All Stocked Up and Nowhere To Play

I'm very skeptical of the Luminate study. I have a hard time believing that 50% of record buyers don't have a turntable.

With the exception of mahler123's nephew, who thought that he could play the record he bought, has anyone here ever known of someone who bought records without owning a turntable? I'll even accept 2nd hand stories. So let's do our own poll. Does anyone have any firsthand knowledge that would indicate that this is true?

I think this piece of news probably falls under the category of "don't believe everything you read on the internet."

My local record store owner says it's typical of his Millenial/Gen Z buyers.

My 21 year old daughter bought a couple records by one of her favorite artists a couple years back. She has an inexpensive player and I have several. She keeps them as collectors items but has never played them. She streams these all the time though on Spotify.

A framed album makes a very cost effective piece of wall art. I do that all the time. I’ve owned records for 50+ years and still play them so I can convert them to digital and stream. Assuming it’s some thing I must be able to listen to and it’s not on Qobuz.

In a sense it’s fortunate that many do not play their records. Records get damaged easily and most people are ill prepared to handle them properly. That has always been the case but in the past records were the way to be able to hear the music you wanted so it didn’t matter.

Now everything is available on streaming services. Much better! As long as what you must hear is provided by the service.

In defense of the tableless people who bought vinyl; 12 inch LP's also represent an artform that went away when CD's took over. Even though I mostly listen to CD's these days, it always depresses me a bit when I think about enjoying a nice gatefold album while listening to the music. My guess is that these people look forward to affording a turntable sometime down the road. The price tag of the new LP's will keep them in the poorhouse for a while however.