Photograph Credit score: Sander Crombach
Vinyl LP gross sales within the UK enhance for a sixteenth consecutive 12 months because the bodily music market enjoys a sturdy 12 months, in line with evaluation from the BPI.
Vinyl album purchases within the UK have risen for the sixteenth consecutive 12 months in 2023, rising at their quickest charge this decade, in line with evaluation of Official Charts information by the BPI. With just some extra days left within the 12 months, the vinyl market in 2023 has elevated over 4 occasions as quick because the 12 months earlier — with an 11.7% rise to five.9 million models, up from a 2.9% enchancment in 2022.
New releases from artists together with Ed Sheeran, Lana Del Rey, Lewis Capaldi, Taylor Swift, and The Rolling Stones have led the rise, with the ever-rising demand for vinyl albums and different bodily format releases reflecting a thriving market. Within the UK, that is additional exemplified by means of the recognition of impartial document shops, paired with the success of specialist music and leisure chain HMV, which re-opened its unique flagship retailer on London’s Oxford Avenue this November after a four-year absence.
Greater than four-fifths of recorded music consumption within the UK is now made up of streaming, however demand for vinyl LPs continues to surge; the market is at its highest annual stage since 1990. Over 1 / 4 of 1,000,000 vinyl albums have offered within the UK simply final week alone — the best gross sales week for the format this century.
In the meantime, the CD market has sustained its smallest annual decline in almost a decade this 12 months, because it strikes nearer to a plateau. Almost 11 million CDs had been offered throughout 2023, whereas gross sales of cassettes topped 100,000 models in a calendar 12 months for the fourth consecutive 12 months.
“Led by vinyl, the resurgence of bodily product underlines the resilience of the UK music market at a time when streaming consumption continues to hit document ranges,” says Dr. Jo Twist, OBE, BPI Chief Govt. “While LP gross sales have now been on an upward path for the previous 16 years, it’s encouraging to see a stabilization in demand for CD, in addition to new generations of music followers falling in love with the cassette. It’s giving folks extra alternative than ever in how they get pleasure from their favourite music.”
Seven of the ten largest vinyl LP sellers this 12 months are 2023 new releases, led by Taylor Swift’s “1989 (Taylor’s Model)” and “Converse Now (Taylor’s Model),” Lana Del Rey’s “Did You Know There’s a Tunnel Beneath Ocean Blvd,” Lewis Capaldi’s “Damaged By Want to Be Heavenly Despatched,” Kylie Minogue’s “Stress,” Blur’s “The Ballad of Darren,” and The Rolling Stones’ “Hackney Diamonds.”
Over 40% of the 100 most-purchased vinyl LPs of 2023 had been launched prior to now two years, together with releases by UK artists reminiscent of The 1975, Depeche Mode, Ed Sheeran, Gorillaz, Liam Gallagher, and Noel Gallagher. That is alongside big-selling vinyl releases from worldwide artists together with Blink-182, boygenius, Olivia Rodrigo, Paramore, Queens of the Stone Age, and the soundtracks to the movies “Barbie” and “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.”