Is Vinyl More Expensive Than Cd

Writing for the wall street journal neil shah reported in his article why vinyl s boom is over that.

Is vinyl more expensive than cd.

They reason vinly is more expensive than cd is for a number of reasons. By jacob kastrenakes jake k mar 22 2018 2 00pm edt. Cds are still getting cheaper while vinyl is getting more expensive. The latter is usually preferred for an album as it means you can fit more tracks onto a single disc but it is becoming slightly more popular to.

Firstly due to rampant piracy for the last 20 years from cd burners and downloading the cost of cds has not risen in line with inflation. But it s even bigger than that because a lot of new vinyl sales aren t reported. But the majority of today s new and re issued vinyl albums around 80 or more several experts estimate start from digital files even lower quality cds. The more information running past the needle per second the more detailed the sound being reproduced.

A few years back new vinyl cost 25 to 30. Cds and vinyl are more popular than digital downloads once again. But the big story is limited streaming services. The resulting vinyl album is pricier for fans who can t even listen.

Production capacity is up and more stock is being produced in ever greater numbers so theoretically the cost of vinyl should be going down or at least holding steady not going up. Per unit an lp is now more than twice as expensive as a cd. So in the early 90s when the non chart price of a cd was 13 99 in hmv in 1991 that would be the equivilent of around 29 now which. Manufacturing can take at least a month and is more expensive than cd production.

A lot of the cost is inflation and some of the cost is a popularity tax but even then vinyl is still selling in tiny numbers compared to other entertainment so there s only so much novelty add on they can put on and still make it appealing to a wide enough public to sell more units. Digital music as source for vinyl. This is only about revenue not units. Vinyl by comparison is more of an ordeal.

Vinyl is winning at revenue then because it s more expensive. Vinyl unit sales are basically flat. So a record spinning at 45rpm will sound better than the same one built to spin at 33 1 3rpm. In other words the overall vinyl market is more than double the riaa figures over 30 million units in 2017.