Vinyl Record Sales Continued to Break Records in 2018

Vinyl Bay 777, Long Island’s music outlet, takes a look at the Continued Rise of Vinyl in Nielsen’s end-of-year statistics

The numbers are in and 2018 was another record-breaking year for vinyl music sales.

According to Nielsen Music, sales of vinyl records climbed to new heights last year, moving 16.8 million units, a rise of nearly 15% over 2017, marking a new 13-year high for the format. That is also the largest number of vinyl units sold since Nielsen began keeping track in 1991. Vinyl now makes up 19.1% of all physical albums sold in the United States.

Markedly, it wasn’t new releases that drove US vinyl sales. Of the top 10 best-selling vinyl albums of the year, nine of them were catalog titles that came out more than five years ago. The 2014 ‘Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1’ soundtrack came in at number one with approximately 84,000 units sold, followed by titles from Michael Jackson, Fleetwood Mac, The Beatles,  Prince, Bob Marley, Queen and Amy Winehouse, respectively. Panic! At The Disco’s ‘Pray for the Wicked,’ which came in at number 10 with approximately 59,000 units sold, was the only album released in the last year to reach the top 10.

Vinyl unit sales were much higher in general than they were over the last year or two. The top 10 vinyl albums of 2018 sold roughly 698,000 units, upwards of 100,000 units more than 2017’s roughly 579,000.  In 2018, 79 titles sold more than 20,000 units compared to 77 in 2017 and 58 in 2016. Similarly, 14 albums sold more than 50,000 units, almost double the eight that achieved that feat in 2017.

The report found that a majority of these sales were made at independent shops. Small retailers made up approximately 41.1% of total vinyl sales in 2018. That number exceeds online and mail order purchases, which accounted for 40.9%, as well as vinyl purchases made at chains and big box stores, which made up 10.5% and 3.9%, respectively. Nielson chalks this up to exclusive releases only available at indie shops, such as the ones released during Record Store Day. In 2018, Record Store Day’s main April event saw its largest turn out yet, coming out as the third largest vinyl sales week since Nielsen started keeping track.

Unfortunately, vinyl’s continued resurgence was one of the only bright spots in music sales this year. As a whole, album sales were down again, this time 17.7% from 2017, moving 141 million units. Of that number, 88 million were sold on a physical format, down 15.8%. And while CDs continue to make up the majority of physical sales, that number dropped 20.9% over the last year. Digital downloads also fared poorly, dropping 20.7%.

This is due in large part to streaming, which grew by 49% in 2018. In fact, streaming is probably the only reason music consumption showed an increase for the year. Drake’s ‘Scorpion’ was the most consumed album of the year as both the album and its tracks set records upon their release.

Despite another year of falling album sales, vinyl records have been able to maintain their impressive comeback. Bolstered by exclusive releases and the desire for classic rock albums, sales of the format continued to rise in 2018. With these trends increasing year over year for more than a decade, it doesn’t look like vinyl is going anywhere any time soon.

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Vinyl records are alive and well at Vinyl Bay 777! As Long Island’s top new independent record shop, we have thousands of titles to choose in variety of genres to satisfy most music fans. Drop by our Plainview location or shop online at vinylbay777.com to browse our wide selection of new and used vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, music DVDs and memorabilia. With more titles being added to our selection all the time, you never know what you might find at Vinyl Bay 777.