Physical album sales are on the rise after decades - Kevin Buckle

Record Store Day and Taylor Swift are the two most important factors credited for the strong vinyl sales

Physical album sales increased by 3.2 per cent year-on-year to 8,044,760 units in the first six months of 2024. The British Phonographic Industry also shows sales up 3.9 per cent in the second quarter, so clearly the momentum is there going into the second half of the year.

With the relentless news these days about a vinyl revival, what is especially interesting is these new figures predict a CD revival. CD sales for the half-year were down 1.5 per cent to 4,911,845 units which marks a significant slowing of decline compared to recent years. It is that shift that has helped to bring about the overall increase in physical sales in the latest figures.

It could also mean that CD sales for the second half of the year could well increase, as in the second quarter the sales decline for the format was just 0.8 per cent.

Hopefully bands will take note of this as there have been several important albums for Avalanche that have not been released on CD in the last year and it has become a worrying trend.

Looking more closely at the physical sales momentum so far this year vinyl is again the driving force with a 12.4 per cent year-on-year increase for the first six months to 3,052,498 units. That growth was even stronger in the second quarter at 13.3 per cent.

Record Store Day and Taylor Swift are the two most important factors credited for the strong vinyl sales figures and therein lies a problem in that the reasoning behind people buying music has changed considerably over the decades and certainly since Avalanche opened in the eighties.

When Avalanche first opened next to the university in 1984 with a customer base made up mainly of students and office workers, people simply bought albums to listen to and most of those albums were on vinyl. The most common reason the buy a cassette was because a customer had a tape player in their car. Some people would actually buy a record but then tape it so they could listen both at home and while driving.

When CDs came along sales were initially quite slow and availability limited. Relatively quickly CD players became more affordable and the price of CDs started to drop and by the time we also had a shop in Cockburn Street our most common sale was somebody buying three CDs for £20. FOPP famously set their sights higher targeting “fifty pound man”.

However things now are very different, with Record Store Day releases aimed at collectors who are as likely to just put a purchase in a cupboard with the rest of their collection than actually play it.

As for Taylor Swift fans, while their vinyl will probably not go in a cupboard, it is very likely to end up on display rather than actually be played.

It does look very likely that both vinyl and CD sales will increase this year, ending the theory that vinyl was growing at the expense of CD.

It will be interesting to see the final figures at the end of the year.