Vinyl Bay 777, Long Island’s music outlet, takes a brief look at the vinyl revival’s impact through the lens of global record shop saturation
Last week, new statistics
on the quantity of record shops around the world were published by online vinyl
catalog Discogs and sister site Vinyl Hub. The community-compiled lists
featured in the article distribute the information in various ways, including the
amount of shops by country, population and city. And while the information is
far from complete, it is a good indicator of the extent of the vinyl revival’s
reach.
We already know that vinyl records have been making a major comeback
over the past decade. In a report from earlier
this year, vinyl records were the only physical music format to increase in
sales over the previous year in both the United States and the United Kingdom. New
pressing plants have been able to open up around the world because of these
increased sales. And it’s not only older adults and hipsters that are
purchasing music in physical formats. Forbes
reported Monday on a survey conducted by eBay UK which found that more than
half of all vinyl purchases made this year were by people in the 18 to 24 age bracket
with classic artists such as The
Beatles, David
Bowie and Pink
Floyd among the most purchased artists. The survey also found that 83
percent of that demographic purchased an item of physical media in the last
year, higher than the average of all sales demographics. Vinyl has gotten so
popular that even big chains like Urban Outfitters and Barnes
& Noble have gotten in on the trend, the latter even hosting their own
Vinyl Weekends (probably because they can’t participate in Record Store Day).
When talking about the amount of record shops per country,
it comes as no surprise that the US comes in at number one. After all, it is
one of the largest countries in the world with one of the largest populations
in the world. With 1,482 shops, it has nearly double that of the country in the
number two spot, the UK, which has 537 shops. There are only 11 countries that
have more than 100 shops, 10 of which are in the western hemisphere (the only
exception being Japan).
The statistics become more interesting when you look at how
many stores a country has based on population. Breaking the list down to how
many shops a country has per 100,000 citizens, the small island country of
Palau takes the top slot. They have three record shops for a population of
21,186, an average of 14.1603 stores per 100,000 people. Iceland comes in a far
second with eight stores for 335, 631 citizens, or 2.3836 stores per 100,000
people. The only two countries from the original top ten are Sweden (1.2687
shops per 100,000 citizens) and the Netherlands (1.0595 shops per 100,000
citizens).
Discogs has also broken down their statistics to find out
which city has the most shops. Tokyo, Japan takes the number one spot on this
list with a whopping 93 stores within the confines of the city. Berlin, Germany
comes in a close second with 87 shops. The US city with the highest
concentration of record shops is New York with a total of 47 stores among the
five boroughs, putting it at number six on the list, followed by Chicago, IL,
Los Angeles, CA and Portland, OR at numbers 12, 13 and 14 respectively.
Finally, if you wanted to know where the places with the
most record stores within a miles’ radius of each other, their statistics give
that information too. The top spot here belongs to Berlin with more than half
of their stores (46 of 87) in walking distance of each other with Paris, France
close behind at 43 shops clustered together.
Discog’s new statistics on record shops around the world prove
that the vinyl resurgence is not just a US and UK phenomenon. Collectors and shops can be found almost everywhere in the world now, from populous countries like the US and Japan to small island nations like Palau. The reach of vinyl has become global and will only spread as its resurgence grows.
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Find vinyl records right here on Long Island at Vinyl Bay
777. As the island’s top new independent record shop, we have thousands of
titles to choose from in an array of genres. Browse our wide selection of new
and used vinyl, CDs, cassettes, music DVDs and memorabilia in store at our
Plainview location or shop online at vinylbay777.com. With more titles being
added to our selection all the time, you never know what gems you might find at
Vinyl Bay 777.
