From a Nirvana classic to Taylor Swift’s albums, young music fans are investing in vinyl collections

Sales of vinyl records eclipsed CDs — and they are worth a lot of money. But the revival of the much-loved format has hit a major roadblock.

Taylor Swift is selling an extraordinary amount of records. Picture: Getty Images

If there was one album to exemplify why the vinyl revival is still steaming ahead in the streaming era, it would be Nirvana’s Nevermind.

Released in 1991, the sonic bible of grunge remains one of the strongest selling records in the 2020s, thanks in part to its expected 30th anniversary reissue on the shiny black plastic in 2021.

But it was its shock takeover of TikTok last year with a deep album cut which has united Generation Z with their Generation X parents in their love for the Seattle grunge architects who disbanded after the death of frontman Kurt Cobain in 1994.

The song Something In The Way was used on the soundtrack to last year’s film The Batman, with director Matt Reeves sharing how he listened to the track while writing the film’s first act and decided to channel the spirit of Cobain into his Bruce Wayne.

From the film’s trailer, the song migrated to TikTok where it soundtracked another 213,000 videos.

Nirvana’s Nevermind has been in the top 20 since ARIA reintroduced a vinyl chart in 2018. Picture: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic.

Nevermind was the No. 2 on the 2021 ARIA end of year vinyl chart behind Adele’s monster record 30 and No. 7 last year.

It’s dip down the top 10 – albeit in a year where Taylor Swift, Harry Styles and Ed Sheeran were collectively selling millions of coloured vinyl records around the world – coincided with a slight slowing of growth in vinyl sales.

The recent annual wholesale figures for 2022 music sales released by ARIA showed the amount of LPs sold grew by less than one per cent, yet the value of those beautiful black circles and multi-coloured editions rose by 23 per cent.

Music consumers invested from $50 to $100 for “limited editions” of Swift’s Midnights, Style’s Harry’s House and the Arctic Monkeys’ AM album which was released a decade ago.

Swift’s Midnights was the biggest vinyl seller in Australia last year. Picture: AFP.

The past two years have seen slower growth in the vinyl revival which kicked into gear a decade ago when P! nk’s The Truth About Love was the biggest selling record in Australia, with Adele (21), Sheeran (+) and Swift (Red) also finishing in the top 10.

These were all the kind of pop stars who worshipped the nostalgic format for what it represented as an artistic statement for The Beatles and Beach Boys in the 60s, and for its warmth and crackles as a sonic capsule for their songs.

Like their fans, they love the ceremony of playing a record, the physicality of dropping the needle on the wax, of having to get up off the couch to change sides.

They could hold it, display it, share it with friends.

And while streaming completely took off when we all locked down, there was still huge demand from music fans for the vinyl versions of their favourite new releases.

Metallica sell so many LPs they bought their own vinyl pressing plant. Picture: Supplied

That demand met the brickwall of supply chain problems and nine-months long queues to even get records pressed, as the world’s biggest pop stars booked the plants with orders for hundreds of thousands of copies of limited editions of their new release. We’re looking at you, Taylor, Ed and Adele.

For Gen Z, vinyl is regarded as “merch”, like the T-shirts, hoodies, caps and tote bags collectables offered by their favourite artists.

It is a status symbol to show off rather than actually play as many younger fans don’t own or have access to a record player.

The Music Network’s commentator Lars Brandle, who has followed the vinyl revival closely through the past decade, said the format, which eclipsed CD last year as the primary physical music product, continues to grow despite the manufacturing and freight hiccups wrought by the pandemic.

“Vinyl is growing globally, and has been for a decade. We don’t know exactly why it’s become such a hot accessory; it runs counter to our smartphone powered lives, where accessibility and ease is everything,” he said.

“Tunes on wax are appealing to kids today for the same reason we spent our pocket money on it; the disc and the artwork looks great, it’s tactile, an actual work of art that can be attached to your wall. An LP autographed by the artist is a treasure worth framing, then and now.”

As TikTok takes over from streaming services as the gateway to discovering “new” music, it is proving to be era agnostic as evidenced by the wild and enduring return of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours record to the pop charts thanks to that viral skateboard video. It was No. 8 on the 2022 vinyl chart.

Queen’s Greatest Hits and Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon are also regulars in the top 20 vinyl records each week.

The Australian love affair with the physical format is also having a profound effect on the pop charts.

Indie rockers Spacey Jane and Tame Impala have jumped in and out of the Top 20 with their respective records Here Comes Everybody and Currents while Daniel Johns claimed No. 1 several weeks after the release of his solo comeback FutureNever last year when the vinyl versions finally became available.

Daniel Johns went back to No. 1 when his FutureNever vinyl became available. Picture: Luke Eblen / Supplied

Brandle said more pressing plants are springing up in Australia and Europe to meet demand, with rock gods Metallica even buying their own factory to satisfy their fans’ insatiable appetite for catalogue albums and expensive box sets.

And that’s another reason why the global music industry wants vinyl to keep growing. At more than $50 per record and a greater royalty return to the artist than streaming, it is a lucrative income stream.

But it’s tough to bank on whether vinyl sales can return to the double figures percentage growth they achieved from 2016 to 2021.

“It’s impossible to predict. Who spotted the comeback of cassette tapes? That’s happening right now, and few of us saw it coming,” Brandle said.

“Vinyl is, as a format, vastly superior. It’s a beautiful thing, a piece of art where you can see the music in the grooves.”