2016 In Review: A Look At Vinyl And CD Sales Across Our 10 Biggest Album Campaigns Of 2016

Published: December 19, 2016

Earlier this month, it was reported in the UK that for the first time more money had been spent in the previous week on vinyl than on downloads.

Trumpeted in some quarters as a boon for the industry, the reality is more complex, saying as much about the impact of the rise of streaming on download sales as it does about the continued resurgence of vinyl. Plus, Nathaniel Cramp from independent label Sonic Cathedral notes that a significant proportion of vinyl sales comes from reissues of classic albums (as Sean Forbes of Rough Trade puts it, “people will still be buying fucking Dark Side of the Moon on vinyl when we’ve all been dead a hundred years”), with new artists often finding it difficult to make an impact.

Back in 2013, we took a look at physical sales for the 10 biggest-selling Topspin album campaigns of the year and saw a 38/62 split between sales of vinyl and CDs, with just over one vinyl LP sold for every two CDs. 3 years later, in light of recent vinyl news, it seemed appropriate to do the same for 2016’s 10 biggest selling albums on the platform, including The Lumineers, Two Door Cinema Club and Flume. The numbers have pretty much reversed, with the average split between vinyl and CD jumping from 38/62 to 60/40, meaning vinyl is now a more popular choice than CD. Here are the full details:

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The majority of these 10 albums are from the indie/alternative world, so perhaps it’s no surprise to see vinyl winning out here. It would be interesting to see data from more mainstream pop or hip-hop releases, say, to see how much the results skew according to genre. The info above- and the shift in relation to 2013′s sales- mirrors the industry-wide rise of vinyl and demise of the CD, though it’s perhaps intensified in the world of direct-to-fan. It supports what we’ve felt across 2016, however- that for most of the artists we work with, the kind of fans who buy directly from them and who still want to own a physical format are now more likely to buy an album on vinyl than on CD.  

@_jimwallis

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