Dalvin Brown, reporting for USA Today:
Americans seem to be listening to more vinyl records amid the pandemic.
In fact, vinyl outsold CDs for the first time since the 1980s, according to a recently released mid-year report from the Recording Industry Association of America. The report underscoring the state of the U.S. music industry captured how people’s music listening has changed during the coronavirus crisis.
Vinyl sales have brought in about $230 million so far in 2020, about double that of CDs.
This certainly tracks with my own habits. I personally can’t remember the last time I bought a CD, but I bought a vinyl record just last week (the excellent Nothing As the Ideal by All Them Witches).
Another interesting aspect of the story is the fact that music streaming dwarfs both vinyl and CD sales with revenue of $4.8 billion for the first part of this year.
It’s clear that streaming is the present and future of music listening, but I’m glad to see that some bands are able to find new and creative ways to package and sell vinyl records.