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Vinyl albums year-to-year sales increased for 19th consecutive time; 47.9 million records sold in 2025

Buster28

Buster28

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Dec 3, 2011
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Billboard released an article detailing the tracking Luminate (the tracking company Billboard uses to create all their charts) did for the entirety of 2025. I'll post a link to the whole thing but will copy a few bullet points as well.

  • Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl was Luminate’s top album of 2025 in the U.S. It’s the fourth time Swift has captured Luminate’s year-end No. 1 album, and her second-consecutive title. She also had the year-end No. 1 album in 2024 with The Tortured Poets Department, in 2014 with 1989 and in 2009 with Fearless.
  • For the first time since Luminate began tabulating the year’s top albums by equivalent album units in 2014, two albums exceeded 5 million units earned in a calendar year: The Life of a Showgirl (5.607 million) and Morgan Wallen’s I’m the Problem (5.125 million).
  • On-demand audio streams drove 85% of all U.S. audio album consumption in 2025. Pure album sales (purchases of physical and digital download albums) totaled 14% of consumption and track sales accounted for 1%.
  • Alex Warren’s “Ordinary” was the most-streamed song in the U.S. in 2025 by on-demand audio streams: 746.2 million.
  • U.S. vinyl album sales increased for the 19th consecutive year, growing by 8.6% in to 47.9 million copies sold in 2025. (I found this stat particularly fascinating: 19 years of growth.)
www.billboard.com

Taylor Swift’s ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ Is Luminate’s Top Album of 2025 in U.S.

Luminate 2025 Year-End Music Report: Taylor Swift's "The Life of a Showgirl" was the most popular album of the year.
www.billboard.com www.billboard.com
 
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Here is the top ten for physical album sales (not including streaming equivalent sales):

No. 1 – Taylor Swift – The Life of a Showgirl – 3,985,000 copies sold

No. 2 – Stray Kids – Karma – 585,000

No. 3 – The Weeknd – Hurry Up Tomorrow – 543,000

No. 4 – Stray Kids – Do It – 460,000

No. 5 – Sabrina Carpenter – Man’s Best Friend – 431,000

No. 6 – Sabrina Carpenter – Short n’ Sweet – 413,000

No. 7 – Kendrick Lamar – GNX – 399,000

No. 8 – Soundtrack – KPop Demon Hunters – 366,000

No. 9 – Morgan Wallen – I’m The Problem – 329,000

No. 10 – Lady Gaga – Mayhem – 292,000
 
geewago said:
You can still buy a record player ?
Click to expand...
Lots of them out there. You will have a much harder time finding a cassette deck or a CD player than a record player. There are many many options for turntables, but very few cassette players or CD players left on the market. There are no major manufacturers making 8 track players today, although apparently some custom players or rebuilds can be found.

Not the case with turntables, there are many on the market today, and growing.

www.nytimes.com

The Best Turntables and Record Players

The Fluance RT85N is our favorite turntable under $600 because it’s easy to set up and use, and it sounds great with all types of recordings.
www.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com

 
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What I find interesting is how vinyl album sales have continued to rise in spite of the (to me) ridiculous cost of a new disc. I had just started working at a music store in 1989 when labels decided to drop pressing vinyl for sales, instead choosing to focus on the CD and, to a lesser extent, the audio cassette. Why? People were not willing to pay $12-$15 for an album when they could get a compact disc for around the same price (if not frequently less), but with digital quality sound. It was so strange to me as a 20 year old kid to box up virtually all the vinyl we had in my first store to send back to the distributors. And just like that, record albums were gone, presumed to never return. Fortunately, there have always been vinyl fans who kept the format alive via indie record shops. Somehow, the love of the format slowly grew back and became what it is today. I work with some younger people who have taken to buying vinyl for their music again when they want a physical copy. I was always partial to good cover art and I believe that is still a draw for many. At the old house, I had a LOT of my favorite album covers framed and hanging on the walls in our long hallway.
 
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2speedy1 said:
I just found out that the cassette tape was released 2 years before the 8 track. I always thought it was the opposite.

8-Track vs. Cassette: Unraveling the Musical Formats of the Past - SoftHandTech

The world of music has undergone a transformative journey, with various formats emerging over the decades to enhance our listening experiences. Among the
softhandtech.com softhandtech.com
Click to expand...
Well I dont remember seeing a cassette before 8-track. We bought them cheap under the dash kits and put 8-tracks in our cars for several years before I ever heard of them. In fact there used to be a bootlegger who would come around our High School during lunch time and sell us anything from Johnny Cash to Creedence. He had that big Oldsmobile packed like sardines in a can.
 
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geewago said:
Well I dont remember seeing a cassette before 8-track. We bought them cheap under the dash kits and put 8-tracks in our cars for several years before I ever heard of them. In fact there used to be a bootlegger who would come around our High School during lunch time and sell us anything from Johnny Cash to Creedence. He had that big Oldsmobile packed like sardines in a can.
Click to expand...
Cassettes were introduced geared more toward the spoken word lower fidelity market. Music on cassettes, initially, was not the focus of the marketing. Not many titles were released in those first years. Mostly blank cassettes to record onto.

While that WAS the focus of the 8 track; the number of music releases was ramped up quickly. Also, for a vehicle it seemed more convenient - you didn't need to remove the tape and turn it over for the music on the other side. The the 8 track played all songs (sort of) continuously.

The transition happened as issues with 8 track players and tapes became common after a few years. And the introduction of Dolby noise reduction made the cassette more appealing, too..

At least that's how I remember it.
 
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geewago said:
You can still buy a record player ?
Click to expand...
I bought this in one in 2020. Plays vinyl, CD, cassette, aux, bluetooth, USB, and has an AM/FM radio. I can digitalize old records with. Cost me probably 120?

71U5RwAmrQL._AC_SL1321_.jpg
 
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I kinda get it. Everything in our lives has been so digitized that there’s some novelty in media being in such a physical format, something that you actually own and can hold. CDs are certainly more convenient but them being smaller, plastic discs I think makes the physicality less visceral. Combine that with nostalgia for those who grew up with them and add in some “vintage” factor, and now they are collectibles.

Plus, since music is so accessible now with streaming services, a huge vinyl or CD collection isn’t the only way to listen on-demand, so spending extra on an album that you really want, that doubles as a collectible or display-piece with the cover, is understandable.
 
Skyh13 said:
Plus, since music is so accessible now with streaming services, a huge vinyl or CD collection isn’t the only way to listen on-demand, so spending extra on an album that you really want, that doubles as a collectible or display-piece with the cover, is understandable.
Click to expand...
I have semi-fallen into the audiophile hobby this past year and there is a youtuber that I watch occasionally who sums up the experience pretty well. The buying and waiting and receiving a new album or new speakers or receiver, etc is as much a part of experience as the listening of the music. Unlimited streaming choice has devalued the individual song, so the act of putting an album on a turntable and visual aspect of it becomes something we value now.

I've listened to music on my computer for years before getting back to 2-channel music and it's amazing what I've missed. Non-compressed music from a CD or album is just on a different level than streaming.
 
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