Having grown up with the various transitions in music formats it seems ‘ What Goes Round, Comes Round ‘ as vinyl record sales now outnumber the sale of CDs in 2022, at least in the USA.

I remember well the old 78’s which had a total playing time on one side of circa 3 minutes and which led to the US Radio Format of wanting the newer 7 inch 45 rpms units to be 3 minutes or less playing time for radio broadcasts. Of course the old 78’s were replaced by the LP at 33 rpms and allowed artists to record circa 20 minutes per side and include the wonderful cover art and liner notes on the reverse side together with a track listing per side and the list of musicians performing on the project. The inner sleeve could also be used to offer further information, photos or song lyrics, but mainly for further protection of the precious vinyl content.

Along come 8 Tracks, Cassettes, Reel To Reels and the digital world of CDs, Digital Compact Discs and  subsequently MP3’s, but as a real jazz fan who grew up listening to LP’s of the Legends Of Jazz, I still prefer listening to jazz on vinyl and have bought as many of the older classic jazz albums on 180 gram vinyl as they tend to warp less than their 100 gram counterparts. These are my ‘Go To’ sanctuary items when I actually ‘listen’ to music and at the same time enjoy the liner notes.

I understand the concept by today’s jazz musicians to release single MP3s as the old format of producing an LP with circa 8 songs, only 2 of which were potential singles, and had 5 or 6 album fillers, was expensive and to me a dissappointment in many cases as I had hoped that all of the album tracks were as good as the leading two single releases which surfaced first of all.

So today’s age of digital downloads has certainly peaked and in fact the digital downloads have declined in sales and revenue by 20% to just 3% of total sales or $495m in 2022. In the same year vinyl sales in the US earned 41 million sales or $1.2bn ( or $29.27 per unit ) with CDs selling 33m $483m ( or $14.63 per unit ). It was the 16th consecutive year of growth for record sales, about 71% of physical format revenues.

Revenue from streaming, which includes ‘paid subscriptions, ad-supported services, digital and customized radio, social media platforms, digital fitness apps and others,’ grew 7% to a record high $13.3bn. It accounted for 84% of total revenues.

Recorded Music Revenue in the USA grew for the 7th consecutive year and reached a record high total of $15.9bn.

However to produce a vinyl LP on 180 gram with cover art, liner notes et al and arrange physical distribution is beyond most of today’s jazz musicians as the total marketshare of all jazz sales is circa 3% to 4%, but maybe, just maybe companies like my old client SONY JAZZ will be encouraged to re-issue the Legends Of Jazz on this up and coming revived format and we can enjoy once again the marvellous high quality sound and dynamics that only vinyl can offer.

Best wishes from Wes George
(former Webmaster and Online Marketer
to Sony Jazz)

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