Record players and LPs have become that turned out to be one of the must-have gifts of 2017 in the UK which reminds one of the times when friends and families would gather round them to listen music.
The trend this year has been that millennials and forty somethings have developed a catch the vinyl bug and reflected in the sale out of eight of the 20 models stocked by John Lewis while retailers including HMV and Richer Sounds reported significant rise in sales of turntable.
In recent years, there has been an increase of 70 per cent in turntables according to Phil Jubb, purchasing director at hi-fi and TV specialist Richer Sounds. “This has been across the board at all prices. It goes to show that a great record player is part of any good sound system.”
In the earlier times, male baby boomers were the ones who would be the main customers for records of heritage rock music like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Oasis and Radiohead. But in recent years, one in four record purchasers are women and there is an increasing number of under 35s accounting for one fourth of the total sales.
Manufacturers have been driven to create cheaper models of record players because and their prices now range from anywhere between £25 to over £20,000, due to the growing interest of teenage and students in vinyl. The models include brightly coloured ones costing less than £100 as well as the retro suitcase style players.
HMV hopes to clock a total sale of about 60,000 turntables this year, according to HMV’s Simon Winter, while it sold 50,000 in 2016. He added that the sale of both headphones and speaker docks would be beaten by turntable sale in its technology department this Christmas.
Slightly more expensive models like the ones manufactured by Japan’s Audio-Technics are in demand this year as the customers are prioritizing quality over price, said John Lewis. “Sales of turntables have been steadily rising over the past few years,” said Will Jones, head of communications technology buying at John Lewis. “But we’ve seen a 20% increase in sales of higher end turntables this year.”
The sale of CDs and downloads have been hit by larger consumption of music through streaming services in recent years which has helped in the significant rise in the sale of vinyl.
Estimation by BPI is the sale of records would be the highest in the U.K. ever since data was started to be collected by it in 1990s with anticipated sale of over 4 million records this year. contrast this with the sale of just 205,000 records in 2007 – when it was believed the vinyl was near its end, and the sale for 2017 would mark a 30 per cent rise in sale compared to 2016. Hence it can be said that this market segment of the music industry is witnessing a remarkable comeback.
“You can get into spending thousands of pounds because you can custom build them like a Rolls-Royce,” said Mike Burn, store manager of London based hi-fi specialist Infidelity. “We’ve been selling record players non-stop for the last 25 years. There’s a ritualistic thing about it. It’s a bit more special than picking up an iPad to open a different app.”
(Source:www.theguardian.com)
The trend this year has been that millennials and forty somethings have developed a catch the vinyl bug and reflected in the sale out of eight of the 20 models stocked by John Lewis while retailers including HMV and Richer Sounds reported significant rise in sales of turntable.
In recent years, there has been an increase of 70 per cent in turntables according to Phil Jubb, purchasing director at hi-fi and TV specialist Richer Sounds. “This has been across the board at all prices. It goes to show that a great record player is part of any good sound system.”
In the earlier times, male baby boomers were the ones who would be the main customers for records of heritage rock music like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Oasis and Radiohead. But in recent years, one in four record purchasers are women and there is an increasing number of under 35s accounting for one fourth of the total sales.
Manufacturers have been driven to create cheaper models of record players because and their prices now range from anywhere between £25 to over £20,000, due to the growing interest of teenage and students in vinyl. The models include brightly coloured ones costing less than £100 as well as the retro suitcase style players.
HMV hopes to clock a total sale of about 60,000 turntables this year, according to HMV’s Simon Winter, while it sold 50,000 in 2016. He added that the sale of both headphones and speaker docks would be beaten by turntable sale in its technology department this Christmas.
Slightly more expensive models like the ones manufactured by Japan’s Audio-Technics are in demand this year as the customers are prioritizing quality over price, said John Lewis. “Sales of turntables have been steadily rising over the past few years,” said Will Jones, head of communications technology buying at John Lewis. “But we’ve seen a 20% increase in sales of higher end turntables this year.”
The sale of CDs and downloads have been hit by larger consumption of music through streaming services in recent years which has helped in the significant rise in the sale of vinyl.
Estimation by BPI is the sale of records would be the highest in the U.K. ever since data was started to be collected by it in 1990s with anticipated sale of over 4 million records this year. contrast this with the sale of just 205,000 records in 2007 – when it was believed the vinyl was near its end, and the sale for 2017 would mark a 30 per cent rise in sale compared to 2016. Hence it can be said that this market segment of the music industry is witnessing a remarkable comeback.
“You can get into spending thousands of pounds because you can custom build them like a Rolls-Royce,” said Mike Burn, store manager of London based hi-fi specialist Infidelity. “We’ve been selling record players non-stop for the last 25 years. There’s a ritualistic thing about it. It’s a bit more special than picking up an iPad to open a different app.”
(Source:www.theguardian.com)
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