It’s no secret that the collection of vinyl records is back and is more popular than ever over these past recent years. It’s so popular that, in November of last year it was reported that vinyl sales were on track to reach the highest point in 30 years, and now news has just hit that vinyl sales increased by a massive 40% in 2020.
Image via The State of Discogs 2020 report
Discogs reported in their annual The State of Discogs report that it was specifically online where vinyl sales were booming the most on the online marketplace for buying and selling music. Through Discogs alone, 11,961,998 vinyl records were sold in the last 12 months. One of these records includes Avicii‘s ‘Levels’ 12″ which sold for a whopping $1,764 on the website last year. Although this price is staggering, it is actually Scaramanga Silk who took the most expensive record sold top spot in 2020 (and in Discogs history) on the website, with the release ‘Choose Your Weapon’ selling for a mind-blowing $41,000 (£30,000). The best-selling vinyl release in the electronic music genre was Peggy Gou‘s ‘Moments’, and making up the rest of the top five were Gorillaz, Daft Punk, Portishead and Massive Attack.
Image via The State of Discogs 2020 report
With sales last year being up by 40.75% compared to 2019, it makes us wonder if those numbers will grow even further this year, but with the way things are going it seems like a big possibility. It also wasn’t just vinyl that had a good sales year last year, with CD and cassette sales booming. Sales of CDs were up by 37.18% and cassettes saw a 33.33% increase.
‘This year has brought its fair share of challenges. At the beginning of 2020, we could not predict the global COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on small businesses. However, the data in the Discogs End-of-Year Report 2020 proves that music fans are resilient, active, and enthusiastic. The State of Discogs is looking good thanks to a thriving vinyl community.’ – Discogs
The full report by Discogs is available to read in full here.
Image credit: Ian Laker via GettyImages
