Last Weeks Vinyl Sales Reach 30- Year High

According to Billboard, during the week of December 23, Americans bought 2.11 million vinyl records. It is the biggest sales record since they started being tracked by SoundScan in 1991. The top selling leaders include Kid Cudi’s Man on the Moon III: The Chosen with 41,500 copies and Adele’s 30 selling 59,000 copies. Cudi took to Instagram to thank his fans by saying, “This is HUGE. I wanna thank everyone who went out and copped the vinyl! This is all because of YOU! I LOVE YOU ALL,”. This also makes Adele’s 30 5th week in row topping the charts of Billboard’s weekly Vinyl Albums charts. 2021 is the second year where vinyl has outsold CDs with 2020 being the first year CDs were outsold in 34 years. The RIAA reported on the trend back in September of 2020 and again earlier this year in February where they reported that vinyl record sales have increased by 30% during the pandemic. This demand for vinyl could be at risk due to lack of supply from combination of issues such as the vinyl manufacturing plant Apollo Masters being destroyed in a massive fire and artists such as Adele and Billie Eilies pushing supply to their limits. These events have caused Napalm Records and Austorvinyl to team up in strategic business relationship to increase capacity for vinyl manufacturing. With Austrovinyl being the top vinyl pressing plant in all of Europe and Napalm Records being one of the top Rock and Metal record labels, the duo hope to work together to establish a brand new vinyl pressing plant. Along with increasing the supply of vinyl the two hope to provide a sense of community within the music industry in Europe by providing a clear view into the manufacturing process. The plan is to let viewers experience the manufacturing process first hand and then allow them to listen to freshly pressed vinyls at a club or cafe.