Did vinyl sales just hit the proverbial brick wall?

Love the ridiculous notion that this fad will fade as all the baby boomers fade away(die). I have several large record stores within a 20 minutes or less drive from my house in North Dallas, most 90% of the patrons are 30 to 45 years old and these stores are always busy. Talking to one of the principals of the business he said that their stores in Denver and KC are tcontinuing to grow at double digit rates and the demographic is similar. Also their e-commerce business is off the charts.

The notion that young people want to listen to music on their “telephones” (man you’re old “devices”) is valid to a point, portability is key and we are more active. Once these 20 something’s have some disposable income they may come learn more about higher end audio.

To understand the nature of recorded music consumption one needs to break it down into endpoints and the drivers associated with them. Consumption endpoints characteristics include fixed vs mobile and solo vs shared. Mobile further breaks down into portable, e.g. earbuds, ANC headphones, and automotive. Fixed subcategories include HiFi, distributed (e.g. smart speakers), and commercial (e.g. supermarkets and dentist offices). Records are limited to, borrowing a term from aviation, fixed base operations, whether personal (headphones) or shared (speakers). Mobile personal requires a device and earbuds or headphones; mobile shared requires a vehicle. Vinyl was and is a niche requiring a fixed base but offers a unique physically engaging experience many find more enjoyable. Streaming will succeed as it can be fixed, or portable, but requires an internet connection. The final mode, now struggling, is broadcast, which can be enjoyed across all endpoints, but lacks the granular personal choice of other media. It’s real strength in forming a cohort has largely been subsumed by social media - disk jockeys were the influencers of their day. Picking one age group or one consumption endpoint, or worse one metric, and generalizing out of context from there is faulty logic at best.

@mijostyn we agree to disagree. Yes, it's not green. Partly why I feel better buying used.

I would say vinyl does when hifi dies. We'll have lemon groves in Minnesota before that happens. 

@bdp24  Hey, thanks for reserving a copy of the LP for me but I'm a lazy guy and just cued it up on Qobuz. Yeah, I know. I'm piteous. A disgrace to my advancing age and audiophiliosis. The stream is maybe a bit more thuddy and midrangey than I remember it, but the music still cuts through.