A new research by the British company Futuresource Consulting is devoted to the vinyl market. In Vinyl Market Outlook Report, author Alexander Jornod says that vinyl is becoming an “eternal format”. Let’s figure it out.

What kind of eternal format is that?
By this phrase, you need to understand the following: the popularity of records does not depend on the development of technology, the format is becoming more stable and, as it were, more protected from fashionable and fleeting trends. In other words, “vinyl is for a long time.” The study pays great attention to the pandemic — it was she who added popularity to the format, which was already growing at a noticeable pace and without slowing down at all over the past 10 years.
“An increasing number of artists and labels are interested in releasing music on vinyl as they see a growing interest in the format. Consumers appreciate what vinyl gives them in terms of listening experience. In addition, it is interaction with the performer, lifestyle and connection with the whole community,” says Alexander Yornod, analyst at Futuresource Consulting
In 2020, vinyl sales increased by 23% to $1.7 billion. The author of the research believes that in this way, people also compensate for the lack of live performances for themselves. In addition, analytics notes the increasing importance of vinyl not only as a carrier of archival recordings, but also the most modern mainstream releases. It is predicted that new albums by Adele and Ed Sheeran on records can raise sales to a record $2.2 billion in 2021.

Fly in the ointment.
But don’t blindly rely on this study alone. There is a downside to such explosive popularity. Last month, the New York Times published an article saying that along with the revival of the industry, a crisis is coming. Factories simply cannot cope with demand, and the release of releases is delayed for months, and sometimes the waiting times exceed a year.
The case of the album 30 of the already mentioned singer Adele was indicative. The order of about half a million copies resulted in even greater delays throughout the industry. It is estimated that such a huge circulation, which began to be printed about six months ago in order to be in time for the planned release date and New Year’s holidays, went to the detriment of almost every second release on the planet and disrupted the plans of many musicians.

let’s resume.
In the near future, this industry will either have to find ways out of the current situation (for example, by attracting new investments, opening factories, introducing quotas for release, and so on), or artists and labels will start coming out, tired of delays and the inability to release vinyl releases on time, and some of the buyers and recently arrived fans will get enough and they will be disappointed in their hobby. And this is also the way to normalize the situation. After all, there must be a limit to any height. And in the last decade, vinyl has grown even too fast.