Bowie helps drive vinyl record sales to a 25 year high

It is the consumer trend that a decade ago seemed as improbable as the return of the wooden tennis racket or the VHS cassette.
Six of David Bowie's albums are in the Top 40 best sellers of the year so far.Six of David Bowie's albums are in the Top 40 best sellers of the year so far.
Six of David Bowie's albums are in the Top 40 best sellers of the year so far.

However, new figures showed that the ‘vinyl revival’ is no one hit wonder, with sales having jumped to their highest level in 25 years.

In what will be music to traditionalists’ ears, more than 3.2 million LPs were sold last year, a rise of 53 per cent on 2015 and the highest annual total since 1991, when Simply Red’s Stars was the best-selling album.

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The resurgence in the popularity of vinyl is being driven by the so-called Millennials generation, who have continued to discover the delights of listening to their favourite artists on 12-inch in greater and greater numbers.

And, nearly a year since his death, rock legend David Bowie was shown to be the best-selling vinyl artist of 2016, with five albums posthumously featuring in the top 30.

His Blackstar album, which was shortlisted for a Mercury Prize, was the most popular-selling album of the year, while Bowie fans kept his music alive by buying his classic albums The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust and Hunky Dory, as well as compilation records Nothing Has Changed and Changesonebowie.

It marks the ninth consecutive year that vinyl sales have grown, a far cry from the meagre 200,000 LPs sold in 2007. While still niche products, LPs now account for nearly five per cent of the albums market, according to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

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At least 30 titles sold more than 10,000 copies in 2016, compared with just 10 the year before, boosted by events such as “Record Store Day” and the increasing audience among younger fans.

The music industry as a whole is booming, with 123 million albums or their equivalent either streamed, bought in a physical format or downloaded in 2016, up 1.5 per cent on the previous year, and the total volume of music consumed in 2016 was worth an estimated £1bn.

Streaming services have also rocketed 500 per cent since 2013 to an astonishing 45bn audio streams in 2016 alone through digital services such as Spotify, Apple, Deezer and Tidal, equating to over 1,500 streams for every household in the UK.

December saw the milestone of one billion audio streams in a single week for the first time, underlying the growth of streaming as the format of choice for many music fans, with it now accounting for more than a third of all UK music consumption.

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Among artists, Coldplay and Adele dominated the charts, with Adele’s 25 the best-selling artist album for a second year, and total sales topping 3.2 million, based on Official Charts Company data.

Geoff Taylor, chief executive of BPI and the Brit Awards, said: “Led by sales of David Bowie, demand for vinyl jumped to levels not seen since the start of the Nineties, and fans also bought and collected music on CD that they are discovering and enjoying through streaming services in ever larger numbers.

“We believe this performance is indicative of the promise of a new era for music, where recorded music’s investments in a digital future fuel compelling benefits for fans, artists and the entire music ecosystem.”

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