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Vinyl records have come full circle,
passing the one million yearly sales mark for the first time in 18
years.
The Official Charts Company today released figures that show vinyl
has already sped past the landmark figure, as well as beating last
years total sales, which topped out at 780,674. It predicts that as
the Christmas sales period hasn't even kicked off the number could
rise to 1.2 million by the end of the year.
Over the last five years, vinyl sales have increased five-fold,
but the last time sales were anywhere near this high was in 1996,
when 1,083,206 LPs were shifted in total.
The best-selling vinyl album of the year so far is AM by Arctic
Monkeys, although topping the chart right now is Nothing Has
Changed by David Bowie. Pink Floyd's album The Endless River -- the
band's first in 20 years -- has also been one of the year's big
vinyl success stories. In its first week, 6,000 copies were
purchase -- the highest number of any album released since 1997.
That officially makes it the fastest-selling vinyl album this
century.
"In scoring the biggest opening week for a vinyl album this
millennium, Pink Floyd's The Endless River illustrates the British
public's renewed love for this format, which is on course to become
a £20 million business this year -- an incredible turnaround from
barely £3m just five years ago. This resurgence also underlines music fans' continuing fascination with the
album," said Official Charts chief exec Martin Talbot.
This will no doubt come as welcome news to Taylor Swift, who
recently withdrew her music from Spotify, which was in
part a protest bemoaning the lack of respect towards albums as
works of art. Swift has enjoyed massive success with her album
1989, but there is no sign of her at the top of the vinyl sales
chart, which primarily features rock -- the genre that tends to
dominate vinyl sales. There are many old favourites including Led
Zeppelin, The Stone Roses and Oasis' Definitely Maybe in there
though.
As is to be expected, vinyl's share of the music market is still
dwarfed by Spotify and other streaming service, which claim 10
percent share to vinyl's two percent. Both of these formats are
currently seeing growth, however.
According to the British Phonographic Industry, the UK is "entering a more
pronounced multi-channel era, where streaming music day-to-day and
collecting physical recordings of your favourite artists can be
seen as complementary passions".
