Listening to music on a physical medium like a CD, cassette or vinyl is no longer commonplace. Streaming services have taken over for several years, willy-nilly propelling the music industry into the Internet age.
According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Spotify, Apple Music and company represented 84% of music revenues in the United States in 2023, a figure comparable to that of 2022. A success driven by both paying subscribers and subscribers. advertising revenue, which generated a total of $14.4 billion (+7% in one year).
Vinyl, goodies par excellence
Far behind, physical media represented 11% of revenues generated in 2023. Here again, the figure is identical to 2022, but the distribution between the different formats has changed somewhat. For the second year in a row, vinyl did better than CD by bringing in 1.4 billion dollars, compared to 537 million for its counterpart. The latter, at the same time, suffered a significant decline, since the Americans bought 700,000 fewer.
Despite its technically superior sound quality, the CD no longer manages to appeal. Whether in their living room, in their car or on their computer, the user has less and less access to a reader and, let’s face it, their plastic cases definitely don’t age very well.
Vinyl, on the other hand, represents an object with which music lovers connect more easily. Its cardboard sleeve allows you to display the cover of an album or single in a larger format, making it de facto a first-rate decorative object. On the other hand, its particular sound quality offers a unique listening experience, especially since we are less inclined to plug a vinyl turntable into any speaker.
These arguments are not new, since they were already put forward during the great comeback of the LP more than ten years ago. From now on, many albums are published in this format, and we almost systematically find them on sale after concerts. As proof, in the midst of a successful world tour, Taylor Swift dominates the top 10 vinyl album sales in the United States in 2023, almost suggesting that she owes her current success to this format.