A surprising new report found that vinyl sales generate more money than free services by YouTube, Spotify and Vevo combined and it is by a landslide.
Of course these sites generate more money than ever before with bringing in $163 million dollars in just the first 6 months of 2015. In the first half of 2014, these sites generated only $128 million dollars. That is quite a jump.
But vinyl record sales have earned $222 million dollars in the first half of this year. It is an incredible difference and vinyl sales make up one third of total music sales. It looks like even though vinyl records never really went out of style; they are becoming more popular again. Compared to last year, the sales are up 52 percent.
Not only are vinyl sales up, CD sales are down. There is no other music format that is surging as much as vinyl records. Even digital music outside of streaming doesn’t compare. So why is this?
Well, when actually purchasing physical music, buyers like large images and collections. Plus, a lot of records come with a free digital download and exclusive content. With vinyl records soaring, more artists are releasing colored records and special singles on vinyl records.
It is still no surprise that paid streaming services brings in the most money. There are a lot of paid subscribers out there and not as many users who use the ad-based services. In the first half of this year, paid streaming services generated over a billion dollars already. All sales of physical recordings have only brought in $748 million dollars.
Even though paid steaming services are dominating music, it is still surprising that vinyl records generate more money than ad-based services. That can only mean one thing. Vinyl records are here to stay.
