Record listeners and furniture lovers unite
Michael Baggs

14:27 19th February 2014

Over 10,000 people have signed up to a Facebook campaign after Swedish furniture giants Ikea discontinued their Expedit shelf range - designed for vinyl storage.

Recent years have seen vinyl sales surge, so it seems an odd decision to remove the unit from their range - and customers and vinyl listeners alike have expressed their disappointment by signing up to 'Rettet das Ikea Expedit Regal' on Facebook. However, Ikea has introduced a new shelving unit, named 'Kallax', which is slightly smaller, but still perfect to store records.

Vinyl sales in the UK were at a 15 year high in 2013, with 780,000 records sold. The BPI reports that this was the highest number since 1997. A number of big-name artists have contributed to the vinyl resurgence, with huge releases from Arctic Monkeys, Daft Punk and David Bowie proving irresistable to vinyl collectors, and becoming the biggest sellers of the past 12 months.

Despite the huge increase in vinyl sales, however, The Metro newspaper reported that the physical format contributes to only 1% of overall music sales, in an age where music streaming services are booming - and now generating serious revenue for the music industry. The figures reveal that streaming services such as Spotify or Deezer brought in over £100million in 2013, and now makes up 10% of industry income.


Photo: Rettet das Ikea Expedit Regal / Facebook