Analog records are on a roll

 

In the UK, this year seems to have been the best year for record sales in the last 30 years.

The reason seems to be that "people who can't go to the shows are spending the money they used to spend to go to the shows for the records. I see, so they're also buying records rather than CDs. That's interesting.

I predicted earlier in the article "Surpassed by records, and it's going to be a tough battle in the future, because the people who want to listen to music easily will download it, and the people who want to enjoy listening to music at home will use records as an experience, so the CD is going to lose to digital distribution in terms of "convenience" and records in terms of "desire to own".

The people who buy music instead of going to shows will fall into the category of people who want to enjoy listening to music at home as an experience, so I think it's reasonable for them to go for records instead of CDs.

Also, I heard that sales of cassettes have increased by 85%, so I think it's fair to say that sales of cassettes are up as well. Listening to a record is a ritual, like putting it on a turntable and turning over the A-side and B-side," as I wrote in "Record Pulled Out of the Record Market," and cassettes have their A-side and B-side, and they have their own rituals, like rewinding.

What's great about this trend for artists is that they can listen to the songs in the order and between songs as the creator intended, since records and cassettes are not easy to skip (it's a hassle to skip). This is really a big advantage for the creator. Regardless of the shape and size of the medium, the ability to make people listen to the music from the beginning to the end in the way you want them to listen to it is a real attraction.

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