Why is Vinyl so much more expensive than CD?

DavidR · August 2023

I recently was listening to Midnights by Taylor Swift on YTM. It's brilliant and it gets brillianter (?) every time you listen to it.

So it passes the vinyl test of being good enough to want to own on that format. Great.

'Cept - Oh, Look - £12.98 on CD but £30.99 on Vinyl. And that's too expensive and stops me from buying it. Might buy it on CD but tbh, not listening to CD's much any more and was hoping, when number 1 son reclaims his HiFi system back for new house, to reduce my system to just a Record deck, (new) amp and some spare speakers I have been keeping in the garage.

So prob I will just c/t streaming + adverts :-) on YTM. (Yes, I'm too mean to pay for YTM Premium.)

Anyone know the reason for this differential pricing? Back in the 60's, 70's and 80's when I was buying much more new vinyl than now, it was mostly manufactured in the UK. Now nearly all vinyl is made in the EU, specifically Germany. Also Czech firm GZMedia is huge. Just for fun I logged onto Amazon.de and the German price is 32.99 Euros. At todays exchange rate that equates to £28.31. So, assuming Taylor's vinyl is being manufactured in Germany, that's a 9.5% mark up. Fair enough probably. The same would be true for BMW's or most French cars probably if you could actually fight your way through the murky nature of car dealerships pricing either side of La Manche.

Another possibility is that vinyl has become a bit cool and the market might just be stealing the yoof£. Like it does. Not me obviously - my ££££ are defo Care of The Elderly. :-)

So what's the answer? Anyone know?

No Brexit stuff please.

theatreanchor · August 2023

Marketing. Hype. Price of oil. Digi sales have dropped off so labels see an opp to exploit the market (middle and young) to release and rerelease records. Price of used vinyl is stable, and going up in fact. People will buy short run vinyl (and tapes).

Cost of producing vinyl is more to start with, yes, but not for massive major label releases. I don’t think Brexit factors (though it might), as when I’ve been abroad all the record prices have gone up significantly.

CDs can be mastered to sound like vinyl but they rarely are because of the market for opportunities. I buy vinyl that has been mastered from tape or that has been particularly well pressed / manufactured (RHCP Blood Sugar repress is a case in point).

Acts like the Beastie Boys are producing 4 LP versions of their albums for over £100 as they know their audience can now afford it. It’s that simple. The units shift. But people should be aware that all pressings are not alike and certain labels (DOL for example) will press from digital and claim it ‘sounds better’. And people inherently seem to think vinyl sounds better than CD. That is demonstrably not true most of the time. However, there are records that sound utterly incredible and to hear them digitally is abhorrent.

Use Discogs reviews and always check the sleeve credits. You will find out a lot about how best to spend your money.

darthed1981 · August 2023

It's good old fashioned profiteering from the labels, they keep putting the price up and people keep paying it.

There were upward pressures on price because of availability of raw materials and pressing capacity but they have gone away now.

Smaller acts and labels still release new albums at around the £20 mark, its really the majors as always milking the markets.

Nadir for me is the new Liam at Knebworth vinyl... double yellow vinyl... FIFTY FUCKING QUID! Waiting for the sales there!

Kilgore · August 2023

Vinyl records are handcrafted by skilled artisans in small workshops.

Tannin · August 2023

Record companies understand that anyone who really and truly believes a song sounds better on vinyl is probably dim enough to pay overs for it.

(There. I managed that without mentioning Brexit even once.)

axisus · August 2023

It's all pretty obvious really. Cost more to make and to transport, currently fashionable so suitably marked-up, sold to a market with more disposable income.

roberty · August 2023

Basically records are a massive pain in the arse. I collect them because I want to make as much trouble as possible for other people when I die

stickyfiddle · August 2023

There is some genuine scarcity involved. There are only a handful of high quality vinyl manufacturers and a huge increase in artists wanting vinyl pressings in recent years - I’ve heard artists speak of having to wait months to release a record because they want it on vinyl from day 1 and can’t get a manufacturing slot any quicker.

And of course no one wants to build a new manufacturing capability because the bottom might fall out of the market and they’ll be left with a load of equipment for an obsolete format. Again…

Then of course there’s the “luxury item” consideration. Vinyl is 100% a discretionary spend, so by definition it’s something where selling price is entirely delinked from manufacturing cost. Once again it’s a situation where you’re better off selling 100 $5 widgets at $30 each than 500 at $10

mrkb · August 2023

Kilgore said:

Vinyl records are handcrafted by skilled artisans in small workshops.

I thought the artists scratched the grooves in themselves on a potters wheel! If they don’t I can’t see why they cost so much.

equalsql · August 2023

stickyfiddle said:

There is some genuine scarcity involved. There are only a handful of high quality vinyl manufacturers and a huge increase in artists wanting vinyl pressings in recent years - I’ve heard artists speak of having to wait months to release a record because they want it on vinyl from day 1 and can’t get a manufacturing slot any quicker.

And of course no one wants to build a new manufacturing capability because the bottom might fall out of the market and they’ll be left with a load of equipment for an obsolete format. Again…

Then of course there’s the “luxury item” consideration. Vinyl is 100% a discretionary spend, so by definition it’s something where selling price is entirely delinked from manufacturing cost. Once again it’s a situation where you’re better off selling 100 $5 widgets at $30 each than 500 at $10

Absolutely this. I saw a recent documentary about the resurgence of vinyl and the lack of remaining manufacturers was highlighted as key issue into why the prices are so high. I found a little record shop in Lichfield the other week selling pretty much all new vinyl releases and the prices were eye watering. It's not as though any lf them had fancy gatefold covers either, just simple single cardboard sleeves.

theatreanchor · August 2023

roberty said:

Basically records are a massive pain in the arse. I collect them because I want to make as much trouble as possible for other people when I die

I’ve slowed my collecting due to this.

axisus · August 2023

roberty said:

Basically records are a massive pain in the arse. I collect them because I want to make as much trouble as possible for other people when I die

I keep them to use as weapons in the instance of a zombie apocalypse.

distressed · August 2023

Because it's vintage correct. And people love vintage correct things, and tend to pay for them more.

Stratavarious · August 2023

Hipsters are marketers dreams

distressed · August 2023

Stratavarious said:

Hipsters are marketers dreams

Nothing to do with hipsters, there is a broad spectrum of genres where vinyl is preferred, starting with hardcore punk, for instance.

theatreanchor · August 2023

distressed said:

Stratavarious said:

Hipsters are marketers dreams

Nothing to do with hipsters, there is a broad spectrum of genres where vinyl is preferred, starting with hardcore punk, for instance.

Correct

UnclePsychosis · August 2023

roberty said:

Basically records are a massive pain in the arse. I collect them because I want to make as much trouble as possible for other people when I die

I'd find this funnier if I wasn't dealing with the aftermath of my dad's sixty year music obsession.

Anyone wanna buy 4000 seven inch singles and a few thousand LPs? Buyer collects.

PS the really fun part is that they're a three hour flight away from the UK :-*

distressed · August 2023

In a nutshell, people love stuff they used to love back in the day, be it vinyl, vintage correct guitars, classic rock or whatever. So there is demand for that stuff, and the prices go up.

roberty · August 2023

UnclePsychosis said:

roberty said:

Basically records are a massive pain in the arse. I collect them because I want to make as much trouble as possible for other people when I die

I'd find this funnier if I wasn't dealing with the aftermath of my dad's sixty year music obsession.

Anyone wanna buy 4000 seven inch singles and a few thousand LPs? Buyer collects.

PS the really fun part is that they're a three hour flight away from the UK :-*

Sorry to hear that mate. A good second hand dealer will take them as a job lot for sure

ICBM · August 2023

Because record companies have identified another excess-profit marketing stream, in the same way as they did when CD was the must-have and vinyl was out of fashion… CDs were more than double the price of vinyl, for no actual manufacturing reason.

The pool parties with free coke and hookers in LA don’t just pay for themselves you know.

Grumpyrocker · August 2023

I don't buy many vinyl records. Just tends to be favourite bands where I'll buy direct to help them stay in business. I don't begrudge the high costs of vinyl when most of it is going to the band.

distressed · August 2023

Grumpyrocker said:

I don't buy many vinyl records. Just tends to be favourite bands where I'll buy direct to help them stay in business. I don't begrudge the high costs of vinyl when most of it is going to the band.

This. The majority of the vinyl I buy is from the small bands I get to see on tour, or from friends' bands.

DavidR · August 2023

stickyfiddle said:

And of course no one wants to build a new manufacturing capability because the bottom might fall out of the market and they’ll be left with a load of equipment for an obsolete format. Again…

Is a very good point.

roberty · August 2023

distressed said:

Grumpyrocker said:

I don't buy many vinyl records. Just tends to be favourite bands where I'll buy direct to help them stay in business. I don't begrudge the high costs of vinyl when most of it is going to the band.

This. The majority of the vinyl I buy is from the small bands I get to see on tour, or from friends' bands.

Not forgetting the little labels too

distressed · August 2023

roberty said:

Not forgetting the little labels too

Of course, given that the majority of music I listen to comes from these.

axisus · August 2023

I still remember the last vinyl album I bought - Kings X Faith, Hope, Love, 1990. After that is was all CDs

viz · August 2023

Me too - got Duran Duran’s Pop Trash deluxe limited edition on pre-order yesterday

theatreanchor · August 2023

axisus said:

I still remember the last vinyl album I bought - Kings X Faith, Hope, Love, 1990. After that is was all CDs

Oh I liked that record!

axisus · August 2023

theatreanchor said:

axisus said:

I still remember the last vinyl album I bought - Kings X Faith, Hope, Love, 1990. After that is was all CDs

Oh I liked that record!

Their first three albums were all brilliant! (that being number 3)

idiotwindow · August 2023

ICBM said:

Because record companies have identified another excess-profit marketing stream, in the same way as they did when CD was the must-have and vinyl was out of fashion… CDs were more than double the price of vinyl, for no actual manufacturing reason.

It's interesting to think that CDs are roughly the same price nowadays (in actual pound terms, unadjusted for inflation) as they were back in the late '80s. LPs by contrast are 5-6x what they cost back then (again in actual pound numbers). Which is probably not far off where they should be when 35 years of real world inflation is taken into account.

ICBM · August 2023

idiotwindow said:

It's interesting to think that CDs are roughly the same price nowadays (in actual pound terms, unadjusted for inflation) as they were back in the late '80s. LPs by contrast are 5-6x what they cost back then (again in actual pound numbers). Which is probably not far off where they should be when 35 years of real world inflation is taken into account.

No, according to the Bank of England inflation calculator, £5.99 - the typical price of a single vinyl album in 1985, when I was buying them most - is only equivalent to £17.58 today. They're almost twice that now.

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Why is Vinyl so much more expensive than CD?

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