[Keith]

Jenn wrote:
In article ,
"Harry Lavo" wrote:
snip
Yes, the largest music retailer in the largest city in the country.
Anyone who has visited the store knows that shelf space is at a premium.
J&R wouldn't give an inch of space to any product that they didn't think
was going to sell. Their job is to make money. The same is true, of
course, for all of the companies that are making LPs, including the
"majors". If there was no money in it, there would be no LPs, no CDs,
no bottles of Coke.

The present thread is, IMV, a very tired argument. Some people would
like to buy some LPs. In the view of some here, that makes them "vinyl
bigots". Oh well. The space that the largest music retail chain (brick
and mortar) on the west coast devotes to new and used LPs is further
testimony that there is a market for the product, and that market has
grown.

Well hopefully you don't equate the label "vinylphile" with "vinyl
bigot", at least in my usage. Thermophiles are attracted to heat,
vinylphiles are attracted to vinyl sound, no more, no less. That's all
that -philic means.

My point was that vinyl is a niche market and has been for some time,
and due to the myriad factors discussed previously, will continue to be
a niche market. And it appears that CD is headed that way as well.
Like markets for any vintage product, vinyl sales will likely continue
around some low baseline level for the forseeable future. But minor
oscillations around an essentially zero baseline shouldn't be seen as
indicative of any resurgence unless the 2009 data is clearly shown as an
inflection point. Something that will require several additional data
points. For example, compare the vinyl sales trend from 1993 to 1996 below:

1993 1.2M

1994 1.9M

1995 2.2M

1996 2.9M

Looks familiar no? From 1993 to 2009, vinyl sales have oscillated
between 0.9M and 3.4M, the same range they inhabit now. That's not a
new "story", just indicative of the nature of niche markets.

While I don't, personally, mourn the passing of vinyl from the
mainstream (although I too listen to LP's of music not available on CD,
I don't buy any new albums), I certainly will mourn CD's passage, and it
appears that demise is also inevitable. But so be it, I'll continue on
in the niche world undaunted :-)

Keith