Sales of physical music in the UK rise for first time in 20 years
Huge sales of Taylor Swift's new album are a major part of the new statistics.
Sales of physical music in the UK are set to rise for the first time in two decades, according to new data.
The new stats from the Official Charts Company and BPI detail a 3.2 per cent increase in physical music sales in the first half of 2024, with over 8million units sold.
It’s the first time figures have risen since the streaming boom that began in 2004, and comes after vinyl records returned to the UK’s ‘inflation basket’ for the first time in 30 years.
1992 was the last time vinyl was included in the list of products used to calculate the monthly rate of inflation, with a continued resurgence in sales seeing them return to the basket this month.
The Office for National Statistics cited the “resurgence of popularity” in vinyl records as the reason for its inclusion, with the BPI’s chief executive Jo Twist saying: “It’s good to see the ONS once again including vinyl LPs in its measure of what people are buying around the UK.
“This much-loved format has seen demand grow consistently for nearly two decades, including among younger and more diverse consumers who stream daily but also love to own their favourite music on physical formats.”
A big part of the physical music boom in 2024 is down to Taylor Swift‘s The Tortured Poets Department, which is the biggest-selling album of the first half of the year, topping the list for both streaming and physical sales.
The album racked up sales of 542,200 chart units, with 251,000 physical sales, beating the likes of Noah Kahan’s Stick Season (3) and Olivia Rodrigo‘s GUTS (4).