People sure love their vinyl. The Recording Industry of America (RIAA) released its mid-year report yesterday (September 20th) and it revealed some interesting details about how physical platforms for music are declining. While vinyl has had a significant resurgence in the last decade, and reached its highest sales figures last year since the early Nineties, CDs are doing far worse.
The report says that comparing the first half of 2018 with the first half of 2017, vinyl revenue increased 12.6 percent while CD revenue dropped 41.5 percent. These days labels release fewer CDs and major retailers like Target and Best Buy have decided to limit quantities or even stop stocking discs altogether. At the same time, vinyl has musicians and experts betting on its sustained future due to its unique audio quality and nostalgic value. Another detail of the report: streaming had a 28% growth year-over-year.
