinyl as I figured that was a given in a vinyl forum. From what I gather, not many beleive that dvd-a is out selling anything, and whith the re-sale of vinyl included,I am sure the total is far greater than sa-cd/dvd-a in the U.S. The RIAA numbers look like there not counting hybrid sa-cd's, and probably counting dvd video concerts as dvd-a, so I definitly don't trust there vinyl numbers either. The numbers as a whole smell of agenda to me. I was just looking for a more accurate source than the RIAA numbers. For instance, I have seen posts at the Asylum were the U.K is supposed to be selling 25-40% of all music on vinyl the last few years. The old Sony vinyl plant in the netherlands pressing 8.5 million records in 01 ect ect. I was more interested on vinyl vs sa-cd/dvd-a on a world basis. Greg |
UNOFFICIAL, i.e. private marketing sources give a slightly different picture for 2003. (Numbers are sales units, values are company NOT market, resellers' T-O) sa-cd: +1,1 M units, $ 20,1M value vinyl: +1,9 M units, $ 18,7M value This of course includes units that have two sa-cds, or vinyls, etc. The aftermarket for vinyl is estimated at 4x the "regular" volume but at 35% equivalent value. There was no estimation for the used sa-cd market... Also, didn;t pick up the dvd-a figures. Again, this is just unofficial, so probably not worth much. |
The issue has to be the massive used vinyl market, the new issues of vinyl remain limited, of good quality but sometimes odd choices(as has been commented, how many versions of "kind of Blue" or others 50's/60's jazz do we need?). For me the point is the treasure trove of classical vinyl out there, in charity shops, E-bay and specialist suppliers. Unfortunately often from fellow enthusiasts, who have "moved on". How much longer are we going to have such a cornucopia of 60's/70's music, the golden age of Decca, Emi, Mercury etc. It can'nt last forever, can it? |
