The vinyl revival is still showing no signs of slowing down, and the United Kingdom has now reached a major milestone in the format's recent rise: a million units have been sold in the UK so far this year.
This marks the first time since 1996 that more than a million vinyl records have been sold in the UK. This has been bolstered by Pink Floyd's The Endless River, which came out this month. Its 6,000 sales make it the fastest selling LP since 1997. The year-end total is expected to reach about 1.2 million.
In fact, vinyl is doing so well that the Official Chart Company told the BBC that it will be launching a weekly vinyl chart. The market is worth £20 million this year, which is up from £3 million just five years ago. Of course, this is still a relatively small portion of the overall market.
Meanwhile, vinyl continues to thrive in North America. This summer, Nielsen SoundScan reported that four million albums had been sold in the U.S. in the first half of 2014. That's a 40 precent increase from the first half of 2013; ultimately, 6.1 million records were sold in 2013, and the final number should be much higher than that for 2014.
On the other hand, digital albums are on the decline. Last year was the first time that the download market shrunk, thanks in large part to the rise of streaming services like Spotify.
This marks the first time since 1996 that more than a million vinyl records have been sold in the UK. This has been bolstered by Pink Floyd's The Endless River, which came out this month. Its 6,000 sales make it the fastest selling LP since 1997. The year-end total is expected to reach about 1.2 million.
In fact, vinyl is doing so well that the Official Chart Company told the BBC that it will be launching a weekly vinyl chart. The market is worth £20 million this year, which is up from £3 million just five years ago. Of course, this is still a relatively small portion of the overall market.
Meanwhile, vinyl continues to thrive in North America. This summer, Nielsen SoundScan reported that four million albums had been sold in the U.S. in the first half of 2014. That's a 40 precent increase from the first half of 2013; ultimately, 6.1 million records were sold in 2013, and the final number should be much higher than that for 2014.
On the other hand, digital albums are on the decline. Last year was the first time that the download market shrunk, thanks in large part to the rise of streaming services like Spotify.
