Vinyls are going through a renaissance of their own in the US! According to Luminate, 2.2 million vinyls have been sold in the week before 22nd December, which makes it the biggest selling week since 1991. The interesting thing about this is that with the Internet sweeping us all away, the vinyls had become past news. However, 2022 gave us the opportunity to see a hike in the sales once again owing to a lot of different factors, but especially ‘Midnights’ by Taylor Swift.
According to the Billboard reports, this marks the highest figure it has ever recorded since it began electronically tracking music sales. This is only the second time ever since 1991 that the sales crossed the 2 million mark. While a lot of people gift vinyls to their loved ones as a Christmas present, ‘Midnights’ by Taylor Swift alone moved 68000 units.
Vinyl amounts to 57 percent of overall album sales, and 63 percent of all physical album sales in the US. 2021 marks the first year in 30 years when vinyl albums outsold CDs in America. This is something that is not confined to the US. Vinyl sales in the UK have exceeded the CD sales for the first time this year with ‘Midnights’ leading the way for sales figures.
“It’s a watershed moment for the entire music industry,” Kim Bayley, who is the chief executive of the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) , stated in a conversation with The Guardian. “After the CD came along and pretty much wiped out the vinyl business, few of us would have believed a renaissance like this was possible.”
– Riya Sohini