David Bowie helps UK vinyl sales reach 25-year high
Vinyl record sales in the UK topped three million sales in 2016, the highest total since 1991.
Sales rocketed 53% on the previous year to reach 3.2million sales, according to newly released figures from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
At the forefront of the sales spike was David Bowie, who scored the biggest selling vinyl album of the year with his acclaimed swansong album ‘Blackstar’ shifting 53,000 units.
The late music legend also had four other albums in the Official Top 40 biggest sellers of 2016 – ‘The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust’ (13), ‘Hunky Dory’ (16), ‘Nothing Has Changed - The Very Best Of’ (17), and ‘Changesonebowie’ (28).
Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, Nirvana, Guns N’ Roses, ELO and Foo Fighters also dented the vinyl end of year chart with classic albums.
Despite this highly promising vinyl revival, the format only accounted for 2.6% of the music market in 2016 with both CD and download sales plummeting.
Over the past 12 months, 47.3million CDs were sold - down 11.7% on the previous year - while downloads of albums nosedived by 29.6% to 18.1million. This is down from the 32.6million download peak in 2012.
In a seismic shift in the way people consume music, streaming services have soared by 500% in three years to 45billion audio streams in 2016 alone. This equates to 1,500 streams for every household in the UK.
Last month also saw the landmark of one billion audio streams in a week get obliterated for the very first time.
Geoff Taylor, chief executive of BPI, says: "Growth in UK music consumption in 2016 was fuelled by the explosive rise in audio streaming, which has increased 500% since 2013, and relative resilience from physical formats.
"Led by sales of David Bowie, demand for vinyl jumped to levels not seen since the start of the Nineties, and fans also bought and collected music on CD that they are discovering and enjoying through streaming services in ever larger numbers.
"We believe this performance is indicative of the promise of a new era for music, where recorded music's investments in a digital future fuel compelling benefits for fans, artists and the entire music ecosystem."