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Retro-obsessed Gen Zers have revived a relic of the last century: vinyl records.
The antiquated albums have boomed in popularity in recent years as the young generation flocks to buy vinyls from fan-favorite artists such as Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Billie Artist hawk records of their latest hits.
Former Spotify economist Will Page predicts that record labels will gross $1 billion by the end of the year in vinyl sales alone. Globally, the old-school vessel for music is expected to overtake CDs, he wrote in a recent report.
In fact, the economist reported that vinyl outpaced streaming, with records growing 15.4% and streaming only 10.4%.
“Like the boy who cried wolf, we’ve been told again and again that the resurgence in vinyl is a blip, not a trend,” Page wrote in a column for Billboard earlier this year. “Yet for 18 straight years, it has continued to surpass expectations.”
Swift, for one, smashed records in vinyl sales in April with the release of “The Tortured Poets Department,” selling 700,000 copies in just three days. And, just last week, the pop star released “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology” on vinyl as a Target exclusive, selling out in some brick-and-mortar locations and already being hawked for double the price on resale sites like eBay.
Last year, the hitmaker’s albums comprised 7% of all vinyl sales, more than 3.4 million records in 2023 alone.
Despite streaming services offering more music for less money, records — sold for anywhere between $30 and $60 for mainstream artists — are akin to “merchandise,” Page explained.
Despite backlash about how “wasteful” the physical LPs are, the record revival comes amid Gen Z’s return to vintage technology, from point-and-shoot digital cameras to flip phones and landlines.
The young generation has even begun collecting cassette tapes, admiring the “nostalgic” sound of the audio despite difficulties using the playback devices.
“I feel like cassettes kind of got forgotten. But when they were kind of obscure enough to be unfamiliar to the younger generation, they became kind of cool,” tape collector Zoël Labelle, 23, previously told The Post.
“Being my age, I see a lot of people, a lot of kids that are fascinated with things that are vintage, like old camcorders, T-shirts, comic books.”
