Vinyl records are about as popular as they’ve been since they were the latest and greatest way to buy and listen to music. Now there’s even more evidence of that, as records were in really in demand this holiday season: Billboard reports that 1.842 million LPs were sold in the week ending December 24, which is a historically large number.
In fact, that’s the highest single-week number since Nielsen Music/MRC Data began electronically tracking music sales in 1991. The previous record was actually set the week before, when 1.445 million records were sold during the week ending on December 17. Last week was great for independent record stores, too, as 733,000 copies were sold through indie retailers during the week ending December 24, which was the biggest such week since 1991.
Vinyl had a leg up on CDs as well, as that 1.842 million figure eclipsed the 1.671 million sales CDs managed during that week. This is the fourth time vinyl has outpaced CD since 1991, and each of those weeks took place in 2020.
As for the release that made up the biggest portion of sales for the week ending December 24, that was Paul McCartney’s new album, McCartney III. The new release topped the Vinyl Albums chart thanks to nearly 32,000 sales, which was the third-largest sales week for a vinyl album since 1991.
