The coronavirus pandemic has deeply affected the music industry, and that has included how fans experience and buy it. Over the weekend, Discogs released their mid-year report, and the data reveals that during the pandemic, people have been buying a lot more physical music.
Numbers across the board were up from 2019 even before the pandemic, as the report shows that more items were sold across the site in the first three months of 2020 than were in the same period during 2019. After March, when businesses started closing and stay-at-home orders were put in place, is when sales started to really rise. Growth in physical sales on the Discogs Marketplace is up 29.69 percent over the least year. Vinyl specifically is up 33.72 percent, with over 5.8 million records sold between January and June. Overall, about 7.6 million pieces of physical music were sold on the site during that period.
The best-selling releases of the year on Discogs lean indie: Tame Impala’s The Slow Rush is No. 1 while The Strokes’ The New Abnormal comes in second. Pop makes an appearance in the top ten, though, thanks to Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia ranking at No. 5. The best-selling hip-hop album is a bit of a throwback, as Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid M.A.A.D. City takes the crown.
The mid-year report features informative visuals and even more sales numbers and rankings, so check that out here.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. .
