Vinyl Sales Aren't Dead: The 'New' Billion Dollar Music Business
Photographer: Noriko Hayashi/Bloomberg Vinyl records are projected to sell 40 million units in 2017. This will bring the past seven years� collective sales to the $1 billion benchmark for the first time this millennium. This impressive milestone has been untouched since the peak of the industry in the 1980s. While explosive by today�s standards, according to Deloitte , in its heyday (�81), total vinyl album sales topped $1 billion in just that year alone. The record industry�s hunters and gatherers have been busy collecting. According to Deloitte, new vinyl records and revenue will enjoy a seventh consecutive year of double-digit growth in 2017. But the slice of the pie is still a very small one - with broader music industry revenues projected to be approximately $15 billion this year, vinyl will account for only 6%. I spoke with Toddrick Spalding, the Director of Music at the trailer production agency Mob Scene � a music expert by trade, and avid record collector in Los Ange...