The other week, retailer Urban Outfitters claimed to be the world’s biggest seller of vinyl records.
Pause. Let’s talk about this.
Billboard shut down the claim, (made by Calvin Hollinger, the company’s chief administrative officer) citing research that marks Amazon as the number one seller of vinyl and Urban Outfitters second. However, this does not change the fact that the store is still making a significant amount of profit from selling vinyl records.
Urban Outfitters is a store known for targeting a young, hip demographic, mainly 18 – 28 year olds. According to a Buzzfeed article, the chain has lately expressed concern that it has “gotten too young” for its demographic, and is attempting to expand back into the realm of college-aged customers.
Their “college-aged customers” are the ones who were raised during a time when CDs were becoming scarce, and iTunes was the most popular way to purchase and download music. Even now, Spotify, Pandora and other streaming services are increasingly popular. How is it, then, that vinyl record sales have been steadily growing over the last few years?
One possible explanation is a resurgence in appreciation for buying and owning a record. With increasing digitalization in nearly every aspect of life, especially music, younger people are looking to revitalize the experience of listening to music. Many artists, such as Vampire Weekend and Arctic Monkeys, have been making this possible by releasing their albums on vinyl. Jack White released a new album earlier this year, and set the record for the most copies of an LP sold in one week, with 30% of the sales in vinyl. Sales of vinyl records hit 6.1 million albums in 2013, the highest number since at least 1991, and it is projected that the number will continue to grow in 2014.
Urban Outfitters is capitalizing on this, with their specific system for selling vinyl records. Stereogum breaks it down, explaining that Urban Outfitters has 100 different vendors who allow them to offer records in their stores, but not own the inventory. If you buy music from an artist’s merchandise table, the artist gets the biggest cut. If you buy from an artist’s website, the label gets a bigger cut. However, because of Urban Outfitter’s high sale volume, both artist and label get a similar cut, making it an agreeable model for both parties.
I have to admit, every trip to Urban Outfitters I find myself idling in front of the massive vinyl section. It just seems so…cool. Vinyl records have a different sound, as if the artists were playing right there in front of you. My parents grew up listening to The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix on vinyl, and talk about it with nostalgia. I think it’s something in the way they describe it— the whole experience of setting the record player and keeping their records in pristine condition— that intrigued me, so much so that I recently bought my first two records. The thing is…I don’t actually have a record player. But hey, one step at a time, right?