Vinyl Surpasses CDs In Unit Sales For First Time Since 1987 – Rolling Stone

It took 35 years and an industry-altering digital music revolution, however for the primary time since 1987, vinyl offered extra models than CDs within the U.S. final yr. The determine solidified vinyl’s dominance over an in any other case more and more irrelevant bodily music panorama.

The feat is among the many most noteworthy stats from the Recording Business Affiliation of America’s 2022 year-end report launched on Thursday, with customers shopping for 41 million vinyl models final yr in comparison with 33 million CDs. For many years, the thought that an historical format like vinyl may outsell CDs was absurd, however because the vinyl increase began within the late aughts because of quite a few components like retro enchantment and bigger, extra collectible album artwork, it will definitely turned extra of an inevitability.

Whereas vinyl simply surpassed CDs in models, vinyl income itself has beat out CDs for the reason that RIAA’s 2020 report. As per the latest report, with $1.2 billion in income, vinyl now makes up 70 p.c of all bodily music gross sales. Vinyl income rose 17 p.c final yr, however CD income — which noticed an out-of-character rise in 2021 after the pandemic severely restricted retail gross sales in 2020 — as soon as once more fell final yr by practically 18 p.c.

Whereas vinyl’s continued progress is intriguing, streaming stays the music {industry}’s money driver, making up 84 p.c of all U.S. recorded-music income final yr. Revenues total proceed to climb, rising 6 p.c to $15.9 billion total, a document excessive, though a modest determine in comparison with the yr prior when revenues grew 23%.

Much like the previous a number of years, paid subscriptions remained by far the largest money-maker, rising 8 p.c final yr to $10.2 billion. The typical variety of paid subscribers grew to 92 million in 2022, the RIAA report stated, in comparison with 84 million in 2021. Advert-supported streaming income — income from platforms like YouTube and the free model of Spotify — grew 6 p.c to $1.8 billion. Digital obtain income in the meantime, continued to drop prefer it has for the previous a number of years, down 20 p.c yr over yr to $495 million, down 20 p.c.

“2022 was a formidable yr of sustained ‘growth-over-growth’ greater than a decade after streaming’s explosion onto the music scene,” RIAA chairman and CEO Mitch Glazier stated in a press release. “Persevering with that long term, subscription streaming revenues now make up two-thirds of the market with a strong document excessive $13.3 billion. This lengthy and ongoing arc of success has solely been attainable because of the decided and inventive work of document firms combating to construct a wholesome streaming financial system the place artists and rightsholders receives a commission wherever and at any time when their work is used.”