Love For Vinyl Has Been Resurrected... Thanks To Rock
Pink Floyd and David Bowie are credited with boosting vinyl sales.
According to Official Charts data released today by the BPI, the trade body which represents the nation’s record labels, over a million vinyl units have been sold in 2014, with an expected figure of 1.2 million looking likely to be reached by the end of the year.
This tells an extremely promising story for the music industry, as 2013 ended with just 780,674 vinyl sales.
A quick glance at this week's vinyl album chart and the year-to-date chart (below) is enough to see that Planet Rock artists such as David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Foo Fighters, Led Zeppelin and Royal Blood have all had a huge part to play in the vinyl resurgence.
Pink Floyd's 'The Endless River' in particular drove the numbers up high and fast, with first week vinyl sales reaching over 6,000 copies, the highest of any LP released since 1997. This makes it the fastest-selling vinyl album this century.
Official Charts Chief Executive, Martin Talbot, said: “In scoring the biggest opening week for a vinyl album this millennium, Pink Floyd’s The Endless River illustrates the British public’s renewed love for this format, which is on course to become a £20million business this year – an incredible turnaround from barely £3m just five years ago. This resurgence also underlines music fans’ continuing fascination with the album.”
The BPI’s Gennaro Castaldo added: “We have entered an exciting best-of-all-worlds era where there is space and scope for all kinds of music to be discovered and enjoyed in every type of way, including on vinyl once again. Many of us assumed it had become an obsolete format, but while the flame may have flickered, it never quite went out, and we are now seeing a burgeoning resurgence in demand led by exciting new acts such as Royal Blood that is likely to keep vinyl on our high streets for many more years to come.”
You can see this week's vinyl album chart, and the year-to-date chart, below:
Official Vinyl Albums Chart – current top 10 artist albums (w/e 22 November 2014):
Position
Title
Artist
1
NOTHING HAS CHANGED - THE VERY BEST OF
DAVID BOWIE
2
THE ENDLESS RIVER
PINK FLOYD
3
SONIC HIGHWAYS
FOO FIGHTERS
4
AVONMORE
BRYAN FERRY
5
FOUR SYMBOLS
LED ZEPPELIN
6
SUN RESTRUCTURED
TEMPLES
7
X
ED SHEERAN
8
ABATTOIR BLUES/THE LYRE OF ORPHEUS
NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS
9
AQUOSTIC - STRIPPED BARE
STATUS QUO
10
WHAT'S THE STORY MORNING GLORY
OASIS
Official Vinyl Albums Chart – year-to-date top 10 artist albums (up to & incl. w/e 22 November 2014):
Position
Title
Artist
1
AM
ARCTIC MONKEYS
2
LAZARETTO
JACK WHITE
3
THE ENDLESS RIVER
PINK FLOYD
4
ROYAL BLOOD
ROYAL BLOOD
5
DEFINITELY MAYBE
OASIS
6
THE STONE ROSES
STONE ROSES
7
THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON
PINK FLOYD
8
LED ZEPPELIN
LED ZEPPELIN
9
LED ZEPPELIN 3
LED ZEPPELIN
10
LED ZEPPELIN 2
LED ZEPPELIN
Source: Official Charts Company