The resurgence of records
By Jess Crighton
Michael Jackson’s Thriller is the highest selling record of all time with 70 million physical copies sold worldwide.
In recent years popularity in vinyl has seemed to have skyrocketed, with sales in 2023 being the highest since 1990, according to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
It seems like we are going back in time, as artists new and old are being listened to on vinyl. BPI also states that there was an 11.7% rise in vinyl sales, thus being 5.9 million units sold in 2023.
Some of the highest selling records of last year included Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours; Oasis’s The Masterplan and of course Taylor Swift’s Speak Now (Taylor’s Version). Many re-releases have seemingly started to fly off the shelves in local stores such as HMV Argyle, Assai Records Glasgow and more.
Matthew, who works at Assai Glasgow, said: “I feel like in the past two and three years it gotten more and more growth, especially from younger people, I feel like there is a big push as obviously vinyl pressing sounds a lot smoother sounds better and technically, a better sound that what CDs are.
“I feel as if the big push has become an industry thing as well. One of our biggest has been Taylor swift as she is obviously doing a lot of reissues do that’s kind of pushing people, Hip hop as well is having a big, massive resurgence as there is a lot of repressing’s. There is a lot of older stuff like Jeff Buckley, Blur, The Beatles will always be a big seller and there seems to be a surge for Massive Attack Recently as well.”
Assai is one of the most popular record stores in Glasgow as it normally holds record signings for new, upcoming artists or even well-known ones. Most of their stock is mainly vinyl, old and new and has proved popular with Music fans in Glasgow.
Love Music on Dundas Street has held its place in the heart of Glasgow for nearly 30 years and has proven iconic within the Glasgow music scene
Alex, a staff member at the independent store, said: “I think its skewed slightly. There are a lot of artists releasing things on multiple formats, like picture discs, multiple colour vinyls, so they might have sold tens of thousands of albums but only to say 6000 to 7000 people.
“Younger music lovers are buying a lot of nostalgia album such as Fleetwood Mac, The Clash, even Oasis would now be considered a nostalgia band. Pink Floyd records are regularly flying off the shelves. It’s peopled aged 16-22 that are buying that, influenced by their parents’ music.
It’s definitely still an older market that’s buying all the reissues, remasters and different things like box sets. The exception to that is Taylor Swift. She is absolutely huge across all markets, all ages genders, specifically young females.”
It’s fair to say that vinyl is still alive and kicking and has found a new generation of collectors and lovers to add to old, faithful fans.