Record sales have been on the rise for years, but record sales hit a record high last year, according to the RIAA’s Year-End 2022 Music Industry Earnings Report (PDF). For the first time since 1987, vinyl sales of his albums surpassed his CD sales. This confirms decades of people who have spent their lives saying that vinyl records sound better.
Record sales only outsold CDs last year, but record sales have outsold CD sales for some time now. According to the RIAA, in 2022 his album revenue on vinyl will add up to his $1.2 billion, compared to his $483 million on CD. Record growth was more than enough to offset the decline in CD revenue, while overall physical media revenue increased by 4% compared to 2021 (a significant increase over 2020). increase).
Record revenue growth was more than enough to offset declining CD revenue. For the first time since 1987, record sales exceeded CD sales.
RIAA
Streaming services still account for the majority of all US music revenue, up from 83% in 2021 to 84%. Ad-supported sites like YouTube generated $13.3 billion. Growth in streaming services and physical media comes at the expense of paid digital downloads, which will account for just 3% of all music revenue in 2022.
While there will always be those who assert that music played on vinyl is better than digital music, it probably explains the growing popularity of vinyl this long since the advent of CDs, MP3s, and streaming music. No. Vinyl albums are big enough to double as works of art, and in an age of increasingly ephemeral media, there’s something compelling about the tactile sense of physical objects.
Streaming still accounts for the majority of the music industry’s revenue, but physical media has survived the death of downloadable music.
RIAA
There’s also a retro-tech element to the record revival. Old 2000’s digital autofocus cameras are now popular with high school and college students who grew up with smartphones, and there’s an enduring community of mods and restorers of old PCs, game consoles, typewriters, and all sorts of other things. “Replaced” by an ostensibly superior replacement. CDs and iPods are selling poorly right now, but viral on TikTok is just one of his trends and seems to have lost its new relevance.
If you want to start (or restart) your own record collection, the format has become so popular that companies like Audio-Technica, Sony and Victrola are releasing new turntables with modern amenities like Bluetooth connectivity. .
