In a recent survey (Q4/2022), we asked N=1000 people from Germany about various topics via a professional online panel. In this study, we also asked a question about vinyl consumption.
The motivation was not only my personal interest, but also the fact that we have seen more and more records in stores (including Walmart in the US, but also Urban Outfitters, MediaMarkt, etc. in Germany) in recent years. This also coincides with reports of the “vinyl boom” that the press keeps picking up on. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any reliable figures on this. So we collected them ourselves.
Here are the results!
Q: Do you listen to records?
In other words, around 38% (more than one third) of the sample tends to be open to vinyl records again. I expected this number to be way smaller.
Looking at age groups (1: 18-37; 2: 38-53; 3: 54-63; 4: 64 and older; equally sized groups), we see an expected age effect (the younger, the less open to vinyl). However, the “no” group is still “only” 72.5% among the youngest groups of consumers (2: 65.2%; 3: 54.0%; 4: 51.8%), which, to me, is still quite high (average: 61.5%).
Vinyl consumption also tends to be associated with income (higher income).
Academic Studies on Vinyl Records
Yes, there are few studies on vinyl collection, and I also stared my own one a while ago (never completed due to other obligations). Here are some references I recommend to look at:
Han, M., & Newman, G. E. (2022). Seeking Stability: Consumer Motivations for Communal Nostalgia. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 32(1), 77-86.
Shuker, R. (2017). Wax trash and vinyl treasures: Record collecting as a social practice. Routledge.
Plasketes, G. (1992). Romancing the record: The vinyl de-evolution and subcultural evolution. Journal of Popular Culture, 26(1), 109.