Vinyl sales surpass digital downloads

“In 2017 revenues from recorded music in the US increased 16.5% at estimated retail value to $8.7 billion, continuing the growth from the previous year,” the RIAA said in statement.

Vinyl records outsold digital downloads for the first time since 2011 with an increase of 10% to $395m, accounting for about 8.5% of music revenue. However, physical sales fell by 4% in total. Digital album downloads saw a 24% decrease while single track downloads declined by 25%.

The burgeoning vinyl culture is not only apparent in the US. South Africa has also seen an upsurge in demand for the nostalgic record. This has resulted in both major and independent labels pressing vinyl for their artists as well as an increasing number of shops offering records instead of CDs.

“What I experience as someone selling records in South Africa is that there is a definite increase in physical sales, specifically in vinyl. At the same time you see a lot of the CD stores closing down,” Afrosynth Records owner Dave Durbach told Music In Africa. “So that suggests that a format that had higher sales figures is decreasing.

Streaming platforms could be the culprits responsible for the 4% total decrease in physical sales. According to the RIAA report, streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Deezer, which combined boast about 200 million users, make up about 65% of total music revenue.

“More than any other creative industry, music companies successfully transformed themselves ahead of the transition to streaming, all while forging stronger relationships with their most important partner: the artist,” RIAA CEO Cary Sherman said, adding that streaming services were not sufficiently paying artists.

“We continue to operate in a distorted marketplace, replete with indefensible gaps in core rights, inhibiting investment in music and depriving recording artists and songwriters of the royalties they deserve,” he said.

Durbach, who goes by DJ Okapi when spinning his South African retro records at parties around the world, said the trend seen by the RIAA would continue on a similar trajectory.

“There’ll always be a market for vinyl but it will never be a big mainstream thing,” he said. “Physical sales in general, including vinyl, will never get to a point of completely overtaking digital formats. Downloads will always continue to grow even though the acceleration of the sales might decrease.”