Vinyl continued its remarkable resurgence by outselling CDs in 2022 for the first time since 1987, according to the Recording Industry Association of America’s annual report. The RIAA’s year-end chart reflects this astonishing comeback, with vinyl albums selling 41 million units compared to just 33 million CDs.
While vinyl sales continue to grow, CD sales are declining. Vinyl record revenues increased 17% to $1.2 billion in 2022, the 16th consecutive year of growth for the format, and accounted for 71% of all physical music format revenues. While CDs a Recovery from 2021 after 2020CD revenue fell a worrying 18% to $483 million in 2022.
Streaming, unsurprisingly, continues to dominate the whole picture. UK music sales grew by 3.0% in 2022, a figure that the Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA) estimates is nearly double the 2013 low in its own annual report. Unsurprisingly, paid subscriptions to on-demand music services continued to boom in 2022, with the average number of US subscriptions for the year rising 10% to 92 million. However, permanent digital downloads fell 20% from $622 million in 2021 to a paltry $495 million.
Physical sales may be slightly down overall (3.8% year-over-year), but vinyl continues to keep tactile formats healthy in a predominantly digital market. The ERA reported UK vinyl growth of 11% to £150.5 million, while CD album sales also fell 17.4% to £124 million. According to the ERA, physical sales accounted for £280.4 million in revenue, compared to streaming’s staggering total of £1.6 billion.
It’s hard to say exactly why vinyl sales are experiencing such a resurgence. Some cited the vintage, classic appeal of vinyl compared to the less popular CD format, while others pointed to vinyl revival events and initiatives such as Record Store Day for this continued revival growth.
The UK’s own Harry Styles brought in the best-selling album of the year in the form of harry’s house, as well as the most popular single via Like it was.
As per ERA, total music revenue is up 3% over UK 2021 totals, bringing in a total of nearly £2 billion. This figure is somewhat dwarfed by the huge gaming revenue, as the gaming industry could bring in £4.6 billion by 2022, a 2.3% increase on the previous year.
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