RSD, TAYLOR FUEL RECORD-BREAKING U.K. VINYL SALES

Fueled by the twin forces of Record Store Day and Taylor Swift, vinyl sales in the U.K. hit their highest weekly total in 30 years last week, according to data from the Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA).

Data from the Official Charts Company show 269k vinyl albums and 38k singles were sold in chart week 17, for a total of 307k. That’s higher than in any week since week five 1994, when statistics were first tabulated.

Sales of Swift’s THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (EMI) account for just under a quarter—24.7%—of the week’s vinyl album sales. Further, sales exclusive to independent record stores as part of RSD accounted for an estimated 37.2% of the vinyl albums market.

ERA CEO Kim Bayley said it's no coincidence that vinyl would reach another high point thanks to Record Store Day and a superstar album like Swift's in the marketplace. “Indie record shops were first to realize that the growth of streaming would paradoxically provide an opportunity for the most physical of physical formats,” she said, “and vinyl has sat at the heart of Record Store Day’s celebration of indie record shop culture since 2008."

2023 marked a 16th consecutive year of growth for vinyl in the U.K., and four of the top 10 biggest weeks for vinyl in the past 30 years have come in the past 12 months. Titles released by Swift account for the three top-performing vinyl albums in their week of release since 1994.

TTPD shifted 66.4k units its first week, followed by Midnights with 61.9k and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) with 61.8k. Albums by Arctic Monkeys and Harry Styles complete the Top 5.

In the U.S., the album broke the record for most first-week streams and earned the biggest sales week of Swift’s career. It also set new milestones for an album debut on Spotify (314m streams) and scored, in less than five days, the most first-week global streams of any album in Amazon Music history.

The U.K. vinyl biz is chuffed indeed.