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Zoomers are buying VINYL RECORDS:
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Date: March 23rd, 2026 10:42 PM Author: ,.,..,.,..,.,.,.,..,.,.,,..,..,.,,..,.,,. it seems to be true in real-life. millennials had funko pops; zoomers are choosing records:
US vinyl sales topped $1 billion last year for the first time since 1983
Since the meteoric rise of music streaming, one might imagine the archetypal vinyl collector of today as an audio aficionado that would be more inclined to snub a Taylor Swift album than buy it.
But, statistically speaking, if you purchased a record in the US at all last year, it was most likely to have been “The Life of a Showgirl,” which shifted ~1.6 million units on vinyl alone in 2025, over 5x more than any other release.
Fresh spin
While it’s worth noting that Swift released eight different vinyl LP variants of “Showgirl” for her devoted fanbase to collect and pore over — as well as 11 different CD versions, five digital download versions, and one cassette — the broader vinyl revival has been gaining momentum for some time now.
In a sign of just how far things have come, US vinyl sales surpassed $1 billion in 2025 for the first time since 1983, per the Recording Industry Association of America’s year-end report, published Monday. Unit sales also rose 7.9% from 2024 to 46.8 million last year.
Last year saw a 9.3% year-over-year rise in baseline wax revenues, marking 19 consecutive years of vinyl sales increasing in the US, with an average annual growth rate of ~24%. Meanwhile, when adjusting RIAA data for inflation, the industry juggernaut that is music streaming — which has seen revenues boom over 50x in the last two decades — looks to have plateaued since 2021.
As the RIAA noted, however, paid streaming subscriptions still made up over 55% of the $11.5 billion in revenue across recorded music formats for 2025, as behemoths in the music-on-demand space like Spotify [SPOT $493.55] (3.81%) continue to hike their prices.
Hot off the press
The beauty of vinyl — beyond, as any collector will inevitably tell you, the sound quality — is that the capacity to collect it is near endless, storage permitting. And the music industry has clearly been listening to the nostalgia-fueled consumer shift, repressing and reissuing old hits as well as buzzy new albums to meet the demand from waxheads of all ages.
Maybe now it’s just a matter of time before Taylor Swift Inc. brings cassettes and ringtones back into the mainstream across the next album cycle.
https://sherwood.news/culture/us-vinyl-sales-topped-usd1-billion-last-year-for-the-first-time-since-1983/ |
Date: March 23rd, 2026 10:57 PM Author: bloomington (🦬) I'm something of an audiophile and I don't get it.
A decent turntable + a decent stack of vinyl is thousands. That's all money I'd rather throw at electronics + speakers. |
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Date: March 24th, 2026 2:10 PM Author: Metal Up Your Ass I think of this every time vinyl is discussed: https://share.google/images/8rp9UOq8ov0D9etSE (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5849057&forum_id=2)#49765469) |
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Date: March 24th, 2026 3:21 PM Author: bloomington (🦬) Yup.
Getting a turntable and a non-embarrassing quantity of vinyl would cost like $5k minimum |
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Date: March 24th, 2026 1:35 PM Author: bloomington (🦬) There are probably people who have spent a lot on records, believing them to be sonically superior to digital... but their turntable is some Crosley with built-in speakers (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5849057&forum_id=2)#49765321) |
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Date: March 24th, 2026 1:40 PM Author: ...,.,.....,,,.,,.. Vinyl has soul (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5849057&forum_id=2)#49765348) |
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Date: March 24th, 2026 2:08 PM Author: bloomington (🦬) I bet you buy IPAs and beard wax (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5849057&forum_id=2)#49765458) |
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Date: March 24th, 2026 2:11 PM Author: ...,.,.....,,,.,,.. Neither and I don't collect much vinyl these days either But you are deaf or a fool to be in a room playing an mp3 and then one playing from vinyl then failing to notice a difference |
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Date: March 24th, 2026 2:15 PM Author: bloomington (🦬) Basically everything I listen to these days is lossless (but you are a fool if you think you can reliably differentiate high bitrate mp3 from lossless) (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5849057&forum_id=2)#49765492) |
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Date: March 24th, 2026 2:17 PM Author: ...,.,.....,,,.,,.. I can agree with that (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5849057&forum_id=2)#49765499) |
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Date: March 24th, 2026 1:41 PM Author: zarathustra people just look for hobbies and like to own physical objects. i bet at least a quarter of these people never open their records. 95% of zoomers use cheap systems regardless of analog or digital. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5849057&forum_id=2)#49765350) |
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Date: March 24th, 2026 2:07 PM Author: bloomington (🦬) I have to imagine a lot of Crosley owners are just Taylor Swift fans who bought the vinyl just because it exists and needed a TT to play it back on (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5849057&forum_id=2)#49765450) |
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Date: March 24th, 2026 1:46 PM Author: UhOh i can believe that records on a great sound system are a superior auditory experience, but it's just nowhere near as convenient as spotify and a bluetooth speaker. there's a lot of luddite nostalgia going on here. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5849057&forum_id=2)#49765359) |
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Date: March 24th, 2026 2:02 PM Author: bloomington (🦬) I don't believe that records are a superior auditory experience.
Some vinyl releases may have superior dynamic range, etc. vs. a digital release. But that's essentially a choice to make the digital release shitty.
Take a 'superior' record, rip it to a high resolution digital lossless format. You're not going to be able to tell the difference (other than the fact that the record will definitely sound worse over time as it picks up dust & scratches). |
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Date: March 24th, 2026 3:16 PM Author: UhOh you're right, but tbf hardly anyone is listening to lossless digital recordings. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5849057&forum_id=2)#49765700) |
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Date: March 24th, 2026 3:28 PM Author: bloomington (🦬) Hi-res lossless is a niche thing
CD-quality lossless is now mainstream, Spotify Premium has been lossless for a few months now |
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Date: March 24th, 2026 3:29 PM Author: .,.....,.,.;,.,,,:,.,.,::,...,:,..;,.., physical media has it's place from an aesthetic, sense of ownership, simplicity, and whatever else perspective. plus the whole concept of listening to an album in full as it was intended to. CDs/DVDs just happened to be the worst combination of not durable and bulky to store/carry around almost as if (((they))) knew they'd eventually get replaced by digital forms in the near future when it was forcememed. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5849057&forum_id=2)#49765748) |
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Date: March 24th, 2026 3:38 PM Author: bloomington (🦬) CDs are like the most durable media out there (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5849057&forum_id=2)#49765779) |
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Date: March 24th, 2026 1:46 PM Author: zarathustra this whole industry got so raped that more than half of all records globally are now printed by a formerly state owned communist era czech vinyl printer because everyone else garbaged their equipment, and now everyone says their vinyls are trash quality because they come from there (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5849057&forum_id=2)#49765361) |
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Date: March 24th, 2026 3:23 PM Author: michael doodikoff my 13yo niece has spotify but also buys a bunch of records. Its all Radiohead, Tame Impala kind of stuff on vinyl, I'm really proud. She even is starting to listen to old Slowdive shoegaze stuff on spotify (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5849057&forum_id=2)#49765733) |
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Date: March 24th, 2026 3:24 PM Author: ,;;, vinyl is gay. cds are not gay (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5849057&forum_id=2)#49765734) |
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Date: March 24th, 2026 3:32 PM Author: bloomington (🦬) I would build out my CD collection before I'd start with vinyl.
The last CD I remember buying is Deerhunter's Halcyon Digest in 2010 |
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Date: March 24th, 2026 3:30 PM Author: KPop Semen Hunter I'm dating a zoomer girl she has a backlog of 200+ albums to listen to (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5849057&forum_id=2)#49765749) |