Remember back in March when we reported that vinyl sales for the 2015 fiscal year had outsold the ad-supported, free on-demand streaming channels, bringing in $422.3 million versus the $385.1 million? As of last week, according to the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA), vinyl album sales were purchased more than digital album downloads at the tune of £2.4m in week 48 of 2016, with downloads bringing in £2.1m. This is the first time this has ever happened.
A year ago at this stage, November album sales in the vinyl department vastly undersold their digital counterparts by £3.2m. Using Official Charts data, this influx of vinyl sales isn’t contributed to just one trend. The larger piece of the pie has been helped in part due to the wider availability of the medium along with increased gift giving and the world wide event, established in 2007 known as Record Store Day.
“It’s not so long ago that the digital download was meant to be the future. Few would have predicted that an album format, first invented in 1948 and based on stamping a groove into a piece of plastic, would now be outselling it in 2016,” stated ERA chief Kim Bayley
For the eighth year in a row (2015), UK vinyl album sales have increased, as sales soared to £25.1m with British acts that include Adele and Ed Sheeran took in the revenue for one in six of all albums sold worldwide. More surprising news featured in a report by the BPI, the British Association commissioned to promote their country’s music, came to the find that UK artists benefited more fiscally from vinyl sales than Youtube earnings in 2015.
Via: The Independent