Vinyl Album Sales Hit Historic High in 2020
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Vinyl records are making a comeback. In the week ending December 24, 2020, vinyl record sales hit a high note. 1.8 million albums were sold in the U.S. alone. That s the biggest week for vinyl album sales since Nielsen Soundscan started keeping track of sales in 1991. The second-biggest week of vinyl album sales was the week before Christmas week, ending December 17.
People claimed old school vinyl albums are like eating comfort food. In 2020 people were looking for something that made them feel comfortable and safe with a nostalgic feel and vinyl albums checked all the boxes.
reporter: he is a trendsetter and always on the newest gadget and hippest outfits and when it comes to listening to music. joe is old school. you prefer a vinyl to digital muc? a record is tafrj and i believe i can hold. reporter: still it is it a trend in itself. in the 50 quarter of 2015, vinyl record sales were up 50 percent and by more than 250 percent from five years ago. even if the vinyl is played. it was a warm feeling to it. reporter: a vinyl revival that puts the smile on the long- time l, fan. cd s were supposed to wipe out vinyl and digital music was supposed to totally kill it, what happened? the younger people are tapping in to vinyl because it
report from nielsen sound scan which tracks music sales showing a 40% jump in vinyl record sales. you heard right. in just the first six months of this year, more than 4 million vinyl records have been sold. it represents a growing trend that s been going on for the last several years. as many wonder what this means, it s a sure sign of how the industry continues to evolve. that subject is outlined in a fascinating new book cowboys and indies. joining me is the author gareth murphy. nice to see you. and i want to ask you about this book which goes all the way back to the origin of music. you take it from there to contemporary artists like adele. this is a wide ranging topic. what made you want to take it on? well, i think as your subjects just said, it was interested in the future. obviously, it s a history book
up about 28 points. you might have a bunch of old albums stored in the attic. who needs them in the ipod age, right? get this. the vinyl record is back. the ipod generation learning what scratches and turntables are all about. i think they know that part, stephan stephanie, but this is weird. do they lined the sound of it playing on the record player? actually it is a really big thing for some of the younger folks out there, about listening to records. we ll get into that. when you look at it, record sales are actually doing better than digital sales. sounds crazy, but it s true. if you look at it, vinyl record sales are actually growing faster. numbers from nielsen say vinyl sales rose 13.6% last year. sales of digital albums rose 13%. not a huge bump but noticeable enough, that big names like best buy, am sovn and urban outfitters are now stocking records. so we head out to a record