Latest Site News

[ben08]

From BPI, NME, Independent,

Sales of vinyl and cassettes surged once again in 2020, as music fans spent much of lockdown discovering new favourites to add to their collections.

The BPI, the organisation that represents the UK’s recorded music industry, reports Official Charts Company data showing that fans bought nearly 5 million vinyl LPs in 2020, marking a 21st century record and the highest total since the early Nineties.

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) has announced that 4.8 million LP albums were sold this year in the UK. That’s almost 10 percent higher than 2019 and consistent year-over-year growth since 2007. For comparison, a little more than 3 million LPs were sold in 2016. According to the BPI, vinyl sales haven’t been this strong since “the early nineties.” The format now represents 18 percent of album sales in the UK and, notably, creates “twice as much in industry revenues as music video streaming platforms, such as YouTube,” the BPI said in a press release.

Sales of vinyl have gone up almost 10% this year, which puts it on track to break the £100 million mark by the end of 2020, making for the best year since 1990.

Cassette sales are set to double by the end of the year, their highest level since 2003, as artists offer their music in a greater range of formats. Both classic and contemporary artists enjoyed bigger record and tape sales, from Fleetwood Mac and AC/DC to Dua Lipa and Lady Gaga.

Among the most popular vinyl records sold over the past 12 months are the classic Rumours by Fleetwood Mac, Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black, Nirvana’s Nevermind, and (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? by Oasis. However, more recent albums also sold well in vinyl format, including AC/DC’s new record Power Up, Ultra Mono by IDLES, and Harry Styles’s Fine Line. Sheffield-formed band Arctic Monkeys managed to achieve one of the top-selling vinyl albums of the year, despite only releasing their Live at the Royal Albert Hall recording in December.

Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the BPI, Brit Awards and Mercury Prize, said: “In a year when all our lives have changed, music’s power to inspire has never been more evident. The immediacy and convenience of streaming make it the go-to audio format for most of our listening, but more and more fans choose to get closer to their favourite artists and albums on vinyl.”

He continued: “It’s remarkable that LP and audio tape sales should have risen at all given the challenges we’ve all faced. The surge in sales despite retail closures demonstrates the timeless appeal of collectable physical formats alongside the seamless connectivity of streaming.”

Currently, the best-selling vinyl albums of 2020 are as follows:

1. Fleetwood Mac – Rumours
2. Oasis – (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?
3. Amy Winehouse – Back To Black
4. Nirvana – Nevermind
5. Harry Styles – Fine Line
6. Kylie Minogue – Disco
7. AC/DC – Power Up
8. Queen – Greatest Hits
9. IDLES – Ultra Mono
10. Arctic Monkeys – Live at the Royal Albert Hall

The final BPI report for UK music consumption in 2020 will be published on 4 January 2021.

In the US, this year also saw vinyl outsell CDs for the first time since the 1980s. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), vinyl contributed a staggering $232 million (£181 million) to total physical sales of $376 million (£278 million) in the first half of 2020. Last week, the United States sold the most amount of vinyl records in history in a single week. The pre-Christmas rush saw nearly 2 million LPs sold across the country. As Billboard reports, 1.842 million vinyl LPs were purchased in the US in the week leading up to Christmas, which ended on December 24.