Vinyl outsold CDs again. Who is buying it?

For the fourth year running, more money was spent on vinyl records than on CDs. That would have sounded absurd twenty years ago, when records were a curiosity and CDs filled every shop. Today almost everyone streams, and yet the record shelves keep growing.

We spoke to shop owners and surveyed readers to find out who is buying, and why.

Not just collectors

The stereotype is an older man flicking through crates for rare pressings. He still exists, but he is a minority. Most buyers in our survey were under 35, and many bought their first record in the last three years.

Streaming is how I listen. Vinyl is how I say I love an album.

Why people buy

• To own something from an artist they care about, not just access to it.

• To support musicians more directly than a stream does.

• For the ritual: choosing a record, putting it on, listening to a whole side.

• Because the sleeve art looks good on a shelf, which several readers admitted without shame.

The catch

Records are expensive, and pressing plants are busy. New albums can take months to arrive, and prices have risen faster than inflation. Some buyers never actually play their records, keeping a sealed copy as a keepsake.

Shop owners do not seem to mind. As one put it, a record bought for the wall is still a record bought. And a good number of those sealed copies, she added, get opened eventually.

What the shops say

Independent record shops have been among the main winners. Several owners told us that record buyers visit more often than CD buyers ever did, and that they come as much for conversation as for the stock. Recommendations from staff still sell more records than any chart.

Many shops now host small listening sessions and in-store performances. On those evenings the shop is full, and sales of the featured album can match a normal week in a single night.

One owner summed up the trend neatly. People stream to discover, she said, and they come to her to keep. As long as that remains true, the racks will keep filling up.