World’s Topmost Seller of Vinyl Records – Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN)

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By Daniel Craine on September 26, 2014 Street Watch

Who says vinyl records are out of fashion? They are still considered modern, and Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) have now become the top most seller of these records.

Even though the brand is often ‘objectionable’ still it has managed to surpass even Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) in terms of selling LPs. An exact number of sales is not yet announced by the company but it is predicted that this amount is a fairly large one. If we count independent sellers they altogether account for about 64% of total sales for vinyl records.

This news, of Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) being the number one seller of vinyl records was announced by Calvin Hollinger with much enthusiasm. Calvin, CAO of Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) stated to the business analysts that their company is the largest marketer of vinyl on this planet. Music is an important thing for their customers and that is the reason why their company has reached the number 1 spot.

Seeing things from a broader perspective, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) had no tough competitors anyway as one doesn’t see many brands selling vinyl records nowadays. However, a year ago, Whole foods (NASDAQ: WFM) and Target (NYSE:TGT) made a decision to try selling some particular titles. No considerable sales are seen in both the companies until now but them jumping the bandwagon shows the potential Vinyl holds.

The company stated that they have tried to be very creative in order to gain success in the vinyl business. They planned a method to stock the product physically as well as online and instead of buying numerous records the company leases the space for them. They have kept a crew of a 100 dealers who are constantly providing unique chances to music artists for the publicity of their LPs who use the platform of Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) to promote themselves.

It’s been a long time since the concerted sales of music albums has decreased. Every year, CDs purchases decline to a great extent. For some time now, sales of the digital albums have decreased as well. However, the sales of vinyl records have increased greatly in contrast. About 6.1 million of LPs have been sold last year in the United States according to a report by SoundScan. This year, Jack White, lead singer of the band ‘White Stripes’ made a record of selling the maximum number of LP copies in a week; out of 138000 sales of his album, 30% consisted of vinyl records.

The most unexpected thing about Urban Outfitters (NASDAQ:URBN) sales is the customer analysis, the company was amazed and at the same time worried to see high-school-kids buying from the store. This clashed with their target market and the records will surely bring back elder people who grew up listening to music on gramophones into the store. No doubt that technology has replaced all old methods but it seems that people still looking for the joys of owning a personal record player.