US sees surge in vinyl sales over holiday season

According to data provided by music sales tracking company Luminate, 2.32 million vinyl albums were sold in the week ending December 2022. This is the single-largest sales week for vinyl albums since Luminate began tracking music sales in 1991.

The top selling album was Taylor Swift’s Midnights with 68 000 copies flying off the shelves. Holiday shopping is believed to have contributed to overall vinyl sales rise in the week ending December 2022, which shot up by 46.7%.

Digital Music News reports that the vinyl format continues to make up the bulk of all physical album sales, with 63% of physical sales in the vinyl format.

Vinyl album sales in the US also topped more than 2 million in December 2021, representing 7% of all music revenue and 12% of total units sold that year.

According to Billboard, vinyl album sales made up 57% of overall album sales in the US in the week ending December 22 (2.2 million of 3.8 million) and 63% of all physical album sales (2.2 million of 3.5 million).

Overall album sales combine both physical and digital download album purchases. Physical album sales include vinyl albums, CDs and cassettes, and other physical formats.

The 1960s and 1970s were the golden era of vinyl with 1978 registering the highest unit sales of 341 million and revenue of $2.5 billion. However, the following decades saw a steady decline in sales before a rise in demand for LPs raked in $1 billion by the end of 2021.

Apart from the Christmas cheer, the growing fascination with vinyl is thought to be driven by an appreciation of “authenticity and warmth”. The younger generation is also reported to be placing more value on the packaging and artwork of the albums they purchase.