Vinyl Sales Have Dropped 33% in 2024

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After vinyl sales saw a significant rise earlier in the decade decade, Billboard’ s latest music consumption report reveals a 33% decline in record sales this year

Compared to last year’s music consumption data, vinyl sales fell from 34.9 million units in 2023 to just 23.3 million in 2024. It’s not just vinyl either: CDs and digital album sales also dropped in 2024, with CDs falling 19.5% and digital albums down by 8.3% from where they were in 2023. All told, album sales across the board are down by 23%, decreasing from 75.5 million units sold in 2023 to 57.5 million units in 2024.

There have been some notable increases from last year: for one, vinyl is still outpacing CDs, so the revival of collecting and spinning records hasn’t died out completely. Meanwhile, audio on-demand streams increased by 7% from 2023, and catalog releases (albums or songs that were released over 18 months ago) were streamed more than current ones this year.

As the audio business platform Headphonesty suggests , the drop in vinyl sales has less to do with the relevance of the medium and much more to do with economic factors. Inflation, higher interest rates, and the increased cost of living have made purchasing multiple $40+ vinyl records, along with box sets and reissues priced between $50 and $200, less affordable for many music fans in 2024. It’s the same reason why many music festivals have struggled to move tickets this summer; it’s not that fewer people want to attend, but that fewer can afford the tickets.

Meanwhile, vinyl has never really been cheap to produce. Pressing the records themselves costs a significant amount of time and energy, and the pandemic demand surge led to production bottlenecks. Production costs have further increased due to inflation.

Although vinyl’s costs have been rising and the overall sales dropping, there are still plenty of opportunities to purchase records at discounted prices or during exclusive windows. Record Store Day continues to offer special-edition releases sold exclusively at independent record stores, while events like Amazon’s Prime Day feature vinyl records and box sets marked down significantly .

Vinyl Sales Have Dropped 33% in 2024
Paolo Ragusa