While the decades-old debate rages on whether streaming will definitively put an end to physical media, data RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) of 2022 reveal an epochal fact: in the United States, vinyl sales have surpassed those of CDs. It hadn’t happened since 1987, the year in which the record market was dominated by the King of Pop, Michael Jacksonwhich had just released BAD.
Specifically, the RIAA tells us that in 2022 CDs generated revenues of 482 million dollars, while vinyls exceeded one billion. It must be said that vinyl has been generating more revenue than CD for years (given the higher cost of sale), but it is the first time that vinyl records more copies sold than CDs. At the basis of this surge there are obviously social factors (the vintage trend), fruition factors (in consumers’ homes there are more and more turntables and fewer and fewer CD systems) and obviously collecting. And then a vinyl at home always makes a good impression.
In 2022 the best selling vinyl in the US was Midnight by Taylor Swift con 945 thousand units sold. An impressive figure considering that the album was released in late October, thus having had less than three months to outclass all the others. In second place we find Harry’s House of Harry Styles, with 480,000 copies sold. Styles’ acclaimed album dominated the sales charts for most of the year, at least until the arrival of Queen Taylor who virtually dubbed him.
Vinyl and CD sales: data for Italy and the weight of streaming
The Italian data of 2022 are still partial, but according to what shared by Federation of the Italian Music Industry (FIMI) the vinyls generated revenues of 14 million euros, with a growth of 17.5% compared to the previous year. Also in Italy there was a drop in sales of CDs (-7.1%), for a total proceeds of 10 million euros.
Needless to reiterate that physical media is still a very small niche of the recording market, entirely dominated by digital streaming. Suffice it to say that, again according to the RIAA data relating to the US market in 2022, physical media generated $1.7 billion in revenue, while streaming $13.2 billion. Of these, 9.1 billion come from users’ Premium subscriptions. Wanting to sum up we can say that streaming accounts for 84% of US record sales.
Italy does not deviate too much from the American percentages: streaming accounts for 81%, with a turnover of 118 million euros. It follows the physical support market (between CDs and vinyls) with 25.5 million. On the other hand, a very small percentage still resists buying music digitally through downloads. These have generated 2.3 million in turnover.