Adele had a huge album launch last year, and sold very well on vinyl and CD. That one album may account for the entire growth. Maybe her fanbase are of the right age/demo to enjoy or to be nostalgic for physical media, maybe a lot of copies bought as gifts...
Between that big launch and vinyl pressing plant supply issues (Covid supply chain issues and huge orders for two album releases) people who want the physical object may have moved from vinyl to CD editions.
Anecdotally I pulled my CD collection out of retirement for use in my home office during Covid. There's something about 'putting on' a cd/record that streaming just does not do. A couple of weeks ago I caved and bought a vintage technics record player (late to the bandwagon), the price of vinyl is shocking compared to CD - $30+ for a 28g new release/reissue and quality used records are easily $20+. Feels like when I was a teenager and carefully deciding what I could afford that week/month and then playing it to destruction.
> Adele had a huge album launch last year, and sold very well on vinyl and CD. That one album may account for the entire growth.
That doesn't hold up under any scrutiny. Adele's album sold around ~950,000 physical copies in 2021 in the US. The average CD price is $15, and that particular album has been on sale since the release, so the absolute maximum that it could contribute to an "unusual" influx of CD sales is $15 million -- and that's very generously pretending 100% of sales were CDs and that she didn't sell any copies of any albums in 2020. That leaves a minimum of an $85 million (and more realistically >$93 million) increase that can't be attributed to a shift in audience demographics for the year's top seller.
> Between that big launch and vinyl pressing plant supply issues (Covid supply chain issues and huge orders for two album releases) people who want the physical object may have moved from vinyl to CD editions.
Vinyl sales doubled in 2021 and outpaced CDs, and growth actually increased throughout 2021, as roughly ~60% of the sales took place in the second half of the year.
I never gave up on CDs or physical books. Though I use Kindle and a few years ago I subscribed to Google Music and stopped buying new CDs.
Lately, it is very rare that people discuss music. So recently, I moved my CD (& books) collection to living room and it has been good way to start conversations about music. Friends scan through the collection, sometimes, they borrow them. Album art is another thing that is fun to look at together. It feels a lot more social than sharing music on Facebook.
My only issue is I don't have a CD player anymore except in the car.
(Same thing with books, any book I buy on Kindle, I assume it is a rental. If I really like the book, then I get a paper copy.)
Physical presence of media in one's space is underrated. The cost (in space, being a pain in the ass to move, et c.) is high but there are significant benefits.
I purchase the physical books as well ones I bought on kindle or audiobooks that I think will age well, want to read again or want my kids to peruse at some point. Scanning a library on a kindle just isn't the same.
I use a Onkyo DXC390 CD player/changer (going strong after 3 years or so). Still available to buy new (albeit at a ridiculously inflated price) but should be available for ~ $100 used. DAC sounds fine to me though speakers but I have a discrete DAC/amp for headphone listening, although honestly I can't tell the difference between that and the CD player headphone socket.
I used a Yamaha CDX-450 for years, although I dint think it had digital outputs. Was built solidly. Dove deep down the Sony megachanger rabbit hole but never pulled the trigger on getting one - have a huge following though and parts/advice are readily available.
There's a tiny glimpse of magic of seeing the apparatus that turns physical storage into music. Even a CD drive gives you some mechanical hints of things happening. Best part is when you have an open drive mechanism :)
For me the ritual of deliberately choosing what I want to listen to from a somewhat limited/curated selection of music is the magic. Although seeing a diamond rubbing over a piece of plastic and knowing that's how the sound is made is pretty cool too...
Anecdotally I pulled my CD collection out of retirement for use in my home office during Covid. There's something about 'putting on' a cd/record that streaming just does not do. A couple of weeks ago I caved and bought a vintage technics record player (late to the bandwagon), the price of vinyl is shocking compared to CD - $30+ for a 28g new release/reissue and quality used records are easily $20+. Feels like when I was a teenager and carefully deciding what I could afford that week/month and then playing it to destruction.