The very serious Recorded Industry Association of America recently delivered its 2022 report.
And for the first time in (a very) long time, the vinyl format has come back in front of the CD.
Vinyl stronger than CD in 2022!
This is historic, for the first time since 1987, the vinyl format has come back ahead of the CD format in the United States, with regard to the number of units sold in 2022. This is what emerges from the report of the Recorded Industry Association of America (RIAA), which confirms the return to grace of this good old format.
It should be noted, however, that if vinyl has just overtaken CD in number of units sold, revenues, for their part, had exceeded those of CD since the 2020 report of this same RIAA. After the advent of the CD format in the early 80s, vinyl gradually lost ground, until it (almost) disappeared completely in the mid-90s.
A great first since 1987!
Thus, in 2022 in the United States, more than 41 million vinyls were sold in the country, against 33 million CDs “only”. Quite a feat for this musical relic that we thought was dead and buried for a long time already, but which has found new life for a few years now, thanks to retro lovers, anxious to find the “sound” so characteristic of vinyl, with bonus a more marked collection side.
In the United States, the vinyl market represented no less than $1.2 billion, or approximately 70% of all physical music sales. We understand better now why for the past few years, artists have taken pleasure in offering collector vinyls, some even going so far as to offer their new album in K7 format. In the video game market too, many publishers now offer OSTs in vinyl format.
Of course, the music industry continues to be driven by audio streaming (Spotify, Apple Music, etc.), which accounted for around 84% of all music revenue recorded in the United States last year. Revenue continues to grow year over year, rising 6% in 2022 to $15.9 billion.
Source : The Verge
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