Vinyl sales hit a fourteen-year high in 2019 while overall physical album sales continued to decline.
People like to argue about the longevity of physical media. Buying albums, they say, guarantees a record will be part of your collection for the foreseeable future. Streaming gives us access to virtually all music, but for how long? What is stopping Spotify from tucking specific releases behind a premium plan? Can anyone guarantee artists won’t decide to pull their catalogs from streaming platforms until royalty rates rise?
The individuals that like to make these arguments are correct in their beliefs regarding physical media. Streaming makes everything easy, but despite the popularity of services like Spotify, the future for the medium remains unclear. If you absolutely must have an album in your life, the best way to do so is to buy a physical copy.
Sadly, it seems, people want to own albums less and less. In 2019, Americans purchased 73.5 million records in some physical format, be it CD, vinyl, or even cassette tape. Of that figure, 18.84 million were vinyl, which is up over 14% from the year prior, according to data shared by Nielsen Music in its annual year-end report on how the music industry is doing.
In total, vinyl now accounts for more than one-fourth of all physical media sales.
A large portion of the vinyl album sold in 2019 stems from records widely considered to be classic. The Beatles sold more vinyl records than any other group last year. Bob Marley, Queen, The Beach Boys, and Fleetwood Mac also sold incredibly well.
When it came to new talent, Billie Eilish was ahead of the pack. The teenage pop singer sold more than 175,000 copies of her debut record, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?, on vinyl. That’s more physical sales than most artists see from all physical formats combined.
It seems likely that vinyl will continue to lead physical media sales in 2020. Older generations are clinging to their favorite format, and younger generations have fallen in love with the sound and look of great records. Vinyl is a high-risk investment for young artists, but it can yield high returns with the right audience
