Record Store Day 2018 Sets Vinyl Sales Records

Vinyl Bay 777, Long Island’s music outlet, takes a look at the success of this year’s event

The numbers are in and Record Store Day 2018 was major success. Taking place on Saturday, April 21, the event saw its highest numbers in its 11 year history. Not only that, but it also led to one of the most successful sales weeks for the music industry in decades.

According to Nielsen Music, as reported on by Billboard, 733,000 vinyl albums were sold the week ending April 26, which includes Record Store Day 2018 sales. This marks the largest non-Christmas sales week since Nielsen started keeping track in 1991. Including Christmas, it was the third-largest vinyl sales week. Nielsen broke it down even further, saying that of the 733,000 units sold, 580,000 were sold by independent retailers, making it the largest week for retail vinyl sales in the chart’s history.

As an example of Record Store Day’s amazing power to generate sales, album sales would have actually declined that week without the event. Nielsen Music, as reported on by the BBC, said that overall sales would have been down 2.5% that week had Record Store Day not happened. Instead, music sales rose 17%.

Not only was Record Store Day 2018 great for album sales in general, it also saw the largest sales in the event’s history. Compared to 2017, album sales rose 23% this year, meaning another consecutive year of growth for the event. Variety reported last year that from 2016 to 2017 the event saw a 14% increase.

Vinyl Bay 777 felt the effects of Record Store Day as well. Music fans began lining up early outside the shop’s Plainview location Saturday morning to get their hands on this year’s releases. Popular titles from Rage Against the Machine, Pink Floyd and Johnny Cash sold out almost instantly.

Much of this growth is due to the plethora of exclusive and limited edition releases that came out for the event. This year’s most purchased exclusive in the US was the rerelease of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Greatest Hits’ on red vinyl. That was followed by David Bowie’s previously unreleased ‘Welcome to the Blackout’ live album, Neil Young’s ‘Tonight’s the Night Live at the Roxy,’ Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Live at the DNC,’ and the rerelease of Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead’s ‘Dylan & The Dead’ collaboration rounding out the top five. In terms of singles, Led Zeppelin’s “Friends”/”Rock and Roll” 7” led the list with David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” demo, Sufjan Stevens’ “Mystery of Love,” The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy” and Jimi Hendrix’s “Mannish Boy”/”Trashman” in the top five.

Record Store Day was started in 2007 as a way to unite small, independent record shops with music fans and artists in celebration of the music that brings them together. Every year, the event boasts a broad selection of exclusive and limited-edition vinyl releases in hopes that fans would travel to their local shop instead of order the piece online. Over the years, the event has snowballed, gaining more and more traction, bringing in a whole new generation of music fans discovering vinyl for the first time. Now in its 11^th year, the event saw more than 400 rare and exclusive titles released to independent record shops all over the world.

Record Store Day week was just as successful in the UK. The BBC reports that vinyl sales were up 16% from the same time last year. More than 60,000 and 30,000 units of albums and singles were sold, respectively during the sales week. David Bowie’s ‘Welcome to the Blackout’ was the best selling album of the day, as well as the week. The exclusive sold so many copies that it charted at number 22 on the Top 40 UK sales chart.

Thanks to a host of high-profile exclusive titles, Record Store Day 2018 was a big success. Not only did the event have its largest sales in its 11 year history, but it also helped create one of the biggest sales weeks in music history period. This kind of growth bodes well for the music industry and vinyl sales, as the format continues to find a new audience searching out physical releases.

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Vinyl is still alive and well as Vinyl Bay 777, Long Island’s favorite new independent record shop. Find Record Store Day exclusives, as well as thousands more titles to choose from in a variety of genres. Not only do we have a wide selection of new and used vinyl records, we also carry new and used CDs, cassettes, music DVDs and memorabilia. Shop in store at our Plainview location or online at vinylbay777.com to see what’s new. With more titles being added to our selection all the time, you never know what you might find at Vinyl Bay 777.