Vinyl records reigned supreme in 2022!

There’s nothing quite like a good piece of wax… No, not the kind you’re thinking of! We are talking about vinyl records!

The OG music format has been king for several years. Record stores have been doing big business with the help of the biggest names in the industry (Taylor Swift, anyone?), prioritizing getting their music out on vinyl, and that doesn’t make a fuss. bad to have a day dedicated specifically to record stores and vinyl. Retail giants have also embraced selling records; Target released an exclusive edition of Swift’s latest LP, “Midnights” when it was released last year.

So, is the vinyl record just a passing fad? Not really! Vinyl looks like it’s here to stay.

The American recording industry has announced very good information to support this theory. Its annual report reveals that vinyl has outsold its smaller, more portable counterpart, the compact disc, for the first time since the Reagan administration!

Taylor Swift made the recording industry spin in 2022

Swift, 33, who is set to embark on her first stadium tour in more than five years, got crafty with the vinyl release of “Midnights.” If “Swifties” collected every edition of “Midnights” on vinyl and put them together, the end result reveals a clock! The Easter egg, which Swift promoted on her TikTok, may have played a role in “Midnights” becoming the best-selling record of 2022. (via Spin Magazine)

Swift has also championed Record Store Day for several years. Last year, she was named “Record Store Day Ambassador” in time for the 15th annual party.

“The places where we go to roam, explore and experience new and old music have always been sacred to me,” she said in a statement commemorating her honor as an “ambassador.” “Record stores are so important because they help to perpetuate and foster the love of music as a hobby,” she continued via Rolling Stone.

Swift will have another Record Store Day exclusive title to add to its catalog in 2023.

Swift’s Long Pond Studio sessions for her 2020 “folklore” album will be released on vinyl in April. The variety promises that there will be no reason to panic; there will be twice as many copies of the exclusive RSD disc as there were for its release in 2022!

What does the US recording industry’s annual report say about 2022 vinyl sales?

2022 marked the first year since 1987 that record sales exceeded CD sales! According to Spin, discs “accumulated for 41 million units, compared to 33 million units for CDs, representing 71% of physical format revenue and increasing 17% over the previous year”.

The RIAA president had nothing but good things to say about vinyl’s success. Mitch Glazer noted that the past year has been “an impressive year of sustained ‘growth on growth’ more than a decade after streaming exploded onto the music scene. Continuing the long run, subscription streaming revenue now accounts for two-thirds of the market at a record $13.3 billion. The long and continuous arc of success has only been possible thanks to the determined and creative work of record labels fighting to build a healthy streaming economy where artists and rights holders are paid where and when their work is used. Glazer concludes.

Swift also knows quite a bit; she has been re-recording her first six albums since their masters were purchased by Scooter Braun in 2019.

Swift isn’t the only modern artist whose releases are making big strides on vinyl. Harry Styles’ latest, ‘Harry’s House’, is second only to ‘Midnights’, having sold 480,000 copies since its spring 2022 release.

Olivia Rodrigo’s 2021 debut album, “Sour,” has sold 263,000 copies, and Kendrick Lamar’s “good kid mAAD city” has racked up 254,000 units.

A certain album released in 1977 also sold big in 2022; Fleetwood Mac’s hit release ‘Rumors’ was the fifth best-selling vinyl record of 2022. Those numbers are expected to rise this year, especially after the success of the Fleetwood Mac-inspired TV series adaptation of ‘Daisy Jones & The Six” and its companion LP. 2022 also marked the passing of longtime Fleetwood Mac member Christine McVie. McVie was 79 years old.

Here’s to another successful year for vinyl! Record Store Day will take place on April 22, 2023!