Vinyl Just Had Its Biggest Sales Week In Decades
Vinyl just had its best sales week in decades. Billboard reports that Americans bought 2.11 million vinyl records in the week ending on December 23, the biggest sales week — and the first time that vinyl sales have broken two million — since SoundScan began tracking music sales in 1991.
That’s a 45% increase compared to the previous week (1.46 million), suggesting a whole lot of people were doing some last-minute Christmas shopping. The previous record high was last Christmas, the week ending December 24, 2020, when 1.84 million vinyl LPs were sold.
So what were people buying? Adele, mostly. The best-selling vinyl album in the past week was Adele’s 30, which sold 59,000 copies and topped Billboard‘s weekly Vinyl Albums chart for a fifth consecutive week. That brings its US sales total up to 293,000, making it by far the best-selling vinyl LP of the year. Congrats, Adele!