From Sky News

 

Vinyl sales overtake CDs for the first time in 35 years - and the best sellers might surprise you

 

In an era of music streaming, you might have thought vinyl was destined to become a thing of the past, or the preserve of older collectors who remember when LPs first hit the shelves. Well you'd be wrong. Records are outselling CDs for the first time in 35 years.

 

Record store Rough Trade, in West London, has been struggling to keep up with the demand for vinyl. Manager, Chris Summers, puts LPs appeal down to "affordable luxury". "People will come in here and go 'oh I'll treat myself.'"

 

UK record sales have been rising for the last 15 years, reaching £116.8m this year. In comparison, CD sales stood at £98.3 million. Vinyl's renaissance is good news for artists facing lower revenues from streaming. And it seems, at least for the moment, vinyl's popularity is defying the cost of living's impact on people's spending habits.

 

In fact, records are attracting a whole new, younger generation of listeners who want to listen to popular, new music on a record player. Most of the best-selling vinyl albums in 2022 were released this year. The most popular LPs were Taylor Swift and Harry Styles, selling for around £33.

 

17-year-old Ava Fahey spends most of her money on records, and she's a big Swift fan. "I think she [Taylor Swift] has identified for the younger people buying vinyl is about the experience and the aesthetic and the collectible variation of it. She's really gone for the experience of owning Taylor Swift vinyl, not just streaming it on our phones," says Ms Fahey.

 

Drew Hill is the managing director of Proper Distribution, the UK's biggest distributor of vinyl. He says the sound quality of LPs creates a different, more special, kind of listening experience. "I think we've got to stop thinking about music consumers being either digital or physical. I think a lot of music fans do both. I think that they probably listened to a lot of music, via streaming platforms when they're on the go and maybe when they're at home or with their friends, then they want to play a record," says Mr Hill.

 

 

My comment

I would like to see the unit sales for each as a vinyl album is around 3 times the price of a CD album.

No way is the managing director’s name ‘Drew Hill’ :lol:

With price factors considered i would think more cds were sold than vinyl only vinyl is more expensive resulting in higher revenue. There is no doubt the popularity of vinyl is rising and will rise again next year but i wonder how long the resurgence in vinyl will last.

No way is the managing director’s name ‘Drew Hill’ :lol:

 

Well he was interviewed on Sky News several times yesterday. He does exist.

With price factors considered i would think more cds were sold than vinyl only vinyl is more expensive resulting in higher revenue. There is no doubt the popularity of vinyl is rising and will rise again next year but i wonder how long the resurgence in vinyl will last.

 

Agreed

Well he was interviewed on Sky News several times yesterday. He does exist.

 

I can’t believe this is a chart forum and nobody gets my post.

Idgi

Yeah this is mostly just down to vinyl being significantly more expensive than CDs, in terms of actual units CDs will still be well ahead (...for now, I could see them eventually falling behind even in units at the rate CD sales have been continuing to collapse).

"UK record sales have been rising for the last 15 years, reaching £116.8m this year. In comparison, CD sales stood at £98.3 million. Vinyl's renaissance is good news for artists facing lower revenues from streaming."

 

Yeah...completely ignoring the fact that most artists struggling can simply not afford to take the risk of printing their own run of Vinyl!

Billboard has an article about the split in sales

for the week before Xmas which represents the xmas shopping week,

vinyls represented 66% of the physical week sales

with Cds+cassettes only 33%

"the best sellers might surprise you"

 

They don't mention many of them in the article, but I am quite sure that they don't surprise us in any way.

Edited December 30, 20222 yr by Sour Candy

(MW)

OFFICIAL VINYL ARTIST ALBUMS CHART 2022 – Official Charts Company (up to week 51)

1 Taylor Swift – Midnights (62K wk 1; 80K total)

2 Harry Styles – Harry’s House (36K wk 1)

3 Arctic Monkeys – The Car (38K wk 1)

4 Liam Gallagher – C’mon You Know

5 Wet Leg – Wet Leg

6 Rumours – Fleetwood Mac

7 The 1975 – Being Funny In A Foreign Language

8 Fontaines D.C. – Skinty Fia

9 Arctic Monkeys – AM

10 Muse – Will Of The People