HMV predicts biggest year for UK vinyl sales in 30 years. Sales are expected to exceed four million by the end of the year in the UK, with its demand soaring across all genres.
The reason for this increase is in large part due to new albums released this year by Ed Sheeran, Liam Gallagher, Noel Gallagher and Rag’n’Bone Man.
As reported by The Guardian, the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) predicts UK vinyl sales will exceed 4 million in 2017 – the highest total since it began collecting data in the early 1990s. HMV are expected to sell 1.5 million vinyl albums in 2017, with sales already up 31% on last year. This is compared to the 2016 total of 3.2 million, which was 66.5 per cent up on 2015, largely thanks to the success of David Bowie’s Blackstar album.
Britons bought 3.2m LPs last year, a rise of 53% on 2015 and the largest number since 1991, when Stars by Simply Red was the bestselling album.
The nostalgia surrounding the deaths of artists such as Prince, David Bowie and Amy Winehouse largely contributed to this current boom; for example the 11-year-old Back to Black album by the late Amy Winehouse is still in HMV’s vinyl top five.
HMV’s music manager John Hirst said: “A strong year for new releases from artists such as Ed Sheeran and Rag’n’Bone Man has been followed up with a really strong back end, with the Gallagher brothers driving the LP sales into the final quarter. Sales also continue to soar across our back catalogue, perhaps as people use streaming as a discovery tool alongside wanting to browse and collect physical music formats.”
In the meantime, since music fans are falling back in love with vinyl in a big way, Google Maps has launched a new tool for vinyl lovers, a kind of database for almost every record store in the world. (https://www.vinylhub.com/)
Article by Valentina Guidi.
He discovered the gem when he was 12 years old and still has it now, claiming it to be why he fell in love with music. He likes to play disc golf when he's not writing about music. He is a one-of-a-kind individual who is always the first to bust out his air guitar on the dance-floor.
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