In terms of sales, vinyl has long overtaken CDs in the US market. Now, for the first time, vinyl has also achieved this in terms of sales figures.
In the USA, the world’s largest music market, more records than CDs were sold last year for the first time since 1987. The compact disc, which once dominated the music business, has been pushed back by downloads and now streaming for years. The vinyl record meanwhile secured a niche in the hi-fi business and is growing.
In the USA, vinyl sales rose by 3.2 percent to 41.3 million records in 2022, as the industry association RIAA announced on Thursday (local time) in its annual report. CDs, on the other hand, slumped by a good 28 percent to 33.4 million silver discs. In terms of sales, records overtook CDs some time ago.
The number of streaming subscriptions in the US rose by 9.6 percent to 92 million. Together with advertising revenue from free versions of the services, streaming brought in sales of a good 13.26 billion dollars. The US music market as a whole grew 6.1 percent to $15.87 billion, according to the RIAA (PDF file).
TechAint 