My father had a big collection of 70s and 80s records, and as a little boy I’d go through it, playing them and reading the covers and the lyrics. Those records are iconic, and they definitely influenced me. The first one I bought myself was around 1988, in middle school: INXS’s Kick, the album with “New Sensation” on it. Today there’s a large box of records in my parents’ basement, and I play digital.
So I’m no vinyl romantic, and the vinyl revival doesn’t need one. Vinyl came back as a choice, and that choice is mostly about owning something in a world that keeps renting music back to you. Who’s making it, and why, is more interesting than the nostalgia headline, especially in Seoul, where the new buyer is in their 20s and 30s.
The Headline Number Has Fine Print
In 2022, UK vinyl album sales revenue passed CD revenue for the first time since 1987, and the tidy story wrote itself: the format never died and is enjoying a renaissance. That’s partly true and quite misleading. Much of the money comes from established fans buying music they already know, often albums they once owned on CD. A 2016 UK poll by ICM, reported by The Fader, found the biggest buyers were 25 to 34, adults with income rather than teenage converts.
The money keeps growing. In the United States, vinyl sales rose 9.3 percent in 2025 to pass $1 billion for the first time since 1983, the format’s 19th straight year of growth, with about 46.8 million records sold against 29.5 million CDs, according to the RIAA. But the curve is flattening. In the first half of 2026, US vinyl sales grew just 2.3 percent while CD sales rose 16 percent, Luminate found.
And a meaningful share of new vinyl is never played at all. It’s merchandise, a poster you can theoretically listen to. None of that is a criticism, but it’s a different thing from the one being marketed.
What a Record Sells: Ownership, Ritual and Signal
Strip away the mythology and vinyl’s value in 2026 stands on three legs. Ownership: a record can’t be delisted, relicensed or buried by an algorithm, which matters more every year that streaming shows how temporary a digital catalogue is. Ritual: the deliberate, full attention listening a side of vinyl demands, the opposite of the playlist, and the foundation of the listening bar culture now spreading from Tokyo through Seoul. Signal: owning the object is a public commitment to the music, which is why fans buy pressings they never unseal.
Sound quality, the argument audiophiles insist on, is the weakest leg. Vinyl’s advantage is in how people behave around it, and ownership is the strongest leg by far. With so much of our music and media now living on platforms, we no longer own that content, and the platforms keep taking that ownership away. That’s wrong. Vinyl is the answer to that: something you hold, that’s yours. Good records also slowly go up in price. I wish I hadn’t sold so many of mine when I was younger.
For DJs, the Constraint Is the Point
For DJs the sums are sharper. Playing vinyl in 2026 costs real money, more so since the pressing queue pushed costs up, and it’s a real constraint: you carry sixty records, not sixty thousand files. A vinyl set is curation you’ve committed to before you leave the house, and crowds and bookers can hear the difference between a selector who chose sixty records and one scrolling a library mid set.
It’s also a visible craft, the skill stack the move to digital nearly orphaned, which is why 1200s stayed in the booth and why vinyl only nights now market themselves as such. A lot of people like the tactile side, the discs, the platters and the authenticity behind it. And a record costs a lot more than a download, so if you’re going to buy that track, you had better love it and use it.
I switched to digital once CDJs arrived. Through the 2000s we would download our music, burn CDs and carry massive books of them. With long dance tracks each CD only held about eight, but I still bought the music. Then CDJs added USB, and that was the end of the CD wallet too.
In Seoul, the New Buyer Is in Their 20s and 30s
The fine print reads differently from here, because in Seoul the new buyer is younger. Herald Business reported in May 2026 that turntable transactions on the shopping platform 29CM rose 96 percent year on year over the first twelve days of May. On 11Street (11번가), turntable sales were up 32 percent on the previous month.
One LP, Bought and Resold
Jannabi’s Legend on yellow vinyl, original price and resale
잔나비 2집 노란 바이닐, 정가와 리셀가
The ruleMore than ten times the shop price. Nobody pays that to hear the record.
The same report named people in their 20s and 30s as the new core customers, and a record shop owner of 30 years said he never expected that age group to come looking for LPs, yet they’re now his main trade. So the rebuying pattern in the UK data, adults buying again what they once owned, doesn’t map neatly onto Korea. Here the turntable is often a first purchase, not something brought back down from the attic.
Then there’s the signal leg at full volume. The yellow vinyl pressing of Jannabi’s second album, Legend, sold at 55,000 won, about US$40 Jannabi (잔나비) fans and collectors have pushed its resale price to 640,000 to 700,000 won, roughly US$470 to $673. That’s the merchandise tier, priced like art.
The Fair, the Pressing Plants and the Flippers
The best long run gauge in this city is Seoul Record Fair (서울레코드페어). Newsis reported that attendance grew from about 2,000 in 2011 to 20,000 in 2019, and has settled around 13,000 since the pandemic. The 14th edition, on 25 and 26 October 2025 at PUBG Seongsu (성수), had 62 booths and about 40 LPs released there for the first time. The same report noted that Korea now has three LP pressing plants. In 2011 it had none.
A Habit That Found Its Level
Visitors to Seoul Record Fair
서울레코드페어 관람객 추이
How to read itThe fair lost a third of its peak crowd and kept the rest. Korea went from no LP pressing plants in 2011 to three.
Read together, those numbers look less like nostalgia and more like a new habit that has found its level. The fair lost a third of its peak crowd and kept the rest, which is what a durable niche looks like. Local plants mean local releases don’t have to cross an ocean to exist, a point I dig into in the piece on the pressing queue. And a generation buying turntables for the living room is a generation that might one day walk into a booth and ask what the two decks are for.
My worry sits at the resale end. When a 55,000 won record trades at 700,000 won, the people who wanted to play it are priced out by people who want to flip it, and at that point the record has left the culture and joined the market. The revival hasn’t put vinyl back at the centre, either; streaming holds the centre. The revolution already happened, and it was digital. Vinyl won something subtler: the right to mean something.
Where to Hear Records in Seoul
Seoul’s LP bars are a great addition to the city, a way for whisky and listening bars to adapt to contemporary taste, and the middle ground where a record gets played for a room and nobody owns it but the selector. There are too many to list, but the ones people mention most include Gopchang Jeongol (곱창전골) in Hongdae (홍대) for Korean oldies, Woodstock in Hongdae for rock, Suzie Q in Sangsu (상수), and Kompact Record Bar in Seongsu and Sinsa (신사).
For daytime listening, the free Hyundai Card Music Library (현대카드 뮤직 라이브러리) is in Hannam-dong (한남동). Go to listen, not to buy; the buying can wait for the fair. More bars, and the record shops, are in Seoul on Wax.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why are young Koreans buying vinyl records?
Retail reports from 2026 name people in their 20s and 30s as the main new buyers of turntables and LPs. They tend to treat the record as a collectible and a lifestyle object as much as a way to listen. Rare pressings from popular bands also carry real resale value, which pulls in collectors.
How big is Seoul Record Fair?
Attendance went from about 2,000 in 2011 to 20,000 in 2019 and has held around 13,000 since the pandemic. The 2025 edition, the 14th, ran 25 and 26 October at PUBG Seongsu with 62 booths. Check the fair’s official channels for the next dates.
Is the vinyl revival still growing?
In the United States, vinyl passed $1 billion in sales in 2025 for the first time since 1983, its 19th straight year of growth, according to the RIAA. Growth slowed to 2.3 percent in the first half of 2026, when CD sales grew faster, according to Luminate.
Why is the Jannabi LP so expensive?
The yellow vinyl edition of Legend originally sold at 55,000 won. Demand from fans and collectors has pushed resale prices to 640,000 to 700,000 won. Scarcity, not sound, sets that price.
Further Reading
- Seoul Record Fair (서울레코드페어): the official site, with dates and each year’s list of first release and limited LPs.
- Visit Seoul: Hyundai Card Music Library and Vinyl & Plastic: the official tourism guide to Seoul’s best known listening library and record shop.
- Record Store Day: the independent shops’ annual event that did much to restart the revival, and its own account of why.
- Vinyl Nation (2020): a documentary that asks who the new buyers are and whether the culture is open to them.
- Music Business Worldwide: RIAA 2025 report: the hard data behind the niche, with streaming subscriptions alongside vinyl.
- Seoul on Wax: vinyl bars and LP culture
- Why records take a year to press
Sources
Herald Business: Turntable sales and LP demand among 20s and 30s, Jannabi LP resale, May 2026
Newsis: Seoul Record Fair 14th edition, attendance history and Korea’s pressing plants, October 2025
Music Week: RIAA, US vinyl sales pass $1 billion in 2025, March 2026
DJ Mag: Luminate midyear report, US vinyl and CD sales in the first half of 2026, July 2026
29CM, Korean shopping platform
11Street, Korean shopping platform
Written from Seoul, by someone who has been in the booth for more than twenty years. More on the site, or book a DJ.
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