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posted by janrinok on Saturday June 16 2018, @04:31AM   Printer-friendly
from the something-you-can-own dept.

Kim Bayley breaks down UK spending statistics to show that superfans buying old school physical media are providing for 15% of the UK's total retail music market, even when streaming is counted. She asserts that curtailing the availability of these physical storage media will damage not just retailers, but the overall health of the music industry itself. In doing so, she presents a strong economic case for why the music industry should treasure its vinyl and CD superfans.

Naturally it would have a clear financial cost: according to ERA's research those 157,000 vinyl Superfans spent between them £63m on vinyl in 2017, equivalent to more than half a million – 525,000 – premium music subscriptions.

In other words, lose a town's worth of vinyl buyers the size of Chelmsford and you need a city's worth of premium music subscribers the size of Manchester to make up the loss.

When it comes to CD, the impact is even greater. ERA's researches show that in 2017 an incredible 292,000 Britons spent £400 or more on the format. That's equivalent to buying a CD virtually every week.


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Saturday June 16 2018, @04:06PM (5 children)

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Saturday June 16 2018, @04:06PM (#693986) Journal

    Why? The audio CD format really is obsolete and ought to be retired. As I'm sure everyone realizes, can fit around 1000 CDs worth of music in FLAC format onto one 256G flash drive. Takes a heck of a lot less shelf space than 1000 CDs even if you toss the jewel cases. The industry is the chief roadblock to adoption of the massive improvements in storage and distribution tech since the 1980s when the audio CD standard was released. Why encourage them to keep being obstructionist by buying audio CDs?

    Supporting the artists can be done in so many other, less wasteful ways. Go to their concerts, buy their t-shirts, or just give them cash donations. Cut those parasitic middle men out.

    As for vinyl, WTF is wrong with you people, to actually want vinyl? I mean, damn, why don't you also drive around in a horse drawn carriage if you like vinyl so much?

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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 16 2018, @09:10PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 16 2018, @09:10PM (#694040)

    http://www.soundmattersblog.com/pros-cons-vinyl-records/ [soundmattersblog.com]

    Vinyl can last a long time compared to a CD, and there is a robust market for buying and selling them.

    CD on the other hand is useless if a digital copy is widespread. Or you can rip it yourself and then the disc is just taking up space.

  • (Score: 2, Offtopic) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday June 16 2018, @10:48PM

    by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Saturday June 16 2018, @10:48PM (#694063) Homepage Journal

    There are so many amazing things to do in New York City. You can ride through Central Park in a horse drawn carriage. And maybe you'll meet a NYPD mounted officer -- or a dozen! Trump International Hotel & Tower New York has won many awards because it's the best hotel in the city, convenient to it all! trumphotels.com/central-park [trumphotels.com]

  • (Score: 5, Informative) by dry on Sunday June 17 2018, @01:51AM (1 child)

    by dry (223) on Sunday June 17 2018, @01:51AM (#694102) Journal

    Vinyl often has better mastering, as in less compression (by compression, I mean dynamic range). Same with older CD's. I buy CD's at the local thrift store for 50 cents - $1 and the old ones sound much better.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 18 2018, @11:15AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 18 2018, @11:15AM (#694482)

    Apart from anything else, the sleeve/artwork is so often an integral part of the recorded work itself. For example, if you buy PiL's 'Metal Box' as a digital download, you've more or less missed the point.