The Top Amazon Holiday Audio Product - The Turntable

One of the more interesting aspects of the vinyl revival is the fact that so many buyers don't actually play them, instead considering the purchase more as a collectible.

That seems to be changing in that manufactures have reintroduced turntable models that had previously been discontinued, and it's pretty easy to find one to buy from a variety of retailers.

Even more evidence that vinyl is now being listened to is the announcement from Amazon that it's top selling electronic item over the holidays was a turntable.

The Jensen JTA-230 3-Speed Stereo Turntable was the model of choice, probably because it's an all in one unit with built-in speakers, a USB port for converting vinyl records, and aux input for a connect a digital media player. Of course, the price was right as well at $50.

While this is far from a high-end unit, the hot sales mean that at least some vinyl fans are finally listening to their round pieces of plastic.

What's the second best selling electronic item?  The Yamaha RX-V677 7.2-channel Wi-Fi Network AV Receiver, which features built-in support for Apple's wireless AirPlay protocol, allowing users to transmit music from an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or Windows PC.

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5 Bold Music Business Predictions For 2016

The new year is upon us, which means it’s time to look into the crystal ball to foresee what might happen in the music business in 2016. Here are 5 predictions that may not be very popular, but might end coming to pass.

Prediction #1: Pandora goes global
One of the most significant and generally overlooked moves of 2015 was Pandora’s bid on some of Rdio’s streaming assets out of bankruptcy. While this move is still contingent on the court, acquiring this infrastructure will allow Pandora to become an interactive service like Spotify, and allow it to begin servicing other markets besides the United States as a result. With a solid 80 million user base in the US alone (which is what Spotify has globally), setting up shop worldwide will allow Pandora to become a true rival to Spotify.

Prediction #2: Vinyl shows its last big growth spurt
Vinyl sales have seen double digit growth for about 5 years and that will continue in 2016 as well, thanks to increased pressing plant capacity brought about by newly manufactured presses (the first in over 30 years) and widespread availability of turntables so buyers can actually listen to their purchases. Although sales will continue to increase beyond 2016, they’ll be much more modest as the number of new buyers diminishes due to saturation of the market. 2016 will be the last year of the true vinyl “revival.”

Prediction #3: Amazon Prime Music makes a move
Amazon Prime Music has been a minor add-on to a Prime subscription until now, but that doesn’t mean that Amazon isn’t taking music streaming seriously. The company has  all the infrastructure it needs to launch a mainstream music-only service, and 2016 will be the year it does so. Amazon has also been dipping its toe in the water of becoming a full-fledged record label with its occasional offerings from Amazon Acoustics, which could potentially signal what might be a major part of the service and could be a differentiator in a crowded market. Read more on Forbes.

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Vinyl.org - The Netflix Of Vinyl

Here's an interesting idea that's sort of a cross between a record club and Netflix, but it deals exclusively in vinyl. In fact, it calls itself the "Netflix of vinyl." It's called vnyl.org, and for $15 a month they'll send you a stack of vinyl records tailored to your tastes.

First you choose the category that you're interested in, and the service curates album choices for you and sends you a stack. If you choose to keep any of the records, it will cost you $8 to 12 each. If you don't want them, pre-paid envelopes are provided to send them back.

The site is in invite-only beta mode right now, and while it sounds like a great deal, expect for it to see a lot of scrutiny as an illegal rental model. If you take notice, any vinyl or CD rental services that have popped up in the past have been quickly beaten down for breaking copyright laws.

It's legal to try before you buy, but you can't rent with an option to buy, so just how vnyl.org plays this will have a lot to do with if it succeeds or not.

Still, any service that gets more vinyl into the hands of consumers can only be a good thing for artists, as long as it's legal. Check it out at vnyl.org (check the spelling - it's vinyl without the "i").

Jack White's Lazeretto Goes To #1 Because Of Vinyl

It used to be that you needed sales of 1 million+ and massive radio airplay to get to #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, but those days are long over. Today the sales requirement is a lot more modest, sometimes as low as 50,000, which includes all sales of CDs, vinyl and downloads. That's why it's so interesting that Jack White's new Lazaretto album went to #1 this week, but chiefly based on his vinyl sales.

Lazeretto had total sales of around 138,000 in the week ending June 15, but 40,000 of those where vinyl copies, which also garnered him a #1 on the vinyl chart as well. To put that into perspective, the CD sales were only 41,000 and the rest were attributed downloads.

But the 40,000 vinyl sales were significant in another way. They were the highest weekly sales since Soundscan began sales measurement in 1992.

One of the things that really helped the vinyl sales of Lazeretto is the extra features that White included to make the record unique, like:

• 2 hidden vinyl-only tracks beneath the label. One plays at 78 rpm and the other at 45 rpm.
• Side A plays from the outside in.
• Dual groove technology plays an electric or acoustic intro depending upon how the needle is dropped.
• The dead wax area on side A contains a hologram designed by Tristan Duke.
• Zero compression used.
• Different mixes from the CD version.

Jack White has always pressed the limits of technology and music, and this time it appears to have paid off.

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How People Listen To Their Music

CBS and Vanity Fair recently conducted a survey about music consumption in the United States that's extremely detailed and interesting. I'll be providing information from that report from time to time in upcoming posts, but let's start off with how most people listen to music.

As you can see from the chart below, the radio is still the way that most people get their music at 49%, followed by a digital music service way behind at 17%.

People still like to listen to songs in their library from a phone or digital player at 15%, 9% still use a CD player, 6% from their computer, and 1% from a record player.

That last figure is surprising in that it's as high as it is. Vinyl has made a comeback, but finding the equipment to play it on isn't all that easy these days. Also, the fact that so many still use CDs shows that the format has a great deal of life left in it as well.