Vinyl record sales hit 30 year highs in US, UK

Vinyl sales in both the US and UK broke 30 year sales records despite on going supply chain shortages that delayed or derailed many releases.

In the UK, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) reported that 5 million vinyl albums have been sold over the past 12 months, up 8% from 2020 and the 14th consecutive year of growth since 2007.

For all of 2021 vinyl accounted for one in four UK album purchases – the highest ratio since 1990,

In the US, the week prior Christmas was a record breaker. In the week ending December 23rd, Americans purchased 2.11 million vinyl records, according to Billboard.

That made it vinyl’s biggest sales week since 1991 when SoundScan began tracking music sales and marked the first time that vinyl sales have exceeded two million units in decades.

Adele with 59 million and Kid Cudi with 41,500 helped drive vinyl’s record US sales week.

The pre-Christmas week also marked a 45% increase from the previous week ending December 16th, which had logged 1.46 million in sales.

Bruce Houghton is Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank and serves as a Senior Advisor to Bandsintown which acquired both publications in 2019. He is the Founder and President of the Skyline Artists Agency and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.