US vinyl album sales hit all-time high in December

News

US vinyl sales reached a record-breaking high twice in December.

Over the week of December 11th to 17th, Nielsen Music/MRC Data reports that 1.445 million vinyl albums were sold, an unprecedented high which follows on from a previous record hit in the week of November 27th to December 3rd, which was helped along significantly by Record Store Day’s Black Friday releases.

Nielsen data shows vinyl album sales were steadily surpassing one million sales over December, with 1.253 million reported in the week ending December 3rd and 1.195 million reported for the week ending December 10th. The last time vinyl album sales broke one million was the week ending December 26th, 2019, when 1.243 million vinyl LPs were sold in the US.

Vinyl sales in the UK were also last month on track to hit a three-decade high, with projections for sales of the format to rake in £100 million by the end of 2020.

Check our feature asking if vinyl-only culture is encouraging elitism in electronic music here.