Vinyl, With 18% of All Physical Album Sales, Still Growing, Says Nielsen Report
Total album sales, including vinyl, continued to slide in first half 2018, falling 17.6 percent to 68.8 million, Nielsen reported Monday. But, vinyl continued to counter trends, with sales growing 19.2 percent to 7.6 million, it said, now comprising over…
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18 percent of all physical album sales vs. 13 percent in the year-ago period. “Record Store Day,” growing to a weeklong event, brought in sales of 733,000 LPs April 20-26 through independent retailers, it said. Digital album sales plunged 21.7 percent while streaming music continued to advance for the Dec. 29-June 28 period. Album equivalent consumption (AEC) -- digital albums, track equivalent albums of 10 tracks to one album and streaming equivalent albums of 1,500 streams to one album -- soared 24.7 percent to 318.8 million units. On-demand audio and video streaming led the AEC segment, growing a combined 42 percent, but digital album sales fell 18 percent to 69 million units, and digital track sales tumbled 27 percent to 223 million units. Streaming behavior varies by day of the week with the biggest variation on weekends, said Nielsen. Fridays see the most weekly streams for on-demand and programmed audio, while Saturday leads all days for on-demand video song streaming. Sunday is the lightest day of the week for on-demand and programmed audio listening.