Customers enjoy music through LP records playing on a turntable at a shop in I’Park Department Store in Yongsan, central Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Nov. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — Long-playing (LP) records and cassette tapes are making a comeback.
Online bookstore Yes24 reported a 21.9 percent increase in the number of LP records sold between January and October of this year via its website.
At 36 percent, more than one third of this year’s LP record buyers were in their 30s, followed by those in their 40s (21 percent), and those in their 20s (19 percent).
The rise in LP record sales was largely observed in the genre of pop music, with 84.3 percent more LP records sold than last year.
“The retro fever driven by the MZ generation is boosting the popularity of LP records. Nowadays, it has become very difficult to make orders for LP record production, having to wait for more than a year,” an industry source said.
Machang Music & Pictures, operator of an LP record production plant, is overbooked with LP record production until early next year.
Despite rising demand for LP records, however, some critics are concerned.
“There are more people who want to listen to LP records, but the supply is limited,” said Choi Kyu-sung, a pop music critic and an LP record collector.
“Even popular musicians struggle to acquire large stocks of LP records, and it only raises the rarity and price of the LP records, causing a systematic problem with resale.”
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
