Vinyl Sales* Continued To Grow In 2018, Report Says

[*New Vinyl – this doesn’t even account for the second hand market…]

Celebratory news for audiophiles: Vinyl sales grew by double digits last year, moving nearly 10 million units in 2018.

Vinyl accounted for an estimated 9.7 million album sales in 2018, says an annual music consumption report from BuzzAngle. That’s up roughly 12% from 8.6 million in 2017. Vinyl album sales accounted for 13.7% of all physical sales, up from 10% in 2017 and 8% in 2016.

BuzzAngle outlined the year’s 25 best-selling vinyl record, a list led by soundtracks and classic favorites. Roughly 66% percent of vinyl albums sold in 2018 were released at least three years ago.

A look at the top 10 stateside:-

1. 1. Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol.1 (47,155 sold
   2. Michael Jackson — Thriller (46,435 sold)
   3. Beatles — Abbey Road (43,606)
   4. Fleetwood Mac — Rumours (38,874)
   5. Prince & The Revolution — Purple Rain (38,339)
   6. Amy Winehouse — Back to Black (37,753)
   7. Tony Bennett & Diana Krall — Love Is Here To Stay (36,962)
   8. Queen — Greatest Hits I (34,212)
   9. Pink Floyd — The Dark Side of the Moon (33,342)
   10. Bob Marley & The Wailers — Legend (33,191)

With DAMN. at No. 17 and good kid, m.A.A.d city at No. 20, Kendrick Lamar led hip-hop entries on the year-end list. He joins the Beatles and Fleetwood Mac with scoring two slots in the top 25. Chris Stapleton led country music entries at No. 24, selling 20,964 vinyl copies of 2015’s Traveller.

Rock albums led all genres in vinyl sales, making up 42% of the 9.7 million units. That’s down from rock’s 54% share in 2017. Pop titles grew to roughly 26%, up from 14% in 2017.

Vinyl grew as overall physical album sales continued to drop. Physical sales fell 15.3%, with CD sales dropping by 18.5%. CDs accounted for 60.7 million units in 2018, compared to 74.5 million in 2017. Cassette sales, however, grew 18.9%, selling roughly 120,000 units — a nod to artists releasing collectible versions of albums on the once-defunct medium.

BuzzAngle reports a year of positive growth for overall music consumption, with combined streaming and sales up 16.2% from 2017. With a 41.8% bump, audio streaming saw the largest year-over-year growth — up 534.6 billion streams from 376.9 billion in 2017. Read the full BuzzAngle report here.