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Vinyl Sales in 2012 Were the Highest Since ‘OK Computer’ Was Released

Vinyl Sales Boom 177 Million Record 1997 IFPI

Vinyl sales hit a 16-year high last year according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Music Week reports that the IFPI claims the oldest active music delivery medium did $177 million in business worldwide in 2012. As we reported at the top of the year, Nielsen SoundScan numbers indicated an 18 percent uptick in American purchases of long-playing records. Sales of physical albums across mediums dipped nearly 5 percent overall, and nearly 13 percent in the U.S.

The IFPI also gives us some tallies for other mediums. International CD sales last year dipped to 833 million from 2011’s 910 million (that’s a 9 percent dip, versus SoundScan’s 13.5 percent drop locally), while cassette sales plummeted from 5 million to 2 million across the same time two-year stretch, despite the efforts of awesome reel-to-reel bastions like NNA Tapes and Burger Records. Global digital revenues have risen 14 percent, with a fifth of that number coming from streaming services.