News March 27, 2018

U.S physical sales have trumped digital downloads for the first time since 2011

The vinyl revival has taken over the minds (and wallets) of music fans globally in recent years, enabling consumers young and old to revel in the joy of owning physical copies of their favourite albums and fall into a hoarder-leaning level of collection.

It seems as though the phenomenon has taken over the world of digital downloads, according to a recent report revealed by The Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA).

The report details that physical sales beat digital downloads in 2017 in the US, with physical sales beating out the digital format by a mere 2%. It also reveals that streaming is still king when it comes to music consumption, taking up 65% of listenership. Paid subscriptions to streaming services were also revealed in the report to be the “biggest growth driver for the music industry in 2017”, with subscriptions bringing in revenues of more than $4 billion for the first time.

Although the report does note that physical sales faced “a lower rate of decline than recent years”, sales did drop 4% in 2017 as a whole, with digital downloads falling a massive 25% lower.

Late last year, Liam Gallagher set a new record for vinyl sales in the UK, selling 16,000 physical copies in its first week of release, scooping up the title of having the highest-selling first week on vinyl in 20 years.

Last October, The Industry Observer reported that CD sales had plummeted nearly 20% to 57.76 million units, following a pattern of their falling popularity.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.