Vinyl sales continue to rise and CD sales continue to decline.
For the first time since 1987, vinyl sales have surpassed CD sales in the US, according to a new report from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Vinyl sales reached $1.2 billion in 2022, up 17.2%, while CD sales saw another decline, falling 17.6% to $482 million.
Despite the impressive numbers for vinyl sales in the US, however, actual sales only increased by 3%, which means that vinyl prices are still rising.
In 2021, the average price of a vinyl record hovered at $26.12, while in 2022, the average price rose to $29.65, due to a wide range of factors, including increased production costs and inflation.
Music lovers bought over 41 million vinyl records in the US last year compared to 33 million CDs. In 2021, 40 million vinyl records have been sold. Meanwhile, CD sales are down 28% from 2021's figure of 47 million.
According to Luminate, Taylor Swift is the top selling vinyl record in the US market in 2022, with her latest album 'Midnights' selling 945,000 copies.
In the relevant ranking, it follows at No. 2 Harry Styles' "Harry's House" (480,000 sales), Olivia Rodrigo's "Sour" (263,000), Kendrick Lamar's "Good kid, mAAd city" (254,000) and Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" (243,000) .
However, the majority of the US music industry's revenue in 2022 came from streaming, accounting for 84% of the all-time high of $15.9 billion in total revenue.
According to the RIAA report, the average number of users who have a paid subscription to streaming services increased from 84 million in 2021 to 92 million.
Meanwhile, ad-supported streaming revenue from platforms such as YouTube and the free version of Spotify rose 6% to $1.8 billion.
"2022 was an impressive year of continued 'growth - overgrowth' more than a decade after streaming invaded the music scene," RIAA President and CEO Mitch Glazier said in a statement.
"Continuing this great run, subscription streaming revenues now make up two-thirds of the market at a record $13.3 billion," he revealed.
"This long and sustained run of success has only been possible thanks to the determined and creative work of record companies fighting to create a healthy streaming economy where artists and rights holders are paid wherever and whenever their work is used," he said.
