By Joe Tempesta
4/21/2014
Sales of vinyl albums in the U.S. have continued to increase every year since 2007, according to the Nielsen SoundScan, the industry standard for tracking music sales.
Six million vinyl records were sold in 2013, a 30 percent increase from the 4.6 million sold in 2012 and by far the highest figure of the last 21 years.
That’s staggering in comparison to years even as recent as 2005 and 2006, when only 900,000 albums were sold in each of those years.
Reed Lappin, co-owner of In Your Ear record stores in Allston and Cambridge, was cautiously optimistic about the recent boom in sales and popularity of vinyl. “I guess we’ll just continue for as long as we can, and see what happens next,” he said.
Nielsen’s sales numbers don’t track used or second-hand albums sold.
Scan the graph below to see the number of vinyl album sales from the past 21 years.
SOURCE: NIELSEN
