Chart watch and New Release News : Episode 22
The Weekly Show for Music Fans who love to buy physical music.
In this week’s bumper episode
Please watch the video above for the full analysis.
1- UK Album Charts
Number 1 The Reytons : What’s Rock n Roll? Total Sales = 12,252 No Record Label and no backing apart from their fans A triumph of marketing, with headline sales of 4,131 CDs, 5,430 vinyl albums, 894 cassettes, 1,039 digital downloads and 758 sales-equivalent streams being the sum total of a plethora of variants, probably the most ever for a No.1 album.
Encompassing signed editions, exclusive artwork, colour variations, gatefold sleeves and a deluxe ‘podcast’ edition of the album with commentaries on every track, there are 32 versions of the set – 16 CD, nine vinyl, five cassette and two digital.
2 – Thin Lizzy : Live and Dangerous – why did the super deluxe edition box set stall at number No.86 (1,583 sales) ? It sold out on day one – how many were pressed?
3. Streaming – 100,000 tracks are now uploaded each day – how are new artists going to stand out? Why Physical Music helps
4. The end of ‘Catalogue albums as everything becomes part of the chart mix. New artists are competing against everything ever released.
5. CDs are actually more popular than vinyl records – the facts and stats
BPI 2022 UK Vinyl Sales = 5.5 Million UK CD Sales = 11.6 Million
Germany 2021 Vinyl Sales = 4.5 Million CD Sales = 25.1 Million
USA 2021 Vinyl Sales = 39.7 Million CD Sales = 46.6 Million
6. Have we reached peak vinyl?
“This may sound controversial, but we may have reached ‘peak vinyl’, which means new trends will play out in 2023. We’re hearing from some experts that records won’t be released in so many format variants this year – so fewer colours of vinyl, and maybe no Super-deluxe option.
Who knows, we may even return to liking the sound of the CD!”
Karen Emanuel, Founder and CEO, Key Production Group
7. What do the vinyl and CD manufacturers think?
“Everyone has to be careful about not pricing vinyl too high, or creating too many formats that smack of exploitation, but I think we will see continued growth in vinyl for some years now.” Steve Bunyan
8. A word of warning to the Music Industry
In the late 1980s and early 90s vinyl quality sank as the whole focus was on the CD. Don’t do the same now with the CD. Physical media fans are a niche part of the market and many of us buy both formats. Trying to force us to buy one format over the other will be a mistake.
9. New Releases due – Kings X – Ian Hunter – The Stranglers – Slade
Phil Aston | Now Spinning Magazine
