Vinyl Music Sales In U.S. Continue To Rise

It's no secret that collecting records is one of my passions in life. My parents gave me some of their old records a couple of years ago and that got my new hobby started. Since then I've upgraded turntables three times and purchased numerous albums for my collection. I'm not alone. Vinyl record sales continue to climb and be the only physical form of music that posted sales gains in 2018.

According to Neilsen Music, vinyl's comeback is going strong in the U.S. Sales were up 14.6% last year compared with sales numbers in 2017. According to statistics, 16.8 million records were sold in 2018, an all-time high since Neilsen began keeping track in 1991. So what albums are people buying? For the most part, the top ten most popular albums last year are older albums reissued for today's audience. But there are some exceptions including last year's number one album. Here are last year's top sellers.

1. Soundtrack, Guardians of the Galaxy, Mixtape Volume 1
2. Michael Jackson, Thriller
3. Fleetwood Mac, Rumours
4. The Beatles, Abbey Road
5. Prince, Purple Rain Soundtrack
6. Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon
7. Bob Marley and the Wailers, Legend: The Best of Bob Marley
8. Queen, Greatest Hits
9. Amy Winehouse, Back to Black
10. Panic at the Disco, Pray for the Wicked

While I don't mind some reissued albums, if you look hard you can find original pressings of many of the albums featured on the above list. I have original pressings of Thriller, Rumous, Abbey Road, Legend, Queen's Greatest Hits, and Dark Side of the Moon. And no, I didn't have to pay a fortune for any of them.

If you are interested in starting up your record collection again, there are plenty of places you can search for hidden gems. A couple of my favorites are Half Price Books where they feature both new and used albums and Analog Vault in Newbo. They literally have anything you could possibly want on vinyl. Happy record hunting!

[via Billboard]