Features

Saturday Deluxe / 13 November 2021

ABBA, The Beatles & Tears For Fears

By Paul Sinclair

Comments

115

ABBA Reloaded

CD – the ‘Voldemort’ of the music industry

ABBA’s Voyage album has gone in at number one on the UK charts with massive sales of almost 204,000 units. The official charts company reported that 90 percent of sales were physical; the splits (not published) were as follows:

  • 148,471 copies sold on CD
  • 29,891 copies sold on vinyl
  • 4,205 copies sold on cassette

Impressive stuff, although in the press release to announce this news, the official charts company literally wrote nothing about the enormous CD sales and instead focused on vinyl, choosing to point out that, with those figures, Voyage was “the fastest-selling vinyl release of the century” (it actually beat a three-year-old record of the Artic Monkeys, whose last album sold almost 25k vinyl in week one in 2018).

Anyway, if ever you wanted evidence of ‘the industry’ trying to ignore the continued success of the CD format, this is it. The album had “the biggest opening week of any album in four years” and that achievement has nothing to do with streaming, it’s nothing to do with vinyl, but has everything to do with the CD sales. Yet this “inferior sonic storage system” (© Elvis Costello) – is not mentioned at all in the press release to announce this feat.

The CD is the Format-That-Must-Not-Be-Named, quite clearly. It’s the Dark Lord that threatens the narrative of vinyl being more popular than CDs. I say this as a fan of both formats.

New clip from The Beatles: Get Back

Not long to go now for Peter Jackson’s ‘3-Part Event’. Here’s another taster for you in the shape of a clip of The Beatles performing a very early version (perhaps it’s the first run-through) of Let It Be‘s ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’. Note a very sardonic George Harrison at the end!

“If you take the red pill, Curt, you will stay in wonderland and I will show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes…” (photo:Frank Ockenfels)

Tears For Fears announce tour dates & new coloured vinyl

Tears For Fears have announced some 2022 tour dates in support of their forthcoming album, The Tipping Point. The band will hit the road in America towards the end of May for a five-week spell and then continue in the UK, in July.

As you can see below, this should be called the ‘Al Fresco’ tour since they are choosing to play largely outdoor venues with plenty of amphitheatres, pavilions, houses and castles in the mix!

In Britain, Tears For Fears will be joined by Alison Moyet, who supported the band back in 2019 for some UK dates. As you can see, there are no London dates, unfortunately, although SDE understands this may well be corrected later in the year.

Speaking about going back out on the road, Curt Smith said, “We couldn’t be more excited to start playing concerts again. We’ve missed seeing our friends on the road around the world and the energy of performing live.”

A new pink vinyl edition of The Tipping Point was announced at the same time. This is a ‘D2C’ only product and therefore can’t be sold via usual retail channels like Amazon, HMV or the independent dealer network. It’s available via the Tears For Fears shop.

May 2022 – USA tour
  • Friday 20 – RIVERBEND MUSIC CENTER, CINCINNATI, OH
  • Saturday 21 – BLOSSOM MUSIC CENTER, CUYAHOGA FALLS, OH
  • Tuesday 24 – THE PAVILION AT TOYOTA MUSIC FACTORY, IRVING, TX
  • Friday 27 – AK-CHIN PAVILION, PHOENIX, AZ
  • Sunday 29 – LEVITT PAVILION, DENVER, CO
June 2022 – USA tour
  • Wednesday 1 – Concord Pavilion, CONCORD, CA
  • Thursday 2 – Shoreline Amphitheatre, MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA
  • Saturday 4 – The Forum, INGLEWOOD, CA
  • Sunday 5 – North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre, CHULA VISTA, CA
  • Thursday 9 – ithink Financial Amphitheatre, WEST PALM BEACH, FL
  • Friday 10 – Mid-Florida Credit Union Amphiteatre, TAMPA, FL
  • Sunday 12 – Ameris Bank Amphitheatre, ALPHARETTA, GA
  • Monday 13 – PNC Music Pavilion, CHARLOTTE, NC
  • Wednesday 15 – DTE Energy Music Theatre, CLARKSTON, MI
  • Thursday 16 – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre – CHICAGO, TINLEY PARK, IL
  • Friday 17 – Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Centre, NOBLESVILLE, IN
  • Sunday 19 – Merriweather Post Pavilion, COLUMBIA, MD
  • Tuesday 21 – Mann Center For The Performing Arts, PHILADELPHIA, PA
  • Wednesday 22 – Leader Bank Pavilion, BOSTON, MA
  • Friday 24 – PNC Bank Arts Center, HOLMDEL, NJ
  • Saturday 25 – Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater, WANTAGH, NY
July 2022 – UK tour
  • Friday 1 – Shropshire, Telford QEII Arena
  • Saturday 2 – Wiltshire, Longleat House
  • Tuesday 5 – Buckinghamshire, Waddesdon Manor
  • Thursday 7 – Newcastle Upon Tyne, Utilita Arena
  • Friday 8 – Scotland, Floors Castle
  • Saturday 9 – Lytham St Annes, Lytham Festival
  • Tuesday 12 – Derbyshire, The Incora County Ground Derby
  • Thursday 14 – Yorkshire, Leeds Millennium Square
  • Friday 15 – Warwickshire, Warwick Castle
  • Saturday 16 – North Yorkshire, Scarborough Open Air Theatre
  • Tuesday 19 – Hampshire, Chewton Glen
  • Wednesday 20 – Kent, The Spitfire Ground
  • Friday 22 – Sussex, The 1st Central County Ground
  • Saturday 23 – Wales, Cardiff Castle
  • Sunday 24 – Hertfordshire, Hatfield House
  • Tuesday 26 – Devon, Powderham Castle

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115 Comments

115 thoughts on “Saturday Deluxe / 13 November 2021”

  1. Fair point raised Paul re the Voyage CD sales. I must say, even though I am a big vinyl fan, it’s been really great to see the return of the CD single (and in great packaging) for the singles released from Voyage, which are VERY reasonably priced at the ABBA store – https://shopmusic.abbavoyage.com. The new CD single, Little Things, has a particularly great cover! It would be interesting to know what the sales figures are for the CD singles. We know the vinyl 7″ of I Still Have Faith in You was a big seller and topped the vinyl charts, but there is no data for the CD singles format. Overall though, an amazing achievement to shift that many combined copies in the UK in one week, and to top the charts in 15 countries so far.

  2. The record companies don’t want a physical product because they want to control the market. That means no second hand market or sales without direct permission. They want the new Adele, Beyonce, Sheehan etc to be full price on download until they say so. No other format. It will happen. Your choice will be either full price download or the current equivalent of Napster.

    1. Well that’s exactly what they have done with video games!! Latest console’s don’t even have a disc slot!!
      But then again they can’t really sell the same game to the same people 50 times over can they??
      (If mc cartney did video games!!!)
      To steal the old Danish lager qwote!!

      1. That’s not totally accurate. The current gen consoles offer a choice of hardware. Physical or digital with the physical, disc based machines costing extra. As an enthusiast of electronic entertainment I’ve followed the changes and proposals closely over the decades.

        Just wish there was a discogs equivalent for gaming as I have a stupidly large collection that in many ways equals my record collection. I’m starting to sell it off slowly however.

  3. Disappointing to read today that U2 are releasing 30th anniversary versions of Achtung Baby on vinyl and digital box set, whatever the hell that is, and NOT CD. What is going on?

  4. I love both formats, so there is no war for me. But vinyls are becoming very expensive and the endless variations (blue, splatter, metallic grey, etc.) are killing the fun. So I buy CDs again. They are significantly cheaper, the cost of a cassette back in the day. I don’t think that record companies want to “kill” physical formats, they’re just dying out. We have a distorted view here because we all love physical products. But I don’t know anyone around me (and I really mean ANYONE) who still bothers to buy music in the old school way.

  5. It would be interesting to know how many people bought the album. For example, how many of the 4000 who bought the cassette bought only the cassette? Not many, I guess.

  6. I’ve got a friend who stopped buying physical music years ago and for the past 10 years has been using an iPod, a Bluetooth speaker and an iTunes/Apple Music subscription to listen to music. Even he’s bought a turntable and amp and now owns about a dozen vinyl albums.

    Economics aside (£10-12 Vs. £25-30), you never, ever have any problems with CDs. I read posts on Discogs and reviews on Amazon where people write that they’re on their second or third copy and are still having problems (warped, off centre hole, surface noise, etc.).

    I still buy lots of CDs, but I haven’t played one in about 15 years. Nowadays they get ripped to FLAC and copied over to a 2TB hard drive I have plugged directly into my BT router. From there, I stream my music to Sonos speakers. It’s not audiophile quality by any means, but it suits my purposes. It’s great for multiple CD releases – rip all the discs into one folder and hit the play button.

    My girlfriend does ask why I bother buying CDs, but I like to own music and I believe it’s important to support labels and artists, particularly independent ones. I increasingly buy from anywhere but Amazon, who I now only use when they’re significantly cheaper than everywhere else.

  7. The US splits for ABBA’s first week were a bit closer between CD and vinyl. Around 78,000 total sales – 60,500 physical sales (about 77.5%) broken down into 42,000 on CD, 17,500 on vinyl and 1,000 on cassette.

  8. To be honest, aside from being really happy that ABBA got another number one, thus not really ruining their untouchable legacy, is that the media are POSSIBLY neglecting to mention the stellar sales of CD of Voyage because it would not be surprising that an act whose primary fan base who will purchase their album is one who is old enough that they will not buy anything but. It would be instering if someone were to list the same figure types for more current acts.

    But it is very clear, has been for ages, that the industry made a decision to kill of CDs, and since they can charge 4 times as more for vinyls, why kill those off.

    The only solution guys is that if you care about physical, continue buying it. Don’t repeat silly claims that physical is dead and spread the word. 99% of those of us who are on this page are interested in physical. Super Deluxe Edition is a physical item, not a download nor a stream.
    And as I keep on telling people who naysay me, if you stream you are renting, your precious music will be taken away like that and you won’t have a leg to stand on and it will be too late to do anything about it.

    1. The OCC actually did the same thing (i.e. highlighting the vinyl sales) last week in their report on Ed Sheeran’s latest album. ” … = powers to the summit with sales of 139,107 … Sheeran achieved his latest chart feat with 94,527 physical sales, including 11,644 vinyl copies. Curiously, his download tally of 19,294 was not far off the streaming-equivalent sales of 25,286.”
      Abba’s first week physical sales were 16.4% on vinyl, Ed’s 12.3% on vinyl.

    2. an excellent point on streaming, however don’t forget downloads. I purchase and download a lot of albums from the fantastic Bandcamp – whilst not physical – i do own them – forever and ever.

      1. I like Bandcamp too, but aren’t they more for smaller acts without major deals? I use it mostly for Sonia and Peter Wilson, because you get the download even when you purchase a CD, so you don’t have to wait for the cd to arrive to enjoy the whole release. When I get the CD, I add the rip (sometimes they aren’t identical).

        1. I think traditionally, thats right, but Bandcamp are getting more and more big names, past and present. For instance they have a great collection of Jazz classics on there inc an excellent array of Miles Davis

        3. Jeez, the vast majority of acts I follow are all on bandcamp.

          As for the cost of LPs, well £40 for the new War on Drugs double album! Taking the pee there I think. Warner released their price increase a few weeks ago to retailers. I think in the UK we can start to expect LPs being £30+ and for the big names reissues £50. Coda for £50 anybody? ;)

  10. Thanks for the tip about TFF. I’ve bagged the pink vinyl and got a pre-sale for the tour, which is coming to my home tyown, so it’d be rude not to.

  11. What I find weird about the CD vs Vinyl thing is that somehow I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve decided it’s OK to buy an album if it comes with a download code. Hopefully that is for WAVs which I can then whack on a USB stick and play it through the amp, while I stick the album on the shelf. How did that happen!?

  12. I read that many people upload cd’s into a Mac and Brennan. I do the same with my Mac but I’m running into capacity issues with Sonos. Does anyone know a solution for that?

    2. do you mean wireles capacity issues ( as in buffering) or hard drive capacity ? if hard drive the simpe answer is buy an external hard drive check out john darko on youtube he has some good workarounds for playing flac files over roon sonos etc

  13. I emailed my local indie retailer recently, asking whether or not they would have the Let It Be CD box set. The response I received let me know that they would have the vinyl box set and COULD order the CD box set for me but it would be a bit of a hassle for them! Needless to say I took my £110 and bought the CD box set in HMV where there was no such snobbery.

  14. Not really related – but I was very surprised to have received the best packaged vinyl record ever- and it didn’t come from a record shop, but from a clothing shop. Urban Outfitters packed one vinyl record in a box the width of about 7 records, filled with super fat bubblewrap cushioning every shock, and within that, a layer of very soft paper, wrapped around the sealed vinyl records (It was the Rolling Stones Undercover – for £13 but sold out now). Btw their 10% didscount isnt valid on music, but you can get free shipping if you choose 7 days.On the same day I got a broken jewel case Lana del Rey CD from Universal in their flimsy packaging, and I needed to pay postage for that.

  15. This will sound a bit like a conspiracy theory but a friend told me years ago that the goal of the music industry was to not let you own the music in a physical format – you are effectively renting it from them.

    It stems from piracy and the initial troubles with sharing sites.

    A CD can be copied and distributed by the hundred in no time. Far more difficult than vinyl and cassette. So they will be the darling formats.

    So what you have now is streaming and other ways that are so easy to protect. Rightly so.

    There will always be pirates and people like us who like to hold the music in our hands (TM SDE!) but it cuts the piracy down.

    Just my theory, deary.

    And as if to prove manipulation , release dates are staggered so the Elton, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, ABBA all get their number one tag in the bag. Next up, Adele….

    2. Not having it available on CD actually makes me more likely to get it through a “less legitimate” option, like a pirate site. I don’t see the point in paying almost the same amount of money (if not the exact same amount) for no disc, no booklet, no case, and (typically) substandard bit rates.

      1. The point is…why should you or anyone else, get someone else’s art and hard work for free? What makes you think it’s ok to steal it off the internet just because you can?

  16. I’m happy for Abba – although a touch annoyed as their marketing goes into McCartney-like overdrive. Not sure if it’s been mentioned anywhere but last week the Abba Australia site announced an exclusive vinyl colour – mint & gold. It looks good but will only ship to Australia. It was only on sale for a few days and they will only produce an amount to cover the pre-orders. Not shipping to next June but already going for £300 plus on Ebay. Very difficult for collectors.
    The Abba US site also now seems to have an exclusive CD box set that I haven’t seen anywhere yet.
    I suspect there’s a lot more of this to come prior to the virtual “concerts”

  17. Having only dipped into the vinyl pool this summer with my label, I’ve since released five vinyl titles. Let me give you my perspective based on my sales compared to CD. First, there’s very little overlap between customers who have been my CD buyers over the last few years and those who are LP buyers. My vinyl pressings are done at 1000 units split into two different color variation of 500 each. About 1/3 of all of my vinyl sales are those buying both color variations, so that’s more sales but fewer customers.

    Some of my vinyl releases sell out fairly quickly but you also have eBay flippers to thank for that. Even though I have restrictions to only one copy of each color per buyer, it’s no time that they end up on eBay with an excessive markup. With my first vinyl release, I was allowing two of each variation until I saw how many were popping up on eBay. I was able to trace those orders to specific buyers from my website. You also have buyers trying to circumvent the restriction by placing additional orders to be sent at other addresses, etc.

    You don’t have to do those things with CD’s because represses generally take about a month as opposed to 6-12 months for a vinyl repress. Aside from one LP re-press, I’m just not going to bother with second pressings because of the backlog with the manufacturers. The flippers do kind of ruin the experience by swooping in and snatching stock from genuine fans who may not find out about a release until a short while later, and then their only option is a 5x markup on eBay from someone who grabbed it purely for exploitative reasons.

    In the end, taking into account all variables, I still sell more CD than vinyl in terms of more customers are being served. If you remove those buying solely to flip on eBay and sales from those who buy both variations, the numbers are clearly in favor of CD.

    1. Love your remasters. Recently purchased your Essential Divinyls LP (Blue with orange splatter). Wonderful sound. Thought I was going to miss out but luckily found it in a reputable retailer, JB HiFi in Australia. My only other option was ebay where as you have stated, the mark up was horrendous.
      Hope you have more Divinyls coming – a wonderful Band

  18. My favorite listening experience is surround. I don’t care if it’s on a SACD, dvd or Blu-ray. That’s what I bought the most this year (new and second hand). I also buy a lot of cd’s. I buy only vinyl (old or new) when it’s not available on another physical format or when it’s an album from one of my favorite artists (Then I like to have it on cd and vinyl). I don’t listen to the record industry, I am listening to music.

  19. Congrats Abba, well done. As it relates to cd vs vinyl, it’s all a bit shortsighted of the record industry. Why alienate cd buyers when they are your very solid base of physical sales? We are now at a point that cd buyers are happy when a box set gets released ALSO on cd, meanwhile those are the vast majority of physical sales. Of course vinyl is pushed because that makes more money per unit, I get it. They made it hip and colorful. And how nice would it be for the industry if all cd sales were going to be converted to vinyl sales, like when the reverse happened in the 80’s and everyone switched to cd. Except, dream on record industry, that’s never going to happen. Other than for nostalgia reasons and wanting to be hip and different, there is no reason that cd buyers will convert to vinyl. Just read the various stories in this thread. Cd’s are more convenient plain and simple. Yes even non vinyl listeners like myself buy the occasional vinyl but that is for collection purposes. Who doesn’t love those rare coloured vinyl discs? I hope the industry comes to its senses. Meanwhile, I did buy that pink Tears For Fears vinyl. There is a place for vinyl, just don’t ignore the cd buyers, the base and majority of all physical sales.

  20. The CD is interesting because it’s still the most performing format in terms of physical sales and yet most indie retailers will tell you that they sell way more vinyls than CDs. When you go to Amazon (wether it’s UK, US, DE, FR, IT, ES, etc.), you often see CDs in their bestselling top 100. If you go to Amazon UK’s top 100 sales in music, the top 13 is all CD. Abba’s new album is the first vinyl entry at #14.

    I guess it means Amazon, HMV, Walmart, Target, Fnac and other very big retailers are the ones that sell CDs because they are volume retailers (with low margins). Indie retailers usually look for a 30% margin on retail price in order to make a profit. You can easily make a £5 margin on a double LP for example. A double LP is a single CD and obviously you’ll never make that kind of money on a CD. Margins for CD albums (not box sets) are in the £1-3 range.

    If you want to know why they push vinyl instead of CD then you have to look at revenues and not units.

    Abba’s new album sold 148,471 copies on CD and 29,891 copies on vinyl.
    Basically 5 times more for CDs. If you go to Amazon UK, the CD is at £10.99 and vinyl at £26.99 (both with VAT included). Basically it’s £1.6m for CD and £0.8m for vinyl. From 1 to 5 in terms of units, it becomes 1 to 2 in terms of revenues. The CD still outperforms vinyl but in a few months, the retail price of the CD will largely decrease while the vinyl LP price will remain over £20 and then vinyl will outperform CD in terms of revenues.
    If you take another big album like Billie Eilish’s debut LP, you can buy it for £4.30 on Amazon right now (it was £10.99) two years ago.

    1. This is absolutely true, the problem is however that most cd buyers, safe for buying an occasional rare coloured vinyl, will never switch to vinyl. So if the industry is holding on to pushing vinyl at the expense of cd, they push cd buyers out of the physical sales market all together. Getting up every 20 minutes to turn a record, the clicks and pops, the needle that must be replaced, the outrageously priced vinyl albums and not to mention expensive record players if you want half-decent sound, no thank you. I’ll go to streaming before going back to vinyl.

    2. “indie retailers will tell you that they sell way more vinyls than CDs“.
      Well, given that my 2 local indie shops ONLY sell vinyl, that is not very difficult! I do find it weird that that is the case, but there you go.

      1. Stores stock what sells.

        20 years ago, CDs were selling over 900 million copies a year. Last year they sold just 31 million copies. By contrast, vinyl sales were under five million copies 20 years, and last year sold over 27 million copies.

        All of this has been well-documented in music industry news over the last 20 years, but more to the point, stores aren’t ‘ignoring’ CDs, they’re focusing on what sells. Same reason they ditched vinyl in favor of CDs back in the ‘80s.

        1. I think last year in the UK vinyl sales were just over 4 million and CD sales were 16 million. So if they are focusing on ‘what sells’ then they are getting it wrong.

          1. I’d be interested in knowing how many of those CDs were sold through Amazon vs. actual shops. Amazon gets better terms than a small shop, as do the chainstores, so they can afford to carry more. Amazon can be everything to everyone, whereas as small store has to look at what’s selling regularly. If everyone is being sent to Amazon to get the best price on something, a small shop can’t compete with that.

  21. I guess there’s some sort of manipulation in the hype over vinyl although lazy journalism is involved too. Although a lot of people who believe vinyl is more popular probably don’t buy physical music at all. That said this lie/disregard for facts is promoted the more people will believe I guess. I suppose CD’s aren’t “cool” but neither are the now tedious proclamations of the vinyl resurgence which feels old hat really.

  23. I am in the UK right now for two weeks (I’m from Quebec City, Canada), and I planned on shopping in Rough Trade East, one of my favourite records stores in London.

    What a shock to see that there was barely any cds anymore!
    I’ve been to that shop many times in the past and bought a lot of cds there!

    No listening posts anymore, only one for vinyls!!
    I left about 10 minutes later, disgusted!

    I had a better experience in Fopp and HMV.

    Why can’t all the formats be available everywhere instead of ignoring them?

  24. I have new ABBA album in a few different versions. In my opinion Japan SHM-CD is the best one. Unfortunately standard black vinyl comes with a scratches and other artefacts. Limited white is little bit better. Sad but true. This is our reality in nowadays.

  25. CDs are still my favourite format, I download them straight to my Mac & Brennan, I only keep the inlay & CD now due to space, my Bowie Ryko CDs are still my favourites after all these years. Compare the new Bowie box, the cost of the vinyl is way beyond me, the cd version very reasonably priced. I have a pal who still has his 1990s Audi 100 with a 10 cd multichanger, I used it in the summer for a trip to see Family in Scotland, a marvellous thing, pick 10 CDs, quality of sound better than the steaming in my car. Sainsbury’s is great for CDs in Slough, hopefully they don’t stop.

  26. Well said Paul. I just read an article in this morning’s Sunday paper (Perth, Western Australia). Same thing here, mentioned 29k vinyl sales but no mention of CD sales. Very disappointing but I genuinely hope all formats continue to thrive.

    On a different note, for those in Australia, Amazon AU currently have the Prince Sign ‘O’ The Times Super Deluxe CD box set at a cracking price of $93 (approx GBP50). [Amazon AU only ship locally]

  28. This is going to sound dumb but what would be amazing would be to have a download code when you buy a CD! I spend a lot of time deliberately listening to CD’s to get that album experience & now the “wise” ( I’m being extremely calm here ) Monkeys at Apple have decided not to put a CD drive in their macs anymore, I can’t legally get music on my phone anymore.

    The other day I downloaded from the Radiohead site the Kid A / Amnesiac music. I would’ve gone for the CD version but for just an extra half hour of music I thought I’d rather pay to have the whole thing accesible for my phone & speakers when I have the original CD’s already but it pisses me off I even have to do this.

    The whole tape thing is bollox, does anyone even have a tape player anymore? My last tape player broke in the late 90’s. There’s a good reason I never got it fixed…..

    1. Can’t you just buy an external CD drive and plug it in? They cost about £30. I know it’s annoying, I have the exact same problem with my Windows laptop, but it’s hardly a fortune.

    2. If use the apple ALAC codec, it’s a lossless codec. If you use Mp3, it’s a destructive compression so you lose dynalic and msuic details that you get on CD. My advice, enjoy the full detail of music while you have young ears ( before 50 lets say). not to mention the limutation in blue tooth transmission (https://www.soundguys.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-bluetooth-headphones-aac-20296/) . For whatever reason, licence agreement ends, you can’t access your music anymore, or if you hard drive fails (it will ). So better own a CD;

    3. Fully agree CDs should come with download code. I also see a trend that fewer vinyl records come with download codes nowadays (except for some indie labels). It seems they like to sell you the download separately nowadays.

      And I do buy tapes when they come with a download (e.g. on bandcamp). I have a tape deck as well, and tapes are nice artifacts, more than CD’s. I do buy more CDs than vinyl nowadays, just because they are cheap and I still have an old mac with a disc drive :).

  29. 1. CDs rule. Death to new vinyl. It’s crap. Still havent gotten a quiet, sonically pleasing piece of wax in the last 7-8 years. I stopped buying new vinyl. Too many disappointing discs.

    2. Bravo to the commenters about old wax and a good cleaner. My VPI is the best investment any serious collector can undertake. Recently picked up 2 discs on the same shopping day. A 40 year old used Yachts L.P. and a new La Sera L.P.. Guess which sounded better? The Yachts was tremendous after a clean. The La Sera was junk. And new. New I tells ya.

    3. So tonight the wife and daughter are finally getting to use their 2 year old Harry Styles tickets. Thanx Covid! The pre show protocols are insane. So many hoops to jump thru. Lines to be waited on, documents to be presented etc. Health check kiosks. Parking restrictions yadda yadda yadda. With all this extra trouble and staff I can only imagine how massive HSs bottom line has shrunk. Moving forward ticket prices will be EVEN more astronomical.

    4. TFF playing Ak Chin in Phoenix in late May. Ouch! Gentlemen this is the desert and Late May is already pretty darn hot. Side note: Slipknot fans just tried to burn the pavilion down last week. Probably won’t be fire at the TFF show.

  30. Disney + is currently £$€1.99 for the first month. Usual price is 8.99. New Subscribers only. Offer ends tomorrow.
    Not bad for 6 hours of Beatles footage over 3 consecutive nights from November 25th. You can cancel before the second month…

  32. I love CDs, and still buy CDs of new albums from all the artists I love and it saddens me as to why the music industry isn’t giving it the love it deserves. The new Abba CD was a no-brainer for a tenner (plus a quid in some places)
    Just picked up a Creedence CD, 2008 remaster with bonus tracks, lovely booklet with pictures, archive single sleeves and essay, all for £7.99 in HMV. Owning the music and having it in your hands, supporting real shops is a wonderful feeling.

  33. As Public Enemy said “Don’t Believe The Hype’…great article Paul,the voice of reason.Got the cd by the way.
    PS the Diana Ross album really is very lovely

  34. When CDs outsell vinyl about 5:1 even though vinyl is supposedly doing as much business [and huge profits] as CDs, you wonder if maybe either the physical media purchasers are tired of being overcharged for vinyl or there is a vinyl shortage of the album?
    In any case, the vinyl [at 37 minutes] is a single LP which is cheaper than quite a few other new releases that are 2LPs.

  35. About Abba from offiziellecharts.de (official German charts):

    • “Mit über 200.000 Verkäufen erzielt „Voyage” den erfolgreichsten Album-Start der vergangenen zweieinhalb Jahre sowie den besten Start eines internationalen Acts der vergangenen sechs Jahre.
    • Das Album verkauft sich besser als die restliche Top 100 zusammengerechnet.
    • Nach nur einer Woche besteigt “Voyage” bereits den Thron der bisherigen Jahrescharts, die final Anfang Dezember erscheinen.
    • Das Best Of-Album “Gold – Greatest Hits” klettert von Rang 85 auf 16. Es ist mit 369 Wochen das am häufigsten platzierte internationale Album bzw. das am zweithäufigsten platzierte Album insgesamt seit Start der Offiziellen Deutschen Charts im Jahr 1977.

    Translation:
    -more than 200.000 items sold, more than any new album in the last 2.5 years, the highest number of sales in the last 6 years
    -Voyage sold more than the rest of the charts (top 100) together
    -withing this week of sales it has already climbed to no#1 of sales this year (official charts of 2021 will be released early december)
    -Abba’s “Gold” climbed from #85 to #16 and now has a total of 396 weeks, the most since charts are official (since 1977), second most chartings
    -“The Albums” also went back to the charts, as did the three singles in the singles-charts

  36. We all forget something here.All physical media are obsolete as Steven(Wilson) said. For decades we had Lps for home and cassettes for the road. Later we had the mighty cd that brought together sound quality and convenience. But then the fast internet came along, and you stream in some platforms to 24/96 amazing sound quality. Some media were gone before we knew it(sacd). So what media will survive? Probably the ones that joined us for a long time and we had strings attached to them. I am not on the wrong site and i still want a physical copy of the music of artists i love. Cds and vinyl are both great ,but they are NOT the way the music goes to masses anymore. Its just ephemera.And both deserve and need our support

    1. I do agree with both Steven Wilson and ioannis. I too am obsolete. Inasmuch as I don’t have a ‘playlist’ on any device, I don’t download music neither do I stream tv or film (ok – hands up… I have just subscribed to Disney+ to watch the Beatles and will cancel before the renewal in December comes around, so i’m still not their target customer). Two years ago, I moved into a much bigger apartment but now that is full of vinyl, cds, books, dvds – there’s no more space. Also, the terrabyte recording space on my blu-ray is almost all used up too. The only aspect that worries me about this, is that i’ll never have time to listen/watch/read everything before I die.

      1. I have to wonder if Disney’s servers are ready for the millions who are going to stream The Beatles on 25 Nov…! We might crash the entire internet..!!

      2. @ENGLAND You are not obsolete. Someone who goes for a ride with a bicycle is not a man of the caves, it does it for fun and health issues and that s fine. But humanity doesn’ t relay to bicycle for transfers ,there are other ways. Does it mean that bicycle must stop existing? No way. Its a funny hobby , so are cds ,vinyl, cassettes etc. I thing in a few years mass production of those media probably will stop , and we will have special/ collectable( and expensive) editions for the fans of the physical media.

    2. Oh, the irony. If SW truly has claimed that physical media is dead, would anybody like to tell me where I can download his 5.1 mixes for Jethro Tull and XTC? Yes? Steve Hackett?…..

  38. I’d be curious to know how many actual **people** purchased the 204,000 units of Voyage mentioned, given that there was something like 20+ variants available for sale…

      1. But don’t forget everyone is at it, all of the artists that can sell a physical release don’t just have one CD to sell, there is always a Pic Disc, cassette, 4, 5, 6, or more colour vinyl variants, in some cases even coloured cassette variants, which is a new low for me. So it is still remarkable. Compared to the fact that you only have to stream for 30 seconds to count as a sale too, easily rigged if you have the money and want the kudos selling a bunch of £20 things is still quite the achievement.

        Re: streaming I would only allow content streams to count towards the charts if the bill payer is the one listening. If you don’t pay it don’t count. You can tell I am still trying to get my 25 and 24 year old kids to pay for their own Spotify, Netflix and Amazon so I don’t have to. I’m stuck with it for ever aren’t I …….

  39. It’s a pity the HMV exclusive cover for Voyage isn’t as bright and clear as the image on this article. For some reason they’ve made it look really dark.

  41. I saw that press release you refer to as well and noticed no mention of CD. I’m glad you have brought the subject up. To ignore the facts is absolutely ridiculous from these companies. At least by you highlighting it someone from these labels will likely see that people are taking note and they can’t sweep CD under the carpet. It’s not going away anytime soon.

  42. It is now confirmed that the upcoming Elvis Costello book CD signed by “the artist” is actually signed by Elvis Costello and not the artwork’s artist. I emailed his webstore (ie Recordstore) a couple of weeks ago asking them to confirm what they meant by “the artist”. I got a reply back a couple of days later saying they would investigate and get back to me. I got an update a couple of days ago asking me to provide a link to the product so they could investigate further. Bear in mind all I’m asking is for them to look into one of their own products that they are offering as a preorder. Even if that proves too difficult a quick look via Google will find it in seconds. And to top it off on the same day as he emailed me with the request for the link, Recorstore sent out a promotional email advertising it as being signed by Elvis. You couldn’t make it up.

  44. I spent $500.00 on a direct drive, audio technica turntable about 3 years ago, after deciding that I should start to collect vinyl again. It wasn’t long before I remembered how annoying the format really is. No matter how much care you take, how good your needle is, vinyl will become scratched and worn over time and so will your needle. I actually bought a very expensive stylus from the states and it got caught on the sleeve of my sweater, flew across a record, scratching the vinyl to hell and destroying the needle. I ended up buying another one, but by the time I did, just 18 months later, that very same needle had jumped up in price by over $100.00. Then there’s sound quality. If you’re collecting original vinyl from anytime earlier than 1994 or 1995, you’re going to be hearing the music as it was intended and often times in superior quality. Vinyl today suffers from the same issues that it’s compact disc counter parts suffer from. Overly compressed, boxed in and and much too loud! Don’t get me wrong, I know how much fun vinyl is. I was always addicted to the smell of a bran new vinyl album and still love that intoxicating smell to this very day. Also, the big, beautiful cardboard album cover, the glossy or non glossy inner sleeve with lyrics and pictures and liner notes. It’s all so easy to read and charming, isn’t it? Anyway, I bought a an expensive set of Donna Summer vinyl and cd remasters and realized that the sound really wasn’t that great and of course, I heard pops and clicks during the very first play of each vinyl record. I bought a box set of equally expensive ABBA’s albums on vinyl and experienced the same thing. Then I hoped on ebay and bought a collection of both artists records made in the 70’s and 80’s for less than $1.00 each. Guess what? The used vinyl from 40 – 50 years ago sounded infinitely better! Warmer, richer and more full with lots of mid-range. It was definitely an AHA! moment. I stopped collecting vinyl on that very day and my turntable is sitting in a box in the basement. Compact disc is still the best way to go. I have lots of digital Itunes songs, but the sound is so thin and dull. I prefer to import cd’s into Itunes at aiff quality to give the music a little extra room to breathe. Streaming music in the background is okay, but for a real listening session, I prefer cd quality. As for ABBA’s Voyage, there really wasn’t much doubt about it’s sales impact. Nor should it be a surprise that physical media of the album far surpasses digital sales. Most of their fan base, like me, are well into their 40’s and 50’s and we’re the only ones still buying things we can hold in our hands. Interestingly enough, ABBA wont make it to number 1 in the states, although they will likely sell more cd’s than any other artist and maybe all other artists in the U.S this week, streaming numbers were far lower for Voyage. They could end up seeing their first U.S top 10 album, but Summer Walker will take number 1 due to huge numbers of 180,000 in sales. Only 12,000 of that number is actual physical media sales, the rest of the figure is comprised of streaming numbers.

    1. Yeah it can be a pain, but the *biggest* part of any new (or old) setup is a decent record cleaner. I get the groans, it’ll add another £400 to £2,500 to the cost of the basic music set-up, but without it, most new and old vinyl will sound like shit. It’s no surprise to anyone that has a good cleaner that before / after cleaning is as different as day is to night. I went down the route of better amplifiers, pre-amps, MC carts and better turntables, even a isotek EVO power cleaner and sodding plug! None of these upgrades, good and as fun as they were made as much difference as a vinyl cleaner. If you add in decent Mobile Fidelity original master sleeves, one good clean will last years.

      I know it can be teaching Granny to suck eggs but I have seen so many moans (not necessarily here) where people have said vinyl sounds like shit when they get a crate find and bang a 40+ year old record straight on a turntable, with no cleaning. Of course it will. Clean it. It might not.

        2. Well I went a bit mad in 2015 and bought a £2.5k Hannl Aragon. I started with a £500 Okki Nokki and for an investment that is substantial enough it was very poor. Incredibly noisy and the suction was insufficient, even given the hell it raised. They might have upgraded since, I don’t know but the model I had was not great, in 8 years things will have moved on hopefully. The Hannl is German and like some things in life, beautifully over engineered. It was quiet as a mouse and solid solid solid, with aluminium everywhere. The key, beside the lack of noise was the perfect suction. A record came off that as dry as a bone and static free to go into a decent plastic sleeve and would be good for a couple of years easily.

          There is a lot of gap between £500 and £2,500 so I am sure there are many decent machines in between but I always try to get the best I can afford and all this was before my kids really started to bleed me dry so I must have come up with the money somehow. I didn’t regret it. The other good thing was that after a good 5 years outstanding use I got £2,000 back when I sold it. so £100 a year, or £2 a week was not bad. I only got £150 for the Okki after two years so the Hannl was a much better machine and a much better investment.
          I am sadly out of the loop now as I have neither cleaner nor deck any more but as a part of a modern set up it is as important, if not more so, that other parts.

          It’s always interesting to hear how things end up so if you do invest, and you really should, let us know what route you go down.

          Apologies if this turns up twice, the previous reply got lost in the ether….

          1. Hi Chris,

            Thanks for the information.

            I’ve a feeling that my better half wouldn’t quite see the value of the investment as a benefit to the family unit!

            Regards,

        3. I have a Project VCS2 cleaner. It’s loud but gets the job done. Just over £400. I use mofi inner sleeves and l’art du son cleaning fluid.

          It may not be the greenest hobby but its offset by the fact I’ve only flown abroad five times in fifty years :)

  45. Although I appreciate Tears For Fears selling this different colour vinyl on their website, having to buy it to get presale tickets for the events is a little annoying, as I’ve already stumped up and paid for the indie exclusive vinyl of a few weeks ago!. I do feel that they should allow all of us who have already pre ordered the album access to this presale. Even though I’ve already bought tickets to the Lytham date last week having to buy a second vinyl seems a bit pointless. I do think that the boys could have highlighted this first and I’d have bought through them to get a presale link. It does say no purchase necessary but I can’t see anything about getting a presale link without buying another copy.

  46. As a fan of both vinyl and CD, I agree that CDs have been largely ignored in recent years. However, I also see some light at the end of the tunnel: the new Erasure Ne:Ep is available on CD but not on vinyl, ABBA has released CD-singles, and the new Lady Gaga Dawn of Chromatica CD has a case that expresses originality, like some CD cases in the 90s (remember Very by the Pet Shop Boys?) rather than the super cheap cardboard digipacks we are getting from most artists (and that also damage the actual disc as they are so tight that it’s often a challenge to get the disc out).

    We will have to wait a bit, but there will be a CD revival, mark my words, after vinyl and cassettes. It’s also the physical format that has the highest audio quality (well, there’s bluray audio of course, but that format will never be as popular as the CD because it requires a bluray olayer and a TV to play and select songs).

    Bought the ABBA deluxe CD and green vinyl by the way.

    1. I’d just like to point out the ecological merits of cd packaging that doesn’t involve plastic! I’m sure that’s a genuine motivation for many artists.

  47. I agree with you on the point you are making about the CD. Record companies want to force people, who want to have a physical product, to switch to vinyl. I still prefer CD’s over vinyl.

    Still more CDs are sold than LPs, which is reflected in the sales figures of the new ABBA album. I am surprised by the number of cassettes that have been sold. Is the cassette making a comeback?

    I do not know how many new infections with Covid-19 there are at the moment in the US and UK, here in the Netherlands we have not had that many infections since the start of the pandemic. Over 16,000 new infections on Thursday and Friday.
    That’s why I think the announcement of Tears For Fears for their US and UK tour dates is a bit premature. No one knows what the virus will be like in spring and summer 2022.

      1. I know what he means though – I had to watch it a couple of times to confirm that it was George that said the line. At first I was convinced it was Ringo :-)

  50. Worth mentioning that you got priority access to tickets by buying the album. Happening more and more to boost album sales. Nothing wrong with that, but will definitely see a bigger drop off after first week I would imagine.

    1. Where is it on the US album chart? I just pulled it up (week ending 11/13) and don’t see it. (Gold is at #105, up 51 places from last week, though, so clearly people were streaming it more in anticipation.)

    2. Many releases these days are accompanied by multi-cassette bundles – with significant pre-sales and hence, first week sales on cassette. Coldplay’s recent release and Queen’s 40th anniversary Greatest Hits are two recent examples which must have sold well over 5,000 copies on cassettein week one.
      Before that, Robbie Williams’ The Christmas Present sold 9,661 cassettes in it’s first week in 2019 – which at the time was the highest weekly total since July 2002, when Now That’s What I Call Music! 52 sold 12,074 on the format.

  53. I’m overjoyed at the success of Voyage, not just in the UK, but worldwide. I just hope that it continues to sell well in the coming weeks and doesn’t plummet after such fantastic first week sales.

  54. Its amazing what ABBA achieved and although I much prefer vinyl I probably have more cds and the way the ‘Official Charts Company’ have ignored it leaves a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth…

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