Research says vinyl buyers are lonely, middle-aged introverts

By William Hughes | August 11, 2016 | 1:54am

Aux Features Music

Confirming a suspicion you’ve probably never voiced, lest a Smiths fan suddenly appear behind you and attack you with his backup, non-mint copies of The Queen Is Dead, a recent study suggests that the current vinyl boom is being driven primarily by people in their 40s and 50s who don’t like sharing their feelings, and tend to spend their time alone. That’s per British market research firm YouGov U.K., which published data on Monday showing that most of the million-or-so records sold in the U.K. this year were bought by people between the ages of 45 and 54, with the least being bought by people between 18 and 24. (That stands in contrast to a study done last year by Music Watch, which showed that the much larger U.S. vinyl market is dominated by buyers under the age of 25. We’re not sure if this points to some sort of fundamental difference in British and American music fans—God knows we Yankees love the warmth of pops, hisses, and fresh apple pie—or differences in the two group’s methodologies.)

YouGov’s study also said that vinyl buyers were more likely to be unable to get through a day without listening to music, slightly more likely to condemn music pirates, and marginally more likely to keep their feelings to themselves. The study didn’t go on to say whether they were also more likely to want to take a survey about their awesome vinyl-buying habit, and then continue talking about it to the survey taker, even when they’re knocking over trash cans and diving into cars in an effort to get away, but we can only assume that that’s probably the case.