Amazon's top home audio product this holiday was a turntable, besting an Apple AirPlay-compatible r

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited December 2015
While streaming services like Apple Music and digital downloads from storefronts like iTunes rule the music industry, listener appreciation for analog vinyl audio remains high, as evidenced by new holiday sales data released by retailer Amazon.



Touting its success this Christmas shopping season, Amazon revealed on Monday that its top selling home audio product this year was the Jensen JTA-230 3-Speed Stereo Turntable with Built-in Speakers. While it features a USB port for converting vinyl records to digital, and features an auxiliary input for connecting a digital media player, the No. 1 bestseller is decidedly old school, playing 33, 45 and 78 RPM records with a belt-driven three-speed stereo turntable.

The Jensen turntable outsold Amazon's second-hottest home audio product of the fall of 2015, the Yamaha RX-V677 7.2-channel Wi-Fi Network AV Receiver. Notably, the Yamaha receiver features built-in support for Apple's wireless AirPlay protocol, allowing users to transmit music from an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or Windows PC.




Amazon's third-most-popular home audio product this season was the Sonos Play:1, a 2-room streaming music starter set. The Sonos product also has an Apple connection: Earlier this month, Sonos added beta support for the Apple Music subscription streaming service.

Despite the continued popularity and even recent gains for vinyl music sales, streaming and digital downloads remain far and away the most popular way to consume music. In fact, streaming music revenues in the U.S. eclipsed CD sales earlier this year, highlighting the importance of the debut of Apple Music this summer.

As of last year, physical music sales --?including CDs, vinyl, and casettes -- still claimed 32 percent of the overall market.

Vinyl sales have increased year over year for the past nine consecutive years, and 2014 was the best year for vinyl since 1991, when Nielsen SoundScan first began tracking music sales.

As for the rest of Amazon's holiday sales announcements, the company continued its usual vague proclamations, revealing only that Amazon Prime subscriptions and device sales achieved "record-setting" levels. Exact hardware sales or overall subscription numbers were not revealed, though the company did disclose that more than 3 million new Prime members joined during the third week of December, presumably to ensure Christmas gifts were delivered on time.

Amazon took the same approach earlier this month to boast about Black Friday sales without delving into specifics. At the time, Amazon said its Fire TV was the best selling streaming media player in the U.S., but the data only applied to a period of time prior to the launch of the new fourth-generation Apple TV.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 48
    “Hipsters were a mistake.”
    – Anonymous

    I’ve seen a laser turntable; why aren’t those more prevalent? Or maybe it’s in style now to have your music slowly destroyed by a needle. I guess lasers would bring up “problematic” discussions about laser eye surgery, and then who would be left to wear all the thick rimmed “problem” glasses?
    edited December 2015
  • Reply 2 of 48
    kkerstkkerst Posts: 330member
    Sooner or later (whichever comes first of course) those hipsters will realize the old farts were right. Everything is cyclical...next year they will be selling CD players again.
  • Reply 3 of 48
    jkichlinejkichline Posts: 1,369member
    Just goes to show you there are a lot of kids that didn't know what to buy their parents for Christmas and since they don't want to have to deal with cleaning up the records in the basement, they gave them a record player that convert all their old vinyl to MP3s so they can listen on their brand new iPhones.
  • Reply 4 of 48
    jkichlinejkichline Posts: 1,369member
    It also doesn't matter in no way that the turntable is $50 instead of $380 for the AirPlay receiver. One is gift appropriate, and the other isn't.  Pretty basic.
  • Reply 5 of 48
    Retro is cool. Good point about Gift Appropriate. This is a serious question...why would you want music on vinyl records? Just trying to understand this other than nostalgia.
  • Reply 6 of 48
    The only people who really believe the vinyl is a decent recording medium are those too young to remember what it was like when that's all we had.  I struggle not to laugh out loud when some young hipster is trying to convince me of the superiority of their vinyl records and how they capture the "true sound" of the  artist and all that BS. 

    Speaking as a former owner of a 10,000 record collection (when vinyl was king) ... the sound quality is awful, even a single play of a record basically ruins it, the equipment is ridiculously "fiddly," it also produces heavily distorted sound and is as about far from "archival" as one can get.  

    Even back in the day, a real collector would only play their vinyl record for the one time that was necessary to transfer it to tape or CD.  Then they played the tape or the CD and put the vinyl away.  Vinyl not only sucks, it pretty much always has. 
    edited December 2015 justadcomicscnocbuiargonaut
  • Reply 7 of 48
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    kkerst said:
    Sooner or later (whichever comes first of course) those hipsters will realize the old farts were right. Everything is cyclical...next year they will be selling CD players again.
    And VHS VCRs too? Just asking.
  • Reply 8 of 48
    Are they counting iPads as audio products?  Pretty sure those are more popular as audio devices.

    Also pretty sure headphones were a big seller, those + computronic device = most popular way to consume audio by a Jupiter sized margin.

    Might be time to redefine the 'audio' product market, especially if It's being used as comparison against the Apple ecosystem.
  • Reply 9 of 48
    I wonder how many of these they sold :)


    1983argonaut
  • Reply 10 of 48
    sflocalsflocal Posts: 6,092member
    The only people who really believe the vinyl is a decent recording medium are those too young to remember what it was like when that's all we had.  I struggle not to laugh out loud when some young hipster is trying to convince me of the superiority of their vinyl records and how they capture the "true sound" of the  artist and all that BS. 

    Speaking as a former owner of a 10,000 record collection (when vinyl was king) ... the sound quality is awful, even a single play of a record basically ruins it, the equipment is ridiculously "fiddly," it also produces heavily distorted sound and is as about far from "archival" as one can get.  

    Even back in the day, a real collector would only play their vinyl record for the one time that was necessary to transfer it to tape or CD.  Then they played the tape or the CD and put the vinyl away.  Vinyl not only sucks, it pretty much always has. 
    Ya know.. I'm from that vinyl generation too. I'll meet you halfway... couple vinyl with a good tube-driven amplifier, and the music is just delicious, even with my bad hearing... I/We still have hundreds of vinyl albums that span decades that we just don't want to get rid of. That being said, I haven't listened to vinyl in decades. I need convenience and 99.9% of the time, I'm listening to music in an environment that would never bring out the qualities anyways, but I do respect the old-school medium.
    1983jahbladeargonaut
  • Reply 11 of 48
    jfc1138jfc1138 Posts: 3,090member
    Retro is cool. Good point about Gift Appropriate. This is a serious question...why would you want music on vinyl records? Just trying to understand this other than nostalgia.
    The analog signal contains more information, potentially, than the digital: where the standard sampling rate was/is moderate to low to keep the file (disk) size within limits. 

    Though in in ests it's like a huge digital image file from a pro dSLR versus a phone camera: the output determines what's better. And little earbuds for instance and all the extra information of vinyl or a big lossless file is just not used. Like a 55" hdtv versus a phone screen for an image. 
    edited December 2015
  • Reply 12 of 48
    I really regret buying the Yamaha RX-V677 earlier this year. I've had nothing but problems with this piece of junk receiver. The last software update from Yamaha broke AirPlay. The remote app never works either. 
  • Reply 13 of 48
    Here is a quality turntable, cartridge and stylus, and yes, a 78 RPM that will sound just as good as the downloadable version.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GGM7pn9iVc


  • Reply 14 of 48
    What I don't understand is why people like Prof_Peabody have to make such asinine self-righteous statements about people who prefer vinyl over other formats. What difference does it make how people like to listen to music? What matters is that they listen to it and enjoy it anyway they want. There's no need to be condescending about it. I love my records, and I use digital media all the time too. Who cares how people listen?
    mistergsfdasanman69
  • Reply 15 of 48
    It is kind of interesting to see that Appleinsider editors or website wants Apple dominant everything in the sales world. Even without prominent criticism, everybody understand what the article is about------Amazon cheating! Apple products should be the No.1 sale product.

    Wake up Appleinsider~ This is called company marketing strategy (or conspiracy that probably Appleinisider prefers), if there is one for Apple product in Amazon.

    Appelinsider even stretched about the products in the second and third places. Because Yamaha receiver and Sonos are AirPlay ready so that Appleinsider can imply that Apple products might be the most popular in the sale. However, I see 4K 60p upscale in Yamaha and stream Spotify in Sonos, which is more attract to me personally than AirPlay.

    Also for approach that Amazon used for their marketing, it is none of our business. Everyone can argue that the algorithm is an essential intellectual property for the company. Same thing as those models in the investment banks. This can be applied to the Other Sale (Apple Watch, Apple TV, Beats products, and etc) of Apple Products as well. Should we call the Apple cheating as well?

    So stop wailing to grow up, report something really inside the Apple Corp, not outside the Apple or to be defender of the Apple.
  • Reply 16 of 48
    kkerst said:
    Sooner or later (whichever comes first of course) those hipsters will realize the old farts were right. Everything is cyclical...next year they will be selling CD players again.
    The real question is when will 8-track tapes come back?
    applepieguyargonaut
  • Reply 17 of 48
    aircm1982 said:
    So stop wailing to grow up, report something really inside the Apple Corp, not outside the Apple or to be defender of the Apple.
    u mad bro?
  • Reply 18 of 48
    aircm1982 said:
    It is kind of interesting to see that Appleinsider editors or website wants Apple dominant everything in the sales world. Even without prominent criticism, everybody understand what the article is about------Amazon cheating! Apple products should be the No.1 sale product.

    Wake up Appleinsider~ This is called company marketing strategy (or conspiracy that probably Appleinisider prefers), if there is one for Apple product in Amazon.

    Appelinsider even stretched about the products in the second and third places. Because Yamaha receiver and Sonos are AirPlay ready so that Appleinsider can imply that Apple products might be the most popular in the sale. However, I see 4K 60p upscale in Yamaha and stream Spotify in Sonos, which is more attract to me personally than AirPlay.

    Also for approach that Amazon used for their marketing, it is none of our business. Everyone can argue that the algorithm is an essential intellectual property for the company. Same thing as those models in the investment banks. This can be applied to the Other Sale (Apple Watch, Apple TV, Beats products, and etc) of Apple Products as well. Should we call the Apple cheating as well?

    So stop wailing to grow up, report something really inside the Apple Corp, not outside the Apple or to be defender of the Apple.
    What a load of crap! Did you seriously even read the article? I didn't realize Apple makes and sells home audio products. The article doesn't even come remotely close to hinting at Amazon is somehow cheating. Since Amazon always claims record sales of its devices during the holidays, lets see the numbers. What's wrong with that? 
  • Reply 19 of 48
    19831983 Posts: 1,225member
    sflocal said:
    The only people who really believe the vinyl is a decent recording medium are those too young to remember what it was like when that's all we had.  I struggle not to laugh out loud when some young hipster is trying to convince me of the superiority of their vinyl records and how they capture the "true sound" of the  artist and all that BS. 

    Speaking as a former owner of a 10,000 record collection (when vinyl was king) ... the sound quality is awful, even a single play of a record basically ruins it, the equipment is ridiculously "fiddly," it also produces heavily distorted sound and is as about far from "archival" as one can get.  

    Even back in the day, a real collector would only play their vinyl record for the one time that was necessary to transfer it to tape or CD.  Then they played the tape or the CD and put the vinyl away.  Vinyl not only sucks, it pretty much always has. 
    Ya know.. I'm from that vinyl generation too. I'll meet you halfway... couple vinyl with a good tube-driven amplifier, and the music is just delicious, even with my bad hearing... I/We still have hundreds of vinyl albums that span decades that we just don't want to get rid of. That being said, I haven't listened to vinyl in decades. I need convenience and 99.9% of the time, I'm listening to music in an environment that would never bring out the qualities anyways, but I do respect the old-school medium.
    I think quite a few people think vinyl sounds better than other mediums and valves sound better than solid state amplification, due to the limitations and inadequacies of the human auditory system, not in spite of it. The distortions inherent in these systems can create what is perceived as a warm and maybe slightly fuzzy sound that many people prefer...the analogue sound I suppose.
    applepieguycnocbui
  • Reply 20 of 48
    19831983 Posts: 1,225member
    In the article above they mention that 32 percent of music sales are by CD, Vinyl and cassette...cassette! You can still buy music cassettes? I thought they went the way of the 78 RPM record back in the early to mid 90s!
    edited December 2015 mobius
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