Why Are Vinyl Pressing Plants Closing Despite Record Vinyl Sales?

[@GrahamBartholomew-h8k]

Listening to a lot of classical on vinyl in the 70s and early 80s, I was nearly convinced that all the majors actually employed someone to add clicks and pops in all the quietest places. The quality was generally abyssmal, a fact only confirmed when I started to work at HMV in Oxford Street and noted all the returns. Not just scratches, but warping, wow and flutter, you name it. The arrival of CD was a revelation.

[@markmiwurdz2248]

@GrahamBartholomew-h8k If those classical records were on Deutsche Gramophone ( were they a division of Phonogram - Philips record company?) then you were usually assured of a reasonable vinyl pressing (weight/not warped/concentric etc.) and a quality sleeve. Most pop/rock/chart LP records of the 70’s and 80’s were manufactured so quickly that quality got left behind.

[@GrahamBartholomew-h8k]

@@markmiwurdz2248 The worst were Decca, at least until they started being pressed in Europe after they were taken over. UK pressings generally had a visible streaking on them and were very noisy. I’d sometimes exchange a copy multiple times if a customer brought one back, knowing the new copy would be just as bad. This also affected other labels pressed by Decca such as Lyrita. After 1980 the situation did improve significantly.

[@markmiwurdz2248]

@GrahamBartholomew-h8k. Thanks for your reply. A bit off topic - but do you remember seeing “messages” or “inscriptions” in the vinyl between the run out of the groove? I remember reading one that said “Dumpy’s rusty nuts” on one album .Can’t recall which LP it was though!

[@GrahamBartholomew-h8k]

@@markmiwurdz2248 Yes, that was quite a thing wasn't it? Often the master engineer, but quite a lot of more enigmatic comments! There's almost certainly a whole area of vinyl geekdom dedicated to just this topic. 🤣

[@bareknuckles2u]

I like both cds and vinyl, but there is nothing more musically immersive to me than a well pressed, well mastered, and well packaged vinyl album.

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

Very true

[@kawasakiaddiction6296]

Records I bought 5 years ago have more than doubled in price. Retail greed is killing sales. Whereas I used to buy a couple Albums a week, I now only buy occasionally, an Album that is well recorded and not warped. I'm back to buying 90% CDs. I have a Technics 1200G, a Sumiko Songbird MC, and a Chord Huei Phono stage, but the quality of most new Vinyl is simply not worth buying.

[@SaintMartins]

1) In the business world when an industry is hot, bigger businesses tend to buy up all the smaller businesses & shut them down so they will have less competition. 2) Maybe sales have been going down for the past year & they're projecting the bubble will burst due to the high prices of albums which is a result of the rising cost of materials that just keep rising. (when it's considered a bad investment they jump ship)

[@bacarandii]

CDs surprised everyone in the 1980s because the rapid growth of the new technology did not come overwhelmingly from new music, but from record companies' back catalogs. The biggest thing to ever happen in the CD market was when the Beatles' UK albums were finally remastered and reissued digitally in 1987. That was when the format really "arrived" for most mainstream pop music-buyers. Because there was so much consumer interest was in titles that had already paid for themselves, by and large, reissuing them on CD was extremely profitable for labels. (Depending on how songwriting royalties were calculated -- differently in the US and the UK.) The same thing may be happening with records in the 2020s. Who wants an LP of a brand new, digitally recorded/mixed/mastered "album" that is so much more expensive than the exact same music delivered on CD, or as a CD-quality download? Albums conceived and recorded in the 1990s and later were never conceived or produced with the LP format in mind.

[@stannisb7693]

Phil in 1970’s as a teenager in Edinburgh record shops it was impossible to take a record back. Phoenix records was heavy rock (only Sabbath considered heavy metal). The staff were long hair ‘hairies they just ignored you. I got Mad Shadows Mott the Hoople there it was warped. Hot Licks was punk and intimidating with punks hanging around. The owner of Ezy Ryder Greyfriars market was so angry if you returned the record you were wasting his time he threw the album across the shop into a pile of albums on the floor . He would let you exchange it but no cash refund. Ards record shop and Bandparts would play the record in the shop and say they never heard the ‘scratch’ on the record and just gave you it back. I wonder if your older members had similar record shop experiences in the likes of Cornwall, Liverpool, Manchester etc. in the 70’s?😊

[@terrydaktyllus1320]

I probably last listened to my own vinyl albums some time around the mid to late 1990's, by which time I'd replaced my vinyl collection with CD and got rid of my turntable. I still have a "good enough" hi-fi system for CD playing and I already have a reasonable number of vinyl albums that I couldn't play inside CD box sets like the ELP, Nazareth and Wishbone Ash ones. A month or two before Christmas, I was talking about vinyl with my cousin and he said a friend of his was selling a Pro-Ject turntable at a good price, so I purchased it. I must say that, as a result, my love of music has changed for the better. Having ripped a very large CD collection to my home server over the years (I've no interest in Spotify or online streaming which I think is the "commoditisation" of music and bad for the entire industry), I hadn't realised how I took even my own collection "for granted" and was spending so much time buying new stuff without listening to the existing stuff properly where I wasn't doing something else in the background. I've discovered for myself that the great thing about vinyl is not that it's better or worse quality that CD or digital - but the fact that there is more of a "ceremony" when it comes to playing it. You probably have one turntable and therefore one place in your home where you can play it, and if you've paid out a reasonable amount of money for a nice hi-fi system, then there's probably a nice comfy chair to sit in and enjoy it too. So sticking on a vinyl album means you're probably taking time out of your day just to sit and enjoy it, with a coffee or a beer in hand. I'm learning to listen to music again with the same focus and interest that I did in my early years, the "pops and clicks" really don't matter that much and when you're just being truly drawn into the music, they disappear anyway (okay, bad scratches excluded!) On his channel recently, Rick Beato did a great video on how music has changed over the years, and how the music industry has got progressively worse over the years with the commoditisation of music and where AI is just going to "plasticise" music even more. He ended one of his videos appealing to music lovers to get into a mindset of just putting on an album 2 or 3 times a week and just sitting and listening to it - put your phone away, don't be jogging in the street or in the gym with it playing, just sit down and immerse yourself in it. And he's absolutely right - and I even get Phil's "music and mental health connection" now, because there's such an absolute buzz from just enjoying a great piece of music. Vinyl and a turntable, to me, is just providing a focus and a space in which you can do that very easily.

[@LeahMcewan-b8z]

Most cd's sound good and play fine. But I'm finding more of the recent new vinyl I am buying is poor sound, quality or warped? I Live in Canada and am 64 years young and have been buying physical music since I was 15 years old. Vinyl packaging is what makes me want rebuy old reissues, but it is a hit and miss with quality lately here? CD's are cheaper and more consistent in quality. Ron McEwan......Great content Phil.....

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

Thank you - I agree

[@DavidEdwards-d6t]

You raise an interesting point about the quality of modern vinyl over CDs, Phil. When I started buying music on vinyl in the late 70s I don’t think I ever got a bad or scratched record in hundreds of purchases. Like most of us I switched to CDs in the 80s and must have several hundreds, if not thousands. Again, I can’t recall ever getting a faulty one. Last year I decided to venture back into vinyl. Since Christmas I have received/bought 6 new vinyl albums to get the ball rolling. 2 of these had to be returned due to scratches and surface marks. Not an auspicious start! I feel like buying any new vinyl is a gamble nowadays.

[@sbwlearning1372]

@@DavidEdwards-d6t This is a very modern problem. It is so variable and the origin and mastering is often unknown. I have around 350 original albums that I bought from new as a lad( 60s, 70s and 80s etc with maybe 30 of them purchased 2nd hand at the time) and around 100 brand new albums purchased in the last 4 or 5 years some of which are re-releases / remasters of my originals. Doing a direct comparison is fascinating. Despite being continually played for 40/ 50 years some of the original 70s albums sound for more clear and "alive" than their brand new super duper repressings Some of course were never originally released on vinyl so I can only compare with the CD. Some sound magnificent some are truly terrible and I suspect they have been printed from digital sources. As much as I can I try and buy originals second hand. Even then though I have a few ( perhaps 10/ 20) that I bought myself new back in the 70s and early 80s that as my vinyl front end has improved I can now tell that either the production/ engineering or the actual quality of the vinyl itself is really really poor. Sadly a huge factor in getting the sound just right is a very good cartridge with a speciality cut stylus. The cheapest of these can start around £500/ £600 then of course if you want valves in your phono stage original 50s/ 60s/70s valves are around £50 my phono stage has 6 of them.😂. But to me it is worth it as the sound is quite beautiful. Despite all of this modern DACs can make digital music sound very very good too. Of course my DAC is valve based also. Seems redundant and counter intuitive to have a £3000 modern DAC have as it's final filter a £50 45 year old valve but I am merely a servant of my ears' pleasure 😜 Happy hunting enjoy your vinyl 🎵🎧🎸 Ps you can still get 2nd hand albums in really mint condition on Discogs for £2 or £3 depending on the group or artist or genre. More obscure or rare stuff can creep up to near the £ 100 which is actually terrifying to someone looking to get into this world.

[@prashantchutke5521]

@@DavidEdwards-d6t i also feel that the newer Records look good , but they don't sound as good as the 50s 60s 70s and 80s record pressings . I have so many older original pressing records. I started buying sone newer pressings to fill in some void in my collection, but have been significantly disappointed. I just hope that I only buy used from now on , wherever I can find them .

[@Ian45968]

I’m amazed that vinyl sales have gone up again considering how expensive it is now. There’s still reasonably priced independent releases out there but the major labels are getting greedy and I wonder how long before the bubble bursts.

[@rogertemple7193]

I really enjoy watching Now Spinning Magazine for your updates on Vinyl especially here in the new year thanks again Phil.🎶💿📀🎶

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

Thanks for listening

[@roncooper6817]

Very interesting as always. One quality point that no one ever seems to speak about is why some vinyl records scratch more easily than others? It seems that the type of material vinyl composite utilized plus maybe manufacturing thermal properties can influence this, but I have no idea of how to measure this (that is the material softness/harness Mohs Scale …its resistance to plastic deformation of the actual vinyl pressing). Some vinyl's even with just a few small particles on them will scratch easily when just simply inserted into those thin cardboard inners & where the particles are rolled across the grooves. You just have to be so gentle when inserting some discs. Of course placing the vinyl into a soft antistatic 50micron HDPE inner sleeve will help avoid this type of damage. Also certainly do not move/sweep the cleaning brush across the grooves so as to avoid the particles cutting across/into the grooves.

[@ClintVenhuizen-z9z]

I’ll be fifty later this year and I love the CD. It seems like a higher quality of sound for less money. The CD itself costs less and I think it’s easier to get a decent sounding stereo for less as well. Plus I like taking them on the car. I started out buying cassettes in the late eighties and fully switched to CD by the mid nineties. Anyway. Thanks for the video Phil.

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

Thank you 🙏

[@jeffstockton534]

Fascinating presentation. I seem to get WAY too many records that aren't flat. And at full price, they should be. So those go back. I can stand a little surface noice, but violent pops and god forbid jumps...those go back. Manufacturers seem to want to maximize what they can charge by spreading out the music to double LP or box set length, but their attention and care isn't up to it, in my opinion.

[@watdanuqta-mf5ms]

I live a mile away from one of the largest sellers of specialty vinyl and it's very easy for me to look over my purchase before ever leaving the dealer.

[@colintitterington144]

Bought quite a few records off Amazon at Christmas, Several have split inner sleeves and marks on them it’s nearly always records pressed by GZ in the Czech Republic that are like this!, Others on KZbin have also mentioned about GZ quality control issues!, For example my brand new copy of Yes Singles the inner sleeve was split on all three corners!!!, People have also mentioned problems with box sets which cost over £100 pressed by GZ as having issues!!!, This is not good when you are spending a lot of money to get the vinyl versions!

[@stevencook6750]

Records, being big square flat packages can get thrown around like a frisbee at delivery stations, that causes the splits when it lands, I've seen under cover videos of it being done.

[@ИванИванов-у8л9г]

A point re the silence before the music starts on a cd is exactly one of my very well remembered moments of the very first listenings to compact discs 🙂 And overall one more very good episode / discussion as usual 👍🏻

[@AndyFootman-w9z]

I started buying records in 1973! I have many albums I got back in the 1970s onward! I have really good turntables by AR and thorens!The thorens is from 1974!I have played some records many time like by ELO .They still sound exactly the same with no change to surface noise!I always clean records with a brush and cloth and clean and change the stylus when it nears its life end!Dirt and worn stylus will damage records keep them clean they last a lot longer than you would expect!I have never worn a record out and a few must have been played at least 80 times or more! I have an original first Rolling Stones first and second album from 1964 with no surface noise or clicks! The record looks new the cover is terrible now !The pressings today are a bit hit and miss so I now put up with some clicks and noise which back then I would have not have put up with and returned the record!Records and CD’s are fun and I love both and will always be buying them till I get removed by the arm lift of life!Great information Phil looking forward to more from you !

[@Jimblekimble]

This is great! Even though I’ve been a vinyl lover my whole life. You helped bring back memories of what I loved about CDs when I got my first one (a lot later than most people ,in late 1989). Your description of the vinyl listening experience is perfect! The “rumble” and the faint sound just before the song kicks in on a record are things that I miss when I’m streaming music or playing CDs. so much more to say, but I’ll stop there . oh and > ‘ Love your videos!!

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

Thank you 🙏

[@dogfight2008]

Most of the streamers don't realize that a CD or Vinyl is a piece of art. The artist or the band has put a lot in this production despite a lot of others were involved in distribution and production. Only streaming is a part of art. Is anybody interested to look on 80% of the mona lisa? So buying is more meaningful to me.

[@stephensdygert7600]

CD, Blu-ray Audio/Video is the greatest format of listening to music, watching movies and concerts in the history of mankind.

[@freeman10000]

I agree

[@darren7634]

A few years ago I went back to buying vinyl, mainly buying my favourite albums of the 80s, 90s and 00s. I obviously bought a few new albums by the same artists who had started to create new music but the quality in pressings, even over 5 years, has decreased dramatically. Along with the price increases I've recently reverted back to buying CDs, especially for new albums or new artists - the risk is too great. From now on I'll only buy vinyl from a very select group of bands where I want to continue collecting their catalogue.

[@DougieReVortex]

Phil, thanks for the insightful market update - not just taking the headlines at face value. It's possible that vinyl has already peaked earlier in the year. It would be really interesting to see the unit sales. A 10% increase in £sales could reflect a decrease in units sales if prices have gone up 11% or more. No doubt you will have all the answers in your next update.

[@ravenhill_of_yore_1968]

hi Phil, hope you had a nice new year, i find this a bit worrying as i love my cds and vinyl too.

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

Don’t worry they will never go away

[@tonyhills2112]

For me it seems like if you want audio perfection go digital. If you want a more tactile, immersive, “ceremonial”experience go vinyl where imperfections are expected, maybe to a certain degree even welcomed. I’m happy doing both, glad to have the option!

[@michaelb9664]

I’m older than the demographic you asked your question to Phil as I’m 45, but I’d still like to tell you my thoughts on what is and isn’t acceptable with new vinyl records. For me it depends on the price and the marketing. For example the very expensive audiophile pressings by someone like Analogue Productions for eg, should be as good as vinyl gets IMO. When paying £70 - £100 for an ‘audiophile pressing’ I expect clean silent vinyl free of warps. it doesn’t always happen that way sadly and yes I will return records at that price. For more mainstream records I am more lenient and will forgive the odd pop/crackle, a bit of groove roar or rumble and I expect to clean them when fresh out of the packet because they usually are never clean from the factory and I expect to add my own poly lined inner sleeves. Mild warps I’ll also begrudgingly tolerate, but anything dished or anything that is none stop crackles gets returned. I find my records from the 70s and 80s to be overall consistently better quality and don’t get me started on the 180g marketing of the last 10 years or so.

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

Thank you for sharing, that is really interesting and useful

[@DanielLavorel]

Ahoy Phil! Chiming in here from Sonoma wine country again. I have a fairly large vinyl collection of about 600 albums and about 200 CD's. Singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer (of sorts, I think my co-producer is better than me) Vinyl is a love affair with a certain sound, having that record to look at, talk about, and read the liner notes, but there is something about the care of it too. Change the stylus, clean the album, keep the record cover in a slick polythene sleeve etc.. But most of all, everyone come over and after a meal lets go pull some albums and check them out, raise a glass of wine and remember the idea of listening as a group and really getting together over it. ( I know, so San Francisco right?)

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

Sounds good to me !

[@BobRoger-i8z]

I've always loved vinyl, but I stopped buying about 6 months ago. I'd had enough of the amount of coloured vinyl being produced, more often than not I couldn't get the album I wanted on proper Black vinyl. Plus in the UK at least the cost has gone crazy, with the average cost of a single LP often reaching £28 & a double LP at about £50 . Also I know it sounds crazy, but a new LP only sounds good for the first couple of plays, then it's unusable due to surface noise.

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

Black vinyl is the rarest format now !

[@BobRoger-i8z]

@NowSpinningMagazine , Could be, trouble is only Black vinyl that is designed for records has carbon added to reduce static & a lubricant to add tracking. Colour vinyl is just basic vinyl, not designed for record use ,so doesn't have the carbon or lubricant.

[@analoguecity3454]

The rumble is because styli is like a microphone (it IS a microphone actually), have you ever tapped a microphone? Same as a stylus! When live amps are turned up, you get rumble! That makes the music more like live, believable! Vibration is sound, that's why it sounds so natural!😊

[@SAGNI0971]

Thanks for this! On a highly resolving audio system, well recorded and mastered music will always sound better on vinyl compared to digital. You have to pay a lot of money on a DAC to even approximate the natural musicality of analog and you still don’t get there. That said, I still buy CD’s and enjoy them and look for old AAD discs from the 80’s and early 90’s before the loudness wars. At the end of the day it’s all about the music but if I have the choice, it’s vinyl.

[@JimmyV1530]

Great post Phil, being 61 years old, I agree about the part where everyone these days seems super hyper upset if their new album doesn't play flawlessly. Myself, I just enjoy the physical part of it & the occasional pop or click does not bother me - it all part of the median. I also can't believe how big audiophile pressing have become... I would never pay over $100 (U.S.) for a single album & I guess if I did - I would complain if I heard anything but the music come from my system. 😉

[@normanmacfarlane6724]

That's a really interesting idea you've brought up their Phil , what older and younger listeners to when they listen to their music . I think their is a whole new way of look at these listening habits . I lived through the recent " hipster" fashion where young people were looking for " original " vinyl pressings whereas I wanted the remastered , all bells & whistles repressing odd the classic albums . I love The Beatles reissues and the way they were packaged whereas younger folks wanted the original pressing . It changes the dynamic of collecting . I want the best pressing , younger people want the pressing that is more closely associated with the original physical release . It is almost like collecting classic cars or works of art or original book printings . I want the music , others want the artefact. Hope this makes sense as I am having a bit of " brain fog" this morning . A but like pops & crackles on an old record LOL I hope there's no scratches in my head this morning ❤😂 God bless you Phil 😅

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

I’m like you I want the latest not the original!

[@AnthonyGordon-p9h]

Started buying vinyl again a few years ago and can't believe how badly warped a lot of them were. Even brand new releases are bad. Bought around 150 during this time and it's unbelievable how bad a lot of them are.and buying from different sellers. If this continues sales will definitely fall. This also includes 180 gram

[@davidrichardson3573]

I grew up with records in the 70s and 80s. Then just started back in 2024. What I have been finding is that some modern pressings are absolutely clean, no noise... And then some are horrible. Quality control seems hit and miss. But I don't send them back.

[@0110-d7y]

Im 22 been collecting my own vinyl from late teens. Never had to return a vinyl have noticed that newer records seem to be thicker some of my older ones like 70-80s are so thin u can cut yourself on them lol. Dust noise never realy bothers me unless it needs a clean/ gets too noticable in the actual songs but its not as annoying when a cd gets a light scrach and skips repetitively. Iven if i dont listen to the records all the time as a main sorce of listening to music there still nice to have a full cover art to look at and browse thru. Sometimes you forget a song you like or band when listening to digital but having the physical looking thru and you stumble across them.

[@TomTurcic-g8j]

The quality of lps was 10 times better in the 70's and 80's. Today's production for some reason is terrible to be honest. Paying 3 times as much today with over 50% of purchases having scratches, pops, clicks, warps and skips. Quality Control simply isn't there. Sound quality also is atleast 20% lower than original releases. This is the issue and the reason why everyone is starting to purchase cds and original lps as opposed to the lps released today.

[@pieterbalk-ht7kq]

Interesting video, @NowSpinningMagazine ! I see most of my friends buying less NEW vinyl releases anymore and often selling parts of their (new) vinyl collection. Main problem is the prices of new vinyl are ridiculous. And yeah I know all about inflation but €40 for a single new LP is insane and then I prefer the €15 CD instead. Also because the mastering and pressing quality of new vinyl is often horrendous. Clicks, pops and surface noise are somehow standard these days. And the mastering is an absolute atrocity most of the time. All loud and bass heavy instead of a well textured and detailed sound with a beautiful subtle low end where necessary. And that is going on for a while now. The 2014 Zeppelin remasters compared to the original purple orange label (in my case French) original pressings are day and night, classic Kiss albums from 2014 same thing, the Stones Abbey Road half speeds are an absolute disgrace, these new Beatles blue and red compared to the 2012 (?) and classic ones: an absolute joke, that new Stones in Mono box compared to the oroginal, it is absolute garbage. And I could go on. But I won’t! 😄😉 The record industry should produce quality over quantity like Pallas in Germany or acoustic sounds/analogue productions in the US is the way to go.

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

Wow, you have probably saved me a lot of money. I must admit, I see ‘half speed masters from abbey Road and think ‘these must be good’!

[@pieterbalk-ht7kq]

@NowSpinningMagazine that is what I thought. Bought them all on release and sold them right away. They are lacking all detail, nuance and punch of the originals. The people now doing the mastering and cutting at Abbey Road are clearly not having the same skills and expertise as the people who worked there in the past. Let me see if I can find a very good review of an experts on these that has similar experience as I have with those (among others). BTW did you receive my e-mails from a few weeks back about the boxsets and archival releases that we talked about here?

[@pieterbalk-ht7kq]

@NowSpinningMagazine this review says it all: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iZ_LlKWnp7h2bKcsi=WIXCREzFse4CB-0A This is a great vinyl channel btw.

[@Hillclimber001]

I’m guessing the BPI growth metric is value as opposed to volume - high street prices for vinyl have gone through the roof over the last year - informative video as ever - thanks!

[@michaelbeaule1966]

Excellent point made regarding the silence aspect that makes digital music attractive. I do miss the romance of an album, its art and the experience of a turntable. But the allure of absolute noise reduction and clarity is too irresistable to pass upon.

[@oddwareect]

I was born and raised in the u.s. in a Mexican household. I returned to vinyl a few years back. I've imported vinyl pressed in mexico during the the 70s thru the 80s and into the early 90s. The cutting engineers as well as the pressing plants did a good job back then. I think they reopened a plant and started producing again. Well, the engineers and employees are new so that quality is no longer there. Hopefully they improve.

[@mikaellarsson5787]

For me warped discs is an issue, about half of all records that I buy are dish warped. Most of the records I buy are pressad at RTI, QRP and Optimal. This was never an issue back in the 80s when I started buying vinyl records.

[@vagabond197979]

I'm feeling good about having bought a ton of records before and during the pandemic. I still have a bunch I've never even listened to.

[@Spock105]

Had two really bad ones : ELP's Trilogy warped , and Donovan Greatest hits with a track full of cracks . Did not return either. The one's I never had issues with are Light in the Attick , Verve , Music on Vinyl , Columbia records, Blue Note , Analog Africa , Capitol , Prestige , A&M and prob some others that I can't remember. Personally due to the high prices , I have gone down by 50% year by year and focus myself now only on very special sets or releases. f.i. the Blondie boxset , the Beatles boxsets, the new Coop releases , Lee Hazelwood boxset , Kate Bush her boxsets etc ...

[@andrewbrazier9664]

You should always return defective albums though.

[@andrewbrazier9664]

I do have seea very small vinyl collection. However since Brothers In Arms - Dire Straits, I've always purchased cds. I don't pay any streaming platforms. I do listen to samples on YT & Bandcamp especially if music has been reccommended on YT vlogs. I read alot of reviews where customers are disappointed or even angry with the lack of quality of their new vinyl album due largely to poor quality control, occasionally poor packaging. I suspect the bulk of new releases or re-issues are pressed based on pre-"order demand. Forthcoming releases tend to be anounced 3 - 4 months in advance. Buyers usually don't know where /which plant is going to press their order. This is not fair .given the high asking prices & will discourage repeat vinyl sales

[@patlampo9288]

I dont like when you get a new record and the inserts and booklets have creases on them where probably at the factory they hurredly shoved in

[@trevorpugh6475]

When vinyl was the ONLY way to buy music I remember taking great care of my records, holding them by the edges, carefully placing them on the turntable and then back in the inner sleeves immediately after playing…but… I also remember buying Breathless by Camel on release which was on Deram a good quality label and on first play… click, click, click…aghhh!!! All I can say is thank goodness cd’s made an appearance…no clicks, no jumps, no noise between tracks (ok the early discs were hissy and trebly but they soon improved) and clear dynamic sound, oh yes and albeit small, booklets etc. I recall my old record collection fondly but I’ll happily stick with cd’s thank you. 👉🙂

[@danielgeiger7739]

at 57 not your main Q&A audience. Re noise, that has everything to do with cleaning record, not about quality of pressing. I do have a wet cleaning vacuum system, thinking about going ultrasonic. QC problem particularly with mail-order (Bandcamp) purchases is with split seam of outer sleeve. Inner sleeve, who cares, as I replace them with quality inners anyway. But broken through outer sleeves is an issue that I do not remember from the 80s/90s. Now it is at least half the records I get. And it is the artwork which is a big reason why I buy vinyl. I think I only had two objectionably warped records in the last 8 years. No problem getting them replaced.

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

Split outer sleeves are as you say an issue when buying mail order

[@muldoon67]

It just sounds like any industry really. Smaller more expensive plants are less favored than cheaper larger plants. Newer larger plants can offer more such as pressing and printing.

[@deejaysensi]

I remember buying an album back in 1990 or something and bringing it back because it was skipping but I’d say it was my cheap hifi needle even though other records played fine, it played fine for them in the shop so I swooped it for a cassette instead….. only buy second hand records nowadays and with good needles they’re all fine…..records are hardier than they look…kid of mine was buying a lot of new stuff on vinyl a year or two ago but just streams now full stop…..all the small plants were busy those few years doing the large big name runs but a lot of that stock is still sitting in shops, even if it’s just five copies in every shop in Europe that’s a lot of records.

[@bacarandii]

The music business has been suicidal for decades, always misreading the causes of fluctuations in demand and either prematurely or belatedly overreacting -- all while trying to make a quick buck. The relentless quest for short-term profit always backfires in the long run. A valuable book about how the music biz nearly did itself in, and continues to do so: "Appetite For Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age" (2009), by Steve Knopper.

[@theglavine]

I've been selling mostly used cds online since 2000. The 15% figure is comparing new retail sales to streaming numbers & minute downloads. CDs sales started falling in the year 2004 in the US but that was the best year ever as far as used online cd sales; it was quite extraordinary and stopped booming at the end of 2005. Online used vinyl sellers have always complained about sales right up until today so I don't think that ever made up a huge segment of purchases. I would like to see what the aggregate unit sales are for cds and vinyl, new and used, and how that compares to streaming and to each other. I suspect aggregate cd sales may have already eclipsed vinyl again in the US! But I have never seen a reliable source to make the comparison and there may not be one? There really is not reliable tracking of flea market sales, thrift shops, online etc. Physical media makes up a much higher percentage of music purchases than 15%; we just don't know how much!

[@robfulton1307]

There would be even more Vinyl sales if they would charge a fair price for them. I only stream to hear if I like something, if I do like it then I buy the physical product.

[@Prognosis__]

I had to send a brand new vinyl album back to the record shop because it wasn’t pressed right..they were happy to return my money

[@stevesmith3990]

It seems as with other industries the post lockdown boom and shortage of supply has now been met so now there's not enough demand going forward.

[@andrewbrazier9664]

Two years ago HMV's selected vinyl offer was 3 for £55 - now it's 3 for £66 a 20% increase.

[@terrydaktyllus1320]

I don't even bother with HMV these days, unless it's for the occasional online purchase where I have hunted for a particular album or box set, the cheapest price is "the South American river company" at which point HMV is usually the same price and I'm trying to avoid making Jeff Bezos even richer. For their shop prices, they stick a wet finger in the air and just check which way the wind is blowing to price things - to be honest, it seems more of a shop for those deformed plastic "Funko Pop" dollies and anime rubbish these days than for buying music.

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

Agree 👍

[@kenfrederick6223]

Vinyl is great, but it's CDs for me!

[@chuckmaddison2924]

I'm wondering how many Bing Crosby Christmas sets got sold again this year.

[@mikekeeler6362]

I never really had a problem with that stuff and I bought a lot of vinyl back in the 70s

[@dead_formats]

Vinyl plants closing down??? Two just opened up in Australia. I can well understand why they're closing in the UK. THE UK is a basket case at the moment. Everything is closing there..!

[@markmiwurdz2248]

@dead_formats. Yeah - you should see our once busy shops on the U.K. High Streets. The window cleaner has an orbital sander……

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

That’s great news. I agree, we are in a bit of a mess in the UK. I’m concentrating on the music!

[@freeman10000]

As an Aussie I am thrilled that I am able to buy CD's/ vinyl records made in this country

[@martinfarnworth6659]

The only time I sent a record back is when it had paper inside the record itself. Otherwise a couple of noisy pressings were maybe I should have done but that was a general problem with that pressing. Obviously I'm not too fussy but these instances I've found to be a small minority. Maybe I've been lucky(?)

[@freeman10000]

Vinyl has become stupid expensive, thank goodness for Compact Discs.

[@BartSimpson-p3c]

Just want to thank you for getting me into the new big big train album amazing thanks once again

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@tonyeamon5118]

Most of the record stores where I live won't accept returns on new records. No matter how warped or how bad they sound. It's always a gamble.

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

That’s not good !

[@JamesThompson-vs4kg]

I buy most of my vinyl from a used record shop

[@franciskocher200]

Interesting video😃👍

[@ivc5150]

New Vinyl is too expensive, HMV have a couple of years tops then they will be gone, the only chain high street retailer still cannot get it right. Also enough of the remixed and remastered versions of albums. Also fifteen different colour vinyls nobody needs. Also look at the new Thin Lizzy album, nothing to do with Phil Lynott at all ! Absolute disgrace.

[@JayCee006]

There is a term for what you are describing here. It's free market economy. If my target market is a saturated niche I have to take into account that I might fail. A good and flexible business model might help. What keeps you in business though, is quality. Some pressing plants might want to think about installing something that is called quality control. If the industry/pressing plants continue to vex people by selling basically s**t for ridiculous prices they will kill that niche rather sooner than later. I am an avid vinyl collector but I have pretty much stopped buying standard editions of new releases on vinyl because of poor quality. I've had everything from warped and scratched records to unbelievable amounts of dirt and pressing residue to simply bad or even abysmal pressing quality. My worst case was Pink Floyd's Animals Remix 2018. I returned three copies, all had loads of pops and clicks like worn out bargain bin records. I felt sorry for the shop but if I shell out a lot of money (too much money, actually) for a new product then it has got to be pretty much perfect or, in this case, Mint or at least NM. So I bought the CD version instead. Now I steer clear of anything that's got stickers on it like "Made in CZ". If I buy new vinyl then I go for audiophile releases.

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

Excellent comment and very true. I didn’t buy the Animals remix on vinyl due to all the reviews saying the pressing was awful

[@johntymon5917]

I have had loads of issues with new vinyl, whether its iron maiden new album or re issues from many bands, the plants seem to have no QC. I bout a 1st issue mono Clapton Beano album from 1966 nearly 60 years old and it played perfect and was flat , no new album ive had are flat they are always warped or cutting through the sleeves . I will only but 1st issue albums from now on id rather have a 1970s first press than some remaster by some computer geek who wadnt born when the albums first came out lol

[@jeffxpmdisc]

Vinyl and cd sales are probably driven mostly by collectors. Physical media won't ever go beyond 15%. I'd be surprised if it's even that high. Most people are happy to just stream music, and who wants to collect streams.

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

It’s between 12.5% and 25% depending on the time of year.

[@pierreduchesne0001]

I question whether an industry that relies on 15% of a market can survive (that is the physical media market). Plus, young people represent a good part of the market. And young people also have to pay for their smartphone, their mobile data, and their Spotify subscription. Which means that the budget part for music ends up getting tight. I'm in my 50s, I knew LPs and cassettes in the 80s, and at that time we didn't care that much about clicks & pops and the inherent surface noise of LPs. Young people today are used to the sound of MP3s and streaming, and therefore to a certain purity of sound (I won't get into the quality sound debate). This explains the phenomenal amount of KZbinrs explaining that you have to clean with this or that to reduce surface noise and clicks & pops. If young people get tired of vinyl maintenance (which does not always work btw), with current prices, quality control issues, the decline of the vinyl industry is inevitable. Regarding your question at the end. I have a 17 year old daughter, an 18 year old niece and another niece in her twenties. My daughter gave her cousin a vinyl record as a Christmas present. The turntable of my niece is not great quality, to me it looks like a toy. The sound was not great, but you can imagine a group of girls in a room talking to the music: from that point of view, the background noise was secondary. My older niece is a fan of old things. When I met her recently during the Holidays, I had to show her how to adjust the stylus of her turntable which was poorly calibrated. Again, listening to LPs was a social activity with her friends. In that sense, far from an audiophile experience, but certainly a social experience: listening to records while discussing with friends in a livingroom. And they had fun and a good time.

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

I agree, it will be the maintenance factor that decides the future! You raise another good point about monthly outgoing costs that we never had. Mobile contracts, subscription services ( TV and music)

[@patthewoodboy]

lots of surface noise is a sign of a poor vinyl player. I have 50 year old Lps that have hardly any surface noise , but some sound bad as they were played on a crap record player

[@bltvd]

Records are an investment. CDs just take up space.

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

CD box sets can be a very good investment but I don’t buy anything for that reason. I buy probably more vinyl for single albums now but for career overview sets it is always CD - Phil

[@bltvd]

@ i don’t buy records because of their future worth but I like the fact that they have worth. A record is an analog master whereas a CD is a captured performance.

[@fabiouk6764]

As far as I'm concerned vinyl died in 1989 . Then analog tape was replaced by digital recording and mastering. What they sell is a surrogate of the vintage vinyl which I think is rather pointless and expensive. Why you want to buy a CD reversed on a vinyl, often recycled and with dodgy quality quality? It doesn't make any sense to me. It will always sound not as good as the CD or if it does the sound is flat with poor dynamics.

[@erwintimmerman6466]

Mostly I buy vinyl from thrift stores. New old releases? Almost feels like cheating or buying a replica. I'll get the old old release if I can find it. The more beat up the better (beat up means a record with a history, and it's cheaper). With new music I'll buy vinyl to support a band (usually indie). Or, if they didn't use brick wall mastering for the vinyl but they did on digital, I'll buy the vinyl for the sound quality... Funny how you now sometimes have to resort to vinyl for a better dynamic range 🤦‍♂️. Only in the latter case I care about the sound quality. In all other cases it's nice to look at but the flaws of the format are part of the experience. I mean, I listen to 8-tracks too 😆 Oh and never will I pay more than €25 for a record. Me wants it not that bad.

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

I am someone else who like to own a record with a story.

[@hareturtoise7939]

CDs nowadays sound like crap because of their awful brickwalling in sound... Everything sounds loud, mashed and muffled...Long gone are the days where CDs sounded great...Nowaday common DR values for the majority of CDs are around 7 to 8 (for some modern recordings it's even worse) making them practically unlistenable...Many High Res BluRay discs are not better with DRs around 8 to 9 max while the same title released on vinyl has usually a DR value of 10 to 11 which makes them at least a tolerable listening experience...And from my personal experience the vinyl QR is way better nowadays than it was 15 years ago in 2010 when there was this vinyl resurgence... The problem with vinyl nowadays is that most people are used to no noise while listening and they go crazy if the hear just one single pop on the whole record...Vinyl listening is not for everyone and you need to have extreme tolerance while listening to your records which most people nowadays don't...But if you get it right nothing compares to listening to a fine vinyl record...Even staring at the record spinning around while the needle travels through the grooves can give you visual pleasure...

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

My CDs sound fine, could be my ears or system but I’m very happy with them.

[@analoguecity3454]

I don't understand much about the rise of CDs when you have streaming services that are higher resolution, like record's! For me it's record's or either hi res streaming!😮

[@Terry-ed1pi]

What a negative vlog. Your obviously not a vinyl lover.

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

Really? Have you watched any of my videos? Did you see what was behind me? I love CD and vinyl, this is part of my music biz chat series where I look the music business. Phil

[@theheepster]

Let me ask you a question: Is it a personal concern of yours to put vinyl down as much as possible? Constant videos about rising CD numbers and falling vinyl sales. That may be the case in the UK because your stupid Brexit has made shit so expensive in your country. Please concentrate on your excellent taste in music and your great reviews, but these videos are so useless because vinyl is not going to disappear again and that's a good thing.

[@NowSpinningMagazine]

I presume you’re new to Now Spinning Magazine? We celebrate ALL physical media. I call my myself ‘Multi Format Man’ as a light hearted way of saying I buy and love vinyl and CDs equally. I think if you look statistically at my reviews there have been more in the last 12 months showing vinyl ( excluding CD box sets). The Music Biz Chat video series is popular and I enjoy doing them so I’m sorry you think they are useless. You might also notice I am sitting in front of quite a few vinyl albums so I am a bit of a fan! I support the CD and vinyl format equally and this vinyl is not anti vinyl at all. The recent one about prices was an observation based on what I am seeing here in the UK. If it’s different where you are please share. Thank you for watching and for your comment - Phil

[@bluebuddha74]

The record companies know that the recession is coming. I saw a bunch of blue note tone poets, 50% off, so I grabbed a few. It was never going to last.

[@Godzilla-t1z]

The price of vinyl albums is a rip off...even for older albums...we're been mugged of by retailer's and manufacturers

[@markmiwurdz2248]

@nowspinningmagazine. Don’t know if this has any bearing on the economics of pressing vinyl records. Apparently - according to NHK TV, there is only one company in the World manufacturing the special discs for the “master” cutting lathe. The company is in Japan and it looked like an all manual process which usually means expensive. So the factory may have a full order book, but the delivery period will probably be lengthy. When the “vinyl revival” began a few years ago, I read somewhere that there were record pressing plants in Nashville that had continued to press vinyl records. These companies were pressing recordings of religious readings/prayers/hymns etc. and had full order books (Nashville = “the buckle in the Bible Belt”) So a record company wishing to press some vinyl recordings would have to wait their turn. Plus, if a record company took a vinyl pressing plant out of mothballs, who would they get to operate the machinery? And all those pressings would need printed sleeves and full colour covers. That’s another specialised area of the printing industry. I can only deduce that this is why vinyl pressings are so expensive in 2025. Happy New Year to you and yours. Stay safe and well.