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The times they are a-changin’: vinyl and digital downloads set sales records
The latest set of data from Nielsen SoundScan, the information system that tracks sales of music in the United States and Canada, is out, and paints an interesting picture of a music industry in flux.
As reported by Billboard, digital sales of music are unsurprisingly on the rise — four artists so far this year (Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, the Black Eyed Peas and Taylor Swift) have broken the digital track sales record of 9.9 million, set last year by Rihanna. Jackson, both predictably and justly, is in the lead with 11.3 million. Digital full album sales this year, meanwhile, are on track to beat last year’s record of 65 million sometime next week.
There’s little shock there — the narrative that digital sales are the future of the music industry has spread far and wide. More interesting is that vinyl, the little format that could, continues its slow-but-steady ascendancy up the sales ranks. More than 2 million vinyl albums have been sold this year, breaking last year’s record of 1.9 million — though it’s worth noting that SoundScan’s data extends only back to 1991, the year the service started. Still, vinyl sales are showing 37 percent growth year-to-date over 2008, an impressive boost. There’s no telling how long that kind of growth will last, but if nothing else it looks like the vinyl resurgence is here to stay. That’s good news for Austin’s assorted vinyl-specializing record stores, such as Backspin Records, Antone’s Records, End of an Ear and Breakaway.
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