The Vinyl Record Manufacturers Association Announces Data Partnership with Futuresource

The Vinyl Record Manufacturing Association & Making Vinyl has introduced a brand new partnership with the UK-based Futuresource Consulting. The market analysis firm would be the official knowledge associate of the Association, producing a Global Vinyl Market Report for the VRMA and the annual Making Vinyl convention.  The knowledge will embrace annual, quarterly, and regional studies on the vinyl urgent volumes, product breakdowns, and the variety of lively vegetation and urgent traces, along with highlighting key tendencies. 

The first findings can be offered on the Making Vinyl Conference in Nashville June 4-5. The annual Global Report can be accessible to all VRMA members in good standing on the finish of 2024. "VRMA is happy to associate immediately with Futuresource to lastly receive dependable numbers in a traditionally fractured knowledge panorama for vinyl document manufacturing,” says VRMA President Dustin Blocker. “ This partnership will allow our membership to have correct numbers to forecast and make real-world enterprise choices about their firm’s path, in addition to, assist lean out, or bulk up, their on-hand uncooked items.”

James Duvall, Principal Analyst for Entertainment who’s main this challenge mentioned, “Futuresource is happy to be concerned with this partnership. With the help of the broader manufacturing trade, this would be the first time that we’re in a position to generate an unparalleled image of the volumes concerned in urgent vinyl at a consolidated degree. Through this knowledge assortment, our purpose right here at Futuresource is to supply these within the trade with the information and understanding of how vinyl demand is evolving at a worldwide degree, while additionally establishing key tendencies for various vinyl sizes and the way the ability of fandom and collectors are influencing customary black vs color urgent. We can’t wait to get began and stay up for working with Making Vinyl and the VRMA on this challenge.” 

The change in Luminate, the leisure trade’s preeminent knowledge and insights firm, reporting system for bodily gross sales from indie retailers, was the catalyst for the partnership. Historically, these numbers had been algorithmically calculated,  and the transition to direct reporting from unbiased retailers on the finish of 2023 was carried out, with lower than 5% of shops onboarded to the brand new course of. The VRMA publicly expressed their frustration on the small variety of document shops contributing to the weekly gross sales exercise performing because the consultant base for everything of the Indie Retail market phase in a joint assertion with the Vinyl Alliance issued on December 4th, 2023 which could be learn HERE.   The VRMA is dedicated to accuracy in knowledge and reporting, and this alteration is a dramatic departure from the previous observe is one that may unfairly decrease numbers, making a seismic change in offering true perception into the significance and scope of each bodily media and unbiased retailers and their affect on the make-up of the music enterprise panorama.

"Understanding the intricacies of vinyl document manufacturing is not nearly preserving the previous; it is about steering the longer term,” says VRMA Managing Director and Making Vinyl founder Byran Ekus. “In an trade pushed by nostalgia and innovation, having complete knowledge on vinyl manufacturing is paramount to navigating its evolving path."