RIAA's mid-year music sales statistics. Vinyl sales up by 42.8% over the first half of 2014

With YouTube having nearly every song available, it is no longer justifiable to put an dollar value on listening experience. The same cannot be said for feature films.

With a physical media that has value, do the math:

I have $1000 to spend on music. Songs cost $1 each. For the sake of simplification, let's say that each album holds 10 songs. So I can buy 1000 MP3 songs or 100 vinyl albums. After I've listened to those songs I'm growing bored with them. If I bought MP3s there is nothing I can do with out investing more money. But if I bought records I can sell them. Let's say I only get a very modest 10% return on investment. (Bought the album for $10, sold it for $1) That gives me $100 to re-invest in music. So I buy 10 more records. And from that I get bored and sell those and get $10 and buy 1 more album and eventually sell that for 1 more mp3 song.

For the same money invested if I bought MP3s, I would have gotten 1000 songs. If I bought vinyl, I would have gotten 1111 songs. With vinyl I get more music for my money.

In the real world, it's a bit more complicated. MP3s tend to be cheaper whereas records tend to be more expensive, sometimes 4x as much. But the values of records can fluctuate greatly. If you buy a new record now and have a listen and resell it in near mint condition, you will likely at least get a 50% return on investment. And that variability is a big factor. People that invested in records during the 90s and 2000s could have gotten an excellent return on investment due to the vinyl boom. People that bought Barbara Streisand albums in the 1970s, not so much. But still something.

In any event the odds are better that you will get more music for your dollar over the course of your life if you buy physical media. And it doesn't matter much anyway because everything is available online to listen for free. So if you're going to spend money, make the best economic choice and that which brings the most satisfaction.

/r/vinyl Thread Parent Link - riaa.com