Vinyl Records: Fun Facts For The True Vinyl Geek

Vinyl records remain popular despite the convenience of digital streaming. 

Even the most seasoned collector may not know all the interesting facts and details about vinyl.

We've compiled a list of fun facts about vinyl records for the true music connoisseur to celebrate the return of a format once considered obsolete.

The Most Expensive Record Sold on Discogs

The self-released promo copy of Scaramanga Silk – Choose Your Weapon sold in late 2020 for $41,095. Only 20 copies have ever sold on Discogs, and this copy is the only one.

Discogs indicates that the record has a gatefold sleeve with two parts. A 12" single and a CD of the same music are included in part one. The second part includes an art print and a poem on acetate.

Some may find it hard to comprehend over $40,000 for any record, but each to their own.

It is the most expensive vinyl record of all time.

The most valuable record ever sold was a copy of The Wu-Tang Clan's 7th studio album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.

The group recorded the album in secret over six years; in 2015, the one and only copy was sold for $2 million at auction with specific contractual terms. 

It states the album cannot be commercially exploited until 2103; however, the owner (former hedge fund manager Martin Shkrelican) has the option of releasing it for free

. 

The Biggest Selling Vinyl Record of All-Time

Michael Jackson's Thriller is the biggest selling album of all time, selling 32 million copies in its first year. It's estimated to have sold over 70 million copies to date. 

As the CD was introduced in 1982, and vinyl sales did not surpass CDs until 1986, vinyl marketplace, Phonotribe estimates that Thriller has sold over 27 million copies on vinyl. 

Top Selling Vinyl Record of 2021

The most popular vinyl record in the U.S. for 2020 was Harry Styles Fine Line with 232,000 copies sold, closely followed by Billie Eilish, Queen, and The Beatles.

Here is a list of the top ten best selling vinyl records for 2020 (note the inclusion of Michael Jackson's Thriller).

1. Harry Styles, Fine Line (232,000)

2. Billie Eilish, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (196,000)

3. Queen, Greatest Hits (176,000)

4. The Beatles, Abbey Road (161,000)

5. Soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy, Awesome Mix, Vol. 1 (152,000)

6. Bob Marley and The Wailers, Legend: The Best Of… (148,000)

7. Fleetwood Mac, Rumours (138,000) 

8. Billie Eilish, Dont Smile at Me (126,000)

9. Michael Jackson, Thriller (125,000)

10. Kendrick Lamar, Good Kid, M.A.A.D City (117,000)

2021 Vinyl Sales Look Set to Break Records (Again!)

There were over 19 million vinyl records sold in the United States alone during the first six months of 2021 (a 108% increase). In the UK, the vinyl record industry reported a 16.1% increase in the first three months of 2021.

Vinyl record sales continue to increase year after year, making 2021 likely to be the most successful year yet.

Intergalactic Records

Did you know there are two records traveling through space right now?

NASA sent two golden records into space aboard the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft in 1977. 

Music from around the world, voice greetings in 55 languages, and sound samples from Earth, such as birds and oceans, are all included in the records.

On the record there are also images encoded as code. In order to see them, any alien being intercepting the audio would need to decode the signal in a similar fashion to how cathode ray tube televisions work.

It is hoped that one day alien life will be able to decipher the universal representations etched into the disc and perhaps play the record and decode the image data contained within it. 

The World’s First 12-Inch Vinyl Record

In 1931, RCA released the first 12-inch vinyl record, Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C Minor performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. The records were made with a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) material and played at 33 1/3 RPM. 

A lack of affordable consumer playback equipment and economic impacts from the great recession contributed to RCA's early failure to introduce the modern LP.

The World’s Largest Vinyl Record Collection

The title of world's largest record collection belongs to a Brazilian businessman, José Roberto Alves Freitas. His collection stood at over 6 million records at last count in 2016. 

In what can only be described as a severe case of compulsive record-buying disorder, he often buys entire collections he finds through ads.

He has an entire team of people who spend 8 hours a day cleaning and archiving his collection, who have no idea how large it is now. 

The task of getting through the entire hoard will likely never be accomplished. Crazy!

45 RPM Records Often Sound Better

45 RPM records often sound better when cut well. 

As 45 RPM records travel faster than 33 1/3 RPM records, more waveform definitions are available on the record surface. There are therefore more bumps and grooves, which means better audio quality.

As part of our article about the different types of vinyl records, we compare them to flipbooks:

When drawing the same animation on 33 and 45 pages, you would have to flip the 45-page version faster to get the same speed animation as the 33-page version, but the transitions between pages would contain more detail, making the animation considerably smoother. 

As a result of the explanation above, many audiophile 12 Inch LPs are cut at 45 RPM.

Vinyl Records Sound Worse Inside Grooves

Due to basic geometry, the vinyl format exhibits inner groove as well as end of side distortion, which is inherent to the vinyl format.

Our article on inner groove distortion explains this in more detail. 

There is more vinyl per second available at the beginning of a record than at the end of each side. 

In turn, wavelengths become shorter and more compressed (like an accordion) as you move closer to the record center. 

The more condensed grooves make the stylus more difficult to track accurately, and there is also the issue of cartridge alignment as the tonearm pivots across the record surface, but check our full explanation for more details. 

It is most noticeable at higher volumes-especially if the material has a lot of high-frequency energy. 

Due to inner groove distortion, mastering engineers often place louder songs at the beginning of a side, and quieter songs at the end. 

You can avoid inner groove distortion by spreading out the album over two or three LPs instead of getting too close to the center.