Over 19 million vinyl records sold in the US so far in 2022

More than 19.4 million vinyl records have been sold in the US so far this year, according to a new report.

The data from Luminate says that number accounts for just over half, 53%, of all US physical music sales (36.5 million) for the first six months of 2022. That’s slightly up from the 2021 numbers of 19.2 million sales from the same people, which was a 108% increase on vinyl sales from the same period of 2020 and marked a 30-year high for vinyl sales. 

Luminate credits pop star Harry Styles for breaking the modern-era record for the most-ever vinyl sales in a week with the release of his city pop-inspired third album, ‘Harry’s House’. The report also highlights Tyler, The Creator for selling 50,000 copies of his ‘CALL ME IF YOU GET LOST’ album, the vinyl version of which was released 10 months after the digital premiere. 

The report also notes a generational shift with vinyl preference. Gen Z women tend to do the bulk of the vinyl purchasing, with 34% of purchases, while Millennials and Gen X men lead their generations with 31%. 

The continued, if slowing, resurgence in vinyl puts further pressure on the already-pressed vinyl manufacturers — read Will Pritchard’s in-depth feature on the challenges raised by the vinyl revival here.

Meanwhile a new Taiwanese pressing plant is experimenting with limited-run pressing and other small-batch formats to potentially ease the strain on independent labels releasing vinyl — Declan McGlynn reports on Mobineko here.

Read the full Luminate report here.