US Vinyl Album Sales Grow In 2020
Despite the Corona virus, and maybe because of it, the mid-year figures show an almost 10% increase in vinyl sales during the first half of 2020 as people hunker down and shelter in place. According to the new Nielsen Music/MRC Data midyear report, the U.S. music vinyl industry posted a 9.4 per cent increase, despite the very real COVID-19 economic downturn everywhere else.
In spite of COVID closing large numbers of record stores across the US, with CD sales dropping from 26.53 million to 18.5 million copies, a huge drop of 30% and digital album downloads dropping from from 20.6 million to 17.65 million, or 14% drop, vinyl sales have have continued to grow. This is despite consumers turning to suppliers like Amazon to get their physical media fixes.
As reported by Billboard though, vinyl continues its amazing renaissance and has essentially become the saving grace for the physical format during lockdown. Even UHD 4K Blu-ray sales are declining. Overall, vinyl album sales enjoyed 11.2 per cent growth to 9.2 million units, up almost 1 million copies from the 8.3 million copies scanned during the first half of 2019.
Believe it or not, it is rumored that the hypermarket chain Walmart, who have recently joined the vinyl party with the rollout of 12″ vinyl to its in-store selection of physical media are in-part partially responsible for the uptick in sales.
To date, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data’s 2020 6 monthly report, six vinyl album tiles have already achieved more than 50,000 sales, compared to only three vinyl titles during the first half of 2019, with the number one vinyl spot being held by Billie Eilish’s album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? with more than 85,000 sales.
So to all you vinyl lovers who are keeping the dream alive, thank you. For those of you who have yet to hear the soothing, dulcet tones of vinyl go get yourself a turntable and enjoy and whole new world of aural excitement.
If vinyl is your ‘cup of tea’ check out my vinyl reviews here.
