> Adele had a huge album launch last year, and sold very well on vinyl and CD. That one album may account for the entire growth.
That doesn't hold up under any scrutiny. Adele's album sold around ~950,000 physical copies in 2021 in the US. The average CD price is $15, and that particular album has been on sale since the release, so the absolute maximum that it could contribute to an "unusual" influx of CD sales is $15 million -- and that's very generously pretending 100% of sales were CDs and that she didn't sell any copies of any albums in 2020. That leaves a minimum of an $85 million (and more realistically >$93 million) increase that can't be attributed to a shift in audience demographics for the year's top seller.
> Between that big launch and vinyl pressing plant supply issues (Covid supply chain issues and huge orders for two album releases) people who want the physical object may have moved from vinyl to CD editions.
Vinyl sales doubled in 2021 and outpaced CDs, and growth actually increased throughout 2021, as roughly ~60% of the sales took place in the second half of the year.
That doesn't hold up under any scrutiny. Adele's album sold around ~950,000 physical copies in 2021 in the US. The average CD price is $15, and that particular album has been on sale since the release, so the absolute maximum that it could contribute to an "unusual" influx of CD sales is $15 million -- and that's very generously pretending 100% of sales were CDs and that she didn't sell any copies of any albums in 2020. That leaves a minimum of an $85 million (and more realistically >$93 million) increase that can't be attributed to a shift in audience demographics for the year's top seller.
> Between that big launch and vinyl pressing plant supply issues (Covid supply chain issues and huge orders for two album releases) people who want the physical object may have moved from vinyl to CD editions.
Vinyl sales doubled in 2021 and outpaced CDs, and growth actually increased throughout 2021, as roughly ~60% of the sales took place in the second half of the year.
https://thevinylfactory.com/news/us-vinyl-sales-2021-reach-t...