2017 and 2018 in numbers

The big numbers post for 2016 was a great success, so I thought “why not make this a tradition”? So here we are at the beginning of 2018 with a look back on 2017 in VGM vinyl releases.

Last year I claimed that 2016 had been an insane year and the year with most ever VGM vinyl releases. Well, that record has now been taken by 2017 – and with quite a few releases.

While 2016 had around 90 releases, 2017 had almost 130! And that’s just different soundtracks – not different variants and repressings. We even had 2 VGM flexi disc releases, which hasn’t happened since the early 90s.

It doesn’t look like the market is stagnating either as there’s currently 76 titles scheduled for 2018. With that development from last year, there’s a good chance that 2018 also will have more new titles than ever before.

The Labels

Just like last year iam8bit is the most productive VGM vinyl label out there ever. Finishing with their much anticipated Persona 5 box sets they end with 21 new soundtrack releases in 2017 alone, which brings them to a total of 56 releases in their back catalog. And with another 15 announced titles planned for 2018 there’s no sign of them slowing down.

Another label that had a very productive year is Black Screen Records who released 12 new soundtracks on vinyl including label founder Kevin Schultz’ dream release – the Earthworm Jim Anthology 2LP. They have 4 titles confirmed for 2018 with another few announced, although without any strict ETAs.

Data Discs continued their series of high quality remastered Sega soundtracks as well as the soundtrack for the new Sonic Mania game. They also surprised us with the Metal Slug soundtrack, which was the first from a new partnership with SNK. They have 2 new titles announced for us in 2018 and I’m sure we’ll see more from their new partnership with SNK as well.

Ship To Shore PhonoCo. had 4 new vinyl releases in 2017 as well as a hand in one of the flexi releases. 3 of the 4 titles followed up on their partnership with Taito and Konami – including the highly regarded Snatcher release. They have several announced titles as well – 3 of which are planned for early 2018.

Mondo had a strong year and followed up on their partnership with Konami with several titles from the Castlevania and Contra series. That is planned to continue in the new year – as well as new partnerships with the newly announced Katamari Damacy soundtrack.

Spacelab9 had 7 new soundtrack titles in the past year as well as new pressings of older titles. Among their releases were the acclaimed Dark Souls, The Witcher 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim soundtracks. They have 3 announced titles coming this year, including an interesting Namco compilation.

Ghost Ramp followed up on a good 2016 with some solid new titles for 2017 including Nuclear Throne and Crypt Of The Necrodancer. They already have 2 titles coming early in the new year as well as some confirmed titles we’ve known about for some time.

Laced Records also released 3 good titles in 2017 including the charming Yooka-Laylee score. They have announced the Absolver and Ruiner soundtracks for 2018 so far and I’m sure we’ll be seeing even more from them.

A surprise among the labels are Yetee Records, who had released a few titles in the past years, but had a whopping 7 new vinyl soundtracks for us this year – plus 2 flexis. These included the popular Starbound soundtrack and a partnership with Tribute Games, which will continue into the new year. And speaking of the new year – there’s already 6 confirmed titles.

Another label with a great year is Brave Wave who had 7 new releases this year including classics like Ninja Gaiden and newer soundtracks such as Shovel Knight. They have 3 new releases confirmed for the new year, but I’m sure we’ll see even more.

2017 also saw several newer labels join in such as Gamer’s Edition and Gamemusic Records, alongside G4F Records. All 3 of them put out 2 releases each and it will be interesting to see what they have in store for 2018.

If you want to read more about all the different labels putting out VGM on vinyl, then I have a small guide to them here.

There are of course more labels putting out game music on vinyl than those above – and there are still new ones coming.

Blip Blop in 2017 (also in numbers)

The end of 2017 marks almost 2½ years of Blip Blop, which is incredible! I’m stoked to still be able to do this and I’m super happy that still more people follow the site.

I’ve been doing a whopping 4 contests/giveaways where I’ve partnered with the great people from The Yetee, Video Game Grooves and a generous fellow collector.

A year ago I celebrated my 100th post and right now I’m well past 200! Where there was almost 800 different releases in the directory last year, there is now more than 1000 – 1033 to be exact!

There are listings with music from more than 1100 games from 73 different game platforms in the directory.

And how about you lovely people who visit the site? Well, we’ve had 17543 unique visitors to the site this year. Almost half of all visitors are from the United States, with 10% coming from the UK with Germany, France and Canada close by. There’s also been an increase in Japanese visitors. More than half of you guys and gals keep coming back for more, so I must be doing something right 🙂

Most visitors come from Google, but a lot of you are visiting from social media as well, which goes well with a consistent increase in followers on Facebook and Twitter. So thanks to all of you who are following the site there.

If you’d like less numbers and more discussion about the releases from 2017 I’d strongly recommed giving the last Video Game Grooves episode from 2017 a listen. I’m featured as a guest on that episode and we take a look back at our favorite titles from 2017.

So what’s to come? To put it a little boring it’s gonna be more of the same. I have some personal things which will likely prevent me from doing a lot of extra improvements on the site programming-wise. But fear not – I still plan on bringing you the latests news on new (and old!) game music releases on vinyl.

2017 was a great year for video game music on vinyl and 2018 looks like it will be just as impressive! Looking forward to what it will bring.