Global feedback: CD or vinyl (or are you just streaming)?

Vinyl or CD? Yes.

I buy both. And in bigger numbers than your average Joe. And to the average Joe, long since converted to streaming for his music playback kicks, someone like yours truly tracking the most popular of yesterday’s music formats down the years could be puzzling. Never mind that The Guardian, Sky News, the BBC, the NME, Music Week, The Verge, Rolling Stone and Billboard (and many others) have also yet to let go of the matter.

Time now to bring this topic home.

I polled the Darko.Audio YouTube faithful over the weekend with a simple question: “Which physical format do you predominantly use – if any?”: Vinyl, CD or cassette? The “if any” and its corresponding fourth response option left the door ajar for the Average Joe to express his bewilderment at the question (should he wish to).

And with a whopping 10,000 votes in the can, this is how the results tumbled down:

Interesting to see vinyl and CD share a photo finish with cassette fanciers lingering on the horizon. Is that a Nakamichi Dragon or is it a mirage?

That almost half of the respondents now completely refuse physical formats could be seen as a sign of the streaming times but if we flip it around, 56% still have an active interest in vinyl and CDs. Perhaps that is what we might expect from an audio-focussed YouTube channel’s audience?

I also ran a similar poll on Patreon where the number of registered voters is considerably smaller than YouTube and comprises fewer normies.

Among the 362 respondents, we note a stronger preference for the physical with only 26% saying they are strict streamers. The other takeaway is that vinyl edges out the CD by 6%. Once again, the cassette is MIA.

Next up in our Global Feedback series, we poll the Darko.Audience on its lossless streaming service preferences.