There’s nothing like a great piece of wax… No, not the kind you’re thinking! We’re talking about vinyl records!
The OG music format has been king for several years. Record stores have made big business with the help of the industry’s biggest names, (Taylor Swift, anyone?), prioritizing releasing their music on vinyl, and it doesn’t hurt to have a day dedicated especially to record stores and vinyl. Retail giants have also embraced selling records; Target released an exclusive edition of Swift’s latest LP, “Midnights” upon its release last year.
So, is the vinyl record just a passing fad? Not so much! Vinyl looks as if it’s here to stay.
The Record Industry of America announced some pre-tty good info to back that theory up Its annual report reveals vinyl has outsold its smaller and more portable counterpart, the compact disc, for the first time since the Reagan administration!
Taylor Swift Took The Record Industry For A Spin In 2022
Swift, 33, who is set to begin her first stadium tour in over five years, got crafty with the vinyl release of “Midnights.” If ‘Swifties’ collected each edition of “Midnights” on vinyl and put them together, the end result reveals a clock! The easter egg, which Swift promoted on her TikTok, may have played a role in “Midnights” becoming the best selling record of 2022. (via Spin Magazine)
Swift has also championed Record Store Day for several years. Last year, she was named “Record Store Day Ambassador” in time for the 15th annual holiday.
“The places where we go to browse and explore and discover music new and old have always been sacred to me,” she said in a statement commemorating her ‘Ambassador’ honor. “Record stores are so important because they help to perpetuate and foster music-loving as a hobby,” she continued, via Rolling Stone.
Swift will have another exclusive Record Store Day title to add to her catalog in 2023.
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Swift’s Long Pond Studio sessions for her 2020 album “folklore” will be released on vinyl in April. Variety promises there won’t be any reason to panic; there will be twice as many copies of the RSD exclusive record than there was for her 2022 release!
What Does The Record Industry Of America’s Annual Report Have To Say For 2022’s Vinyl Sales?
2022 marked the first year since 1987 that records have outsold CDs! According to Spin, records “accumulated for 41 million units, compared to 33 million units for CDs, comprising 71% of physical format revenue and growing 17% from the previous year.”
The chairman of the RIAA had nothing but great things to say about vinyl’s success. Mitch Glazer noted that last year was “an impressive year of sustained ‘growth-over-growth’ more than a decade after streaming’s explosion onto the music scene. Continuing that long run, subscription streaming revenues now make up two-thirds of the market with a record high $13.3 billion. The long and ongoing arc of success has only been possible thanks to the determined and creative work of record companies fighting to build a healthy streaming economy where artists and rights-holders get paid wherever and whenever their work is used,” Glazer concludes.
Swift also knows quite a bit about that; she has been rerecording her first six albums since their masters were purchased by Scooter Braun in 2019.
Swift isn’t the only modern artist whose releases are making big strides on vinyl. Harry Styles’ latest, “Harry’s House,” is right behind “Midnights,” having sold 480,000 copies since its Spring 2022 release.
Olivia Rodrigo’s 2021 debut “Sour” sold 263,000 copies, and Kendrick Lamar’s “good kid m.A.A.D city” racked up 254,ooo units.
A certain album released in 1977 also sold big in 2022; Fleetwood Mac’s blockbuster release, “Rumours,” was the fifth best-selling vinyl record of 2022. Those numbers ought to increase this year, especially after the success of the Fleetwood Mac-inspired TV series adaptation of “Daisy Jones & The Six” and its companion LP. 2022 also marked the passing of longtime Fleetwood Mac member Christine McVie. McVie was 79.
Here’s to another successful year for vinyl! Record Store Day will take place on April 22nd, 2023!
