We all know about the resurgence of vinyl in the US, but it's interesting that the demographics don't skew to the older "classic" album buyer who grew up with them. In fact, it's the younger music consumer that's pushing the format's comeback.
This is now outlined by the fact that the bastion of hipsterdom,
Urban Outfitters, recently announced that it is the now the world's biggest seller of vinyl records. The company is also a main retailer for turntables as well.
Although Urban Outfitters is the largest brick and mortar retailer with 8.1% of the market,
Amazon is actually the largest vinyl dealer in the US at 12.3%.
Urban Outfitters actually uses a very innovative way for stocking vinyl product. The company rents out it shelves to more than 100 vendors. The company then provides its 288 stores with an online list of inventory that they can then stock on consignment.
All that said, only 6.1 million vinyl albums were sold in total in the US in 2013, which is a drop in the bucket when it comes to the industry's bottom line. That number should be surpassed this year, as the year to date total is already at 5.9 million according to
Billboard.
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