In an increasingly digitized world, it might surprise you that the most popular music format is the LP, or long-playing phonograph record. Vinyl record sales increased by more than 50 percent in 2021, surpassing both digital and CD album sales and accounting for 38 percent of all album sales in the United States.
When considering the streaming and downloading of single tracks, the vinyl record market share is just 4.7 percent of all music purchased. But considering that vinyl record technology was nearly extinct 16 years ago, the fact that vinyl record sales are 45 times higher than they were back then is a sign that turntables will continue turning vinyl records.
The global vinyl record market reached a value of $1.5 billion in 2021, and is expected to reach $2.6 billion by 2027. That expected growth is driven by new consumers adopting the technology as their preferred means of consuming music. People are still finding value in owning physical copies of their favorite music, and vinyl record players have incorporated new technologies with the tried and true technology of the turntable to attract new consumers.
New vinyl record players feature Bluetooth technology, which undermines the unrivaled sound quality vinyl records provide, but make the format more attractive to young people. It is simply easier for young people living with parents or roommates to enjoy their vinyl records without being restrained by a cord. That means increased production of record players will be required to handle the increased demand for music on vinyl, and it’s already begun. E-switch can provide the switches necessary to meet those demands.
Most new vinyl record players feature surface mounted (SMT), tactile switches that allow the user to start and stop the playing of the record. It’s also likely that your printed circuit board (PCB) is located on the bottom of your turntable, meaning your buttons require switches that are mounted on the printed circuit board at a right angle.
E-switch offers many tactile switches mountable at a right angle that will make your turntable’s buttons functional. None has more options than the TL1105 Series tact switches, which feature actuators in multiple shapes and sizes, and caps for those actuators in multiple colors.
If your buttons on your record player are designed to go atop the turntable, the TL1105 can be customized as a straight, surface mountable switch, too. So whatever the design or color of your turntable, the TL1105 Series tactile switch could be a fit for your start/stop and Bluetooth pairing buttons. The TL1105 Series switches are also rated for a life expectancy of 100,000 cycles, so like phonograph technology, they’ll stand the test of time.
If your record player is designed to be portable, you might have two buttons positioned very close together. Our TL2243 Series double-stacked, low-profile tactile switch might be a fit for your phonograph if that’s the case. The TL2243 allows you to save space on your PCB by stacking two switches atop each other and allowing them to be mounted at a right angle on your circuit board. The E-switch TL2243 series tactile switch has a life expectancy of 30,000 cycles.
So turn that record over and keep the tunes turning and the sweet sound of vinyl spinning forever. The growth of the vinyl record market is music to this man’s ears.