Did vinyl sales just hit the proverbial brick wall?

We oldtimers who love records can still purchase them on Ebay and from used record stores. By the time the interest and availability of vinyl records peters out, so will most of us anyway, so why worry about it. Instead enjoy what records we already have at home or can still purchase used.

I don’t, or won’t, stream music and probably never will. But I do stream Paramount Plus on television to catch or rewatch all the many Star Trek programs. I’ve seen most all of them, and have yet to see a single vinyl record on any episode. So the handwriting is on the wall.

My current plan is to outlive my peers and scarf up their record collections as they become available. It’s only out of politeness I’ve not contacted those of you who say you’re getting rid of your vinyl, while switching to streaming.. And the vast majority of kids I’ve spoken to haven’t a clue about good audio equipment, much less vinyl records, so what’s the difference if records disappear after we’re gone?

Mike

Vinyl did die once already, and then it came back. Whatever brought it back could do so again. Now let’s all keep our mouths shut (less they catch on) so prices can come down again as everybody unloads their collections. 2000ish was a great time to be buying music. 

@mojistyn - the revival of yinyl sales was not driven by an older demographic.  While a proportion of older listeners have undoubtedly come back to vinyl, having previously switched over to CD, a cursory glance at the racks of any store selling new records will reflect the fact that there is a huge proportion of music which is not targeted at an older demographic.

Contrary to what you say about phones and computers, it's precisely because so much of the modern world is virtual that younger people are attracted to a physical format, especially one that is both visually and aurally rich.

Cassettes …..wow. I don’t know about everyone else but I’m not going back there. 

@yoyoyaya , That would be wonderful but that is not what I have seen and as a family doc I spoke with a lot of young people. Record sales were bound to pick up as boomers got wealthy. The children of boomers had some exposure so there is some interest there.

@grislybutter , The population of a used record store is not representative of the population as a whole. You may see younger record buyers at a used store because us rich old guys do not go there, or any other number of reasons. The point is as far as the overall popularity of records is concerned your observation gives us absolutely zero insite. What will are the demographic popularity of records over a period of 10 years. If interest does not pick up in the Zoomers then vinyl will die. The other problem with vinyl is that it is not the greenest of industries.