Vinyl and CD Sales: Why Physical Sales Still Matter in Some Genres
Vinyl and CD sales still matter. Some music genres, more than others, aren’t ready to say goodbye to physical products. Discover why vinyl, CDs, and cassettes still reign supreme for certain audiences.
Vinyl and CD Sales: Why Physical Sales Still Matter in Some Genres
by Bobby Owsinski of Music 3.0
Today everyone just assumes that music lovers all stream their favorite songs, but that’s not the case. While it’s true that 84% of all music industry revenue came from streaming in the United States last year, there were still 105 million streaming albums sold. Believe it or not, there are three major music genres where physical product plays a big part in their consumption, and eight in total that see significant sales, according to Luminate.
These are:
- Jazz – 23.3%
- World Music – 23.1%
- Rock – 17.8%
Not too surprising, is it? The next five categories are also not too much of a surprise, although their order is.
- Classical – 8.8%
- Pop – 8.6%
- Country – 6.8%
- Children’s – 5.8%
- Christian/Gospel – 5.6%
I would have expected Classical to be much higher on the list, but I guess that orchestral lovers are no longer skewing towards audiophile and embracing high-resolution streaming instead.
Pop music physical product numbers do seem to be skewed by Taylor Swift though, as she had five of the eight best-selling physical albums of 2023, totaling 4.8 million units sold.
It’s clear that physical product, especially vinyl, isn’t going away anytime soon. In fact, most artists would prefer it stick around for a while since its profit margins are considerably higher than just about anything else they sell.
Bobby Owsinski is a producer/engineer, author, blogger, podcaster, and coach. He has authored 24 books on music production, music, the music business, music AI, and social media.
