Vinyl sales beat CD for the first time since 1987
Image Credit: NME
Vinyl sales have beaten CDs for the first time in 35 years.
NME reports that vinyl has outsold CD for the first time in 35 years based on figures released by Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA).
Further, NME note that music sales increased by three percent in 2022 – reaching a total of almost £2 billion (the highest number since 2003), almost double the level of their low point in 2013. With that said, it was reported back in February 2022 that UK vinyl sales looked set to overtake CDs in 2022. Over in the States, viny sales sae their biggest week since 1991 at the end of 2022; selling 2.2 million vinyl albums in the last week of December.
Though physical sales did fall a little by 3.8 percent to £280.4 million, they leveled out as the vinyl format showed growth despite CD sales declining, according to the published figures.
In fact, vinyl album sales grew by 11 percent to a total of £150.5million as CD album sales fell by 17.4 percent to £124 million. This is the first time vinyl outsold CD by value since 1987.
“We are approaching a watershed,” ERA CEO Kim Bayley said in a statement. “Thanks to the investment and ingenuity of streaming services on the one hand and to the physical retailers who have driven the vinyl revival on the other, music is within sight of exceeding £2bn in retail sales value for the first time in more than two decades.”. He continues, “Music has to be great to win people’s attention, but it’s the buying and consumption experience which ultimately persuades people to put their hands in their pockets”.
Furthermore, Harry Styles‘ album ‘Harry’s House‘ was 2022’s biggest-selling album, and garnered the largest number of single sales & streams for ‘As It Was’. Meanwhile, NME reports that “other big releases for physical album sales included Taylor Swift’s ‘Midnights‘ and Arctic Monkeys’ ‘The Car‘”.