New Swift Album Marks New Hight of ‘Vinyl Renaissance’
Taylor Swift arrives at the MTV Video Music Awards at the Prudential Center on Sunday, Aug. 28, 2022, in Newark, N.J.
By the end of the 20th century, the production of vinyl records had begun to decline. But the development of the industry has seen an unexpected twist. According to music labels, vinyl sales, after declining in 2005, are showing fairly steady growth again. Sales of Taylor Swift’s latest album demonstrate the return of vinyl, analysts say.The vinyl version of Taylor Swift’s album “Midnights” became the best-selling record of the century in the United Kingdom. Thanks to huge demand among fans, vinyl surpassed CD sales for the first time since 1980.Midnights previously topped the Billboard 200 chart, and was the most listened to in a single day on Spotify. Taylor Swift’s vinyl record surpassed in sales the most popular records in the history of the country – Michael Jackson’s Bad and Appetite for Destruction by Guns N’ Roses. Analysts expect that by the end of 2022, vinyl sales in the UK will grow to 5.5 million copies, of which 80,000 will be accounted for by Swift’s records.
"It’s a watershed moment for the entire music industry," said Kim Bayley, chief executive of the Entertainment Retailers Association in an interview to a British newspaper. "After the CD came along and pretty much wiped out the vinyl business, few of us would have believed a renaissance like this was possible."
Since 2020, global vinyl sales have shown 108% growth, with 19.4 million records purchased in the first half of 2022. Media report that the COVID-19 pandemic also contributed to the vinyl vogue: fans were unable to attend concerts, so they spent money on vinyl collections.
