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Business News Retail
The Kids love discs, reckons eBay
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 13 November 2017
While the streaming boom may be behind the record industry’s return to growth, there’s still an appetite for physical music product – whether new or second hand – and it’s not just old people buying CDs and vinyl, by the way. Or at least that’s what eBay reckons having surveyed 2000 consumers and reviewed musical purchases on its marketplace.
eBay recently launched a new hub in the UK for people selling physical entertainment products on its platform and – possibly in a bid to shut up all you Spotify-obsessed digital-only naysayers – it subsequently commissioned this bit of research. Which, glory be, definitely proves plenty of British consumers still love plastic discs. So that’s good, isn’t it?
According to eBay, of the 2000 shoppers it surveyed, 63% listen to music on a CD at least once a month and 39% had bought a CD in the last year. And of those surveyed who were aged 18-24, not only had 25% participated in the vinyl revival at some point in the last twelve months, 47% had bought a compact disc. A compact disc!
Say’s eBay UK VP Rob Hattrell: “Music streaming may have become the norm, but our [research] shows people still want to own CDs and records, particularly with the strong music and DJ culture in the UK. Thirteen CDs and vinyl records were bought every minute on our marketplace over the last year, and we expect that number to rise as people shop entertainment for their Christmas stocking fillers”.
eBay also reckons that The Kids are partly buying physical releases for mere bragging purposes. Though the web firm might have reached that conclusion simply to justify using that horrendous term ‘shelfie’ to describe consumers buying physical releases in order to share photos of their bookshelves that in turn show off their super fine music tastes.
“Digital natives are exhibiting a passion for physical media”, eBay says when talking about its research. “This is driven in part by Instagram culture – epitomised by the rise of the ‘shelfie’ as a means of proclaiming our intellectual allegiances and cultural loyalties”.
Hey eBay, if we all agree to believe that The Kids can’t get enough of the CD, will you agree to never ever use the term ‘shelfie’ ever again?
