Interest in buying a physical format of music has been experiencing a major resurgence in the last 12 months. Once a past time of a select few, buying albums on vinyl appears to be making a comeback that has no sign of slowing down.
Last week it was announced by figures provided by the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA), that more money was spent on vinyl album than was spent on digital album downloads.
ERA told The Vinyl Factory that in week 48 of 2016, figures show that £2.4m was spent on vinyl albums and only £2.1m was spent on digital album downloads.
Compared to the same time last year, vinyl album sales reached £1.2m and digital album downloads reached £4.4m, our appetite for buying the physical format has doubled in twelve months, showing a major switch in consumer spending habits.
Looking at the data from the Official Charts, the ERA suggest that the increase of sales this year compared to last year could be due to a number of factors including the recent Record Store Day Black Friday event, the greater number of retailers offering vinyl for sale such as supermarkets like Sainsbury's and Tesco and high street stores such as Urban Outfitters and Tiger as well as the increase in popularity of giving vinyl as a Christmas gift.
A whole new generation are now buying vinyl, many teenagers and people under 25 are buying their favourite artists on vinyl. It gives them something a little more tangible and collectable, it allows them to show their support of an artist as it's something physical they can hold onto.
Let's hope this eight years of consecutive growth continues into 2017.
