In June 2017,
Sony Music announced that by March 2018 it would be producing vinyl records in-house for the first time since ceasing its production in 1989. The
BBC News reported: "Sony's move comes a few months after it equipped its Tokyo studio with a
cutting lathe, used to produce the master discs needed for manufacturing vinyl records."
In Brazil It was reported by the Brazilian record companies that in 2023 the revenues from vinyl records had shot up by 136%, the highest of the physical formats. Despite physical formats representing a tiny fraction of the Brazilian music industry, the increase in vinyl contributed to physical formats growing to their highest level since 2018.
In China In China, which has grown rapidly in recent years to become one of the world's largest music markets, the last vinyl record production plant located in Shanghai stopped in 1998. An experienced audio and video company invested in the creation of a new production plant in
Guangzhou in 2015. Since then, the popularity of vinyl records has notably increased, leading to a Chinese equivalent of Record Store Day. Many Chinese had also not experienced the format before, due to most of the population living in poverty at the time when it was at its peak in the West. In the year 2023, vinyl sales had reached 5.5 million units. Despite it being only half that of CD sales, it matches a similar amount of market revenue due to the higher retail prices of vinyl.
In Germany In Germany a revival of vinyl records already took place in the 1990s in conjunction with the rise of the
rave and
techno scene. In the mid-1990s, the rave culture had become a mass movement in the country, with raves having tens of thousands of attendees, youth magazines featuring styling tips, and television networks launching music magazines on house and techno music. In this context
Der Spiegel in 1998 describes this "renaissance" of the LP format and declares that "LPs are in again". The CD format was regarded as "uncool", while vinyl records could be
beatmatched into each other more easily and had more room for
album cover art. Record bags were a common fashion accessory at that time. In the early 2000s the mainstream rave movement declined, and by the end of the decade a majority of the so-called "techno record stores" and record store chains that had emerged in the 1990s had disappeared again. Outside of the electronic scene, the Düsseldorf-based neo-psychedelic band
Vibravoid emerged as a persistent proponent of the format. Having released their music almost exclusively on vinyl since their formation in the 1990s, the band is often credited with keeping the collector culture alive through the format's commercial low point with elaborate op-art packaging and multi-colored editions. Around 2007 another revival of vinyl began, this time also concerning the
collection of other genres such as
pop music, and increasingly promoted by the music industry. In 2020, sales of vinyl LPs in Germany increased to 4.2 million units sold. Almost three quarters of the 20 most popular records of this year belong to the
rock music genre.
In Japan Sales of music CDs in Japan began in 1982. By 1986, the compact disc began replacing the gramophone record as the primary means of music distribution in Japan. As opposed to declining CD sales in Western markets, CDs remained a huge market in Japan, with sales of over 100 million each year from 1998 until 2018. Beginning in the early 2000s decade, nostalgia for vinyl records was growing, although CD sales were still strong. Inspired by the
Record Store Day event in the United States, Japanese record stores began promoting the revival of gramophone records in 2012. Popular artists such as Perfume and
Back Number have led the way for vinyl revival, and CD sales have declined by 35% from 2008 to 2018. Sales of vinyl
LP records in the UK increased every year between 2007 and 2014. In November 2014, it was reported that over one million vinyl records had been sold in the UK since the beginning of the year. Sales had not reached this level since 1996. The
British Phonographic Industry (BPI) predicted that Christmas sales would bring the total for the year to around 1.2 million. However, vinyl sales were still a very small proportion of total music sales.
Pink Floyd's
The Endless River became the fastest-selling UK vinyl release of 2014 – and the fastest-selling since 1997 – despite selling only 6,000 copies. In 2016, 3.2 million vinyl records were sold in the UK, the best sale for a quarter of a century. As of 2016, the revival continued, with UK vinyl sales exceeding
streaming audio revenue for the year. In January 2017, the BPI's 'Official UK recorded music market report for 2016', using
Official Charts Company data, noted: "Though still niche in terms of its size within the overall recorded music market, vinyl enjoyed another stellar year, with over 3.2 million LPs sold – a 53 per cent rise on last year." The BPI also reported: "The biggest-selling vinyl artist was David Bowie, with 5 albums posthumously featuring in the top-30 best-sellers, including his Mercury Prize shortlisted
Blackstar, which was 2016's most popular vinyl recording ahead of Amy Winehouse's
Back to Black, selling more than double the number of copies of 2015's best seller on vinyl – Adele's
25." According to the BPI, more than five million vinyl records were sold in 2021 in the UK, an increase of 8% over 2020 and the 14th consecutive increase since 2007. The BPI estimated that almost one in four album purchases that year were on vinyl, the highest proportion since 1990. In March 2023, the BPI published an analysis of Official Charts data, and claimed that vinyl purchases have increased for a 16th consecutive year in the UK. The vinyl market in 2023 has experienced a 11.7% year-on-year rise to 5.9 million units, up from a 2.9% increase the previous year. In 2024, BBC reported that, for the first time since 1992, vinyl records have been included in the set of goods used by the UK's
Office for National Statistics (ONS) to track prices and calculate the rate of
inflation. Between 2003 and 2008, over 3,000 record stores in the country closed their doors. But ever since 2007, the popularity of vinyl records has risen again with annual sales increasing by 85.8% between 2006 and 2007 in the United States, although starting from a low base, and by 89% between 2007 and 2008. In 2009, 3.5 million units sold in the United States, including 3.2 million albums, the highest number since 1998. The largest online retailer of vinyl records in 2014 was Amazon with a 12.3% market share, while the largest physical retailer of vinyl records was
Urban Outfitters with an 8.1% market share. In its 'Shipment and Revenue Statistics' report for 2016, the
Recording Industry Association of America noted that "Shipments of vinyl albums were up 4% to $430 million, and comprised 26% of total physical shipments at retail value – their highest share since 1985". In 2019,
Rolling Stone said that "Vinyl records earned $224.1 million (on 8.6 million units) in the first half of 2019, closing in on the $247.9 million (on 18.6 million units) generated by CD sales. Vinyl revenue grew by 12.8% in the second half of 2018 and 12.9% in the first six months of 2019, while the revenue from CDs barely budged. If these trends hold, records will soon be generating more money than compact discs".
Best Buy discontinued CDs in 2019, but still sells vinyl.
Target Corporation and
Walmart still sell CDs, but use less shelf space for them and use more space for vinyl records, players, and accessories. By 2019, vinyl sales continued healthy growth at the expense of other physical media and despite the growing prominence of streaming, presently the cheapest (legal) way to listen to music. In the first half of 2020, vinyl recordings outsold CDs (in terms of revenue) in the US for the first time since the 1980s. In 2020 vinyl recordings accounted only for 5.1% ($619.6m) of total US music revenues and CDs accounted for 4% ($483.3m) of revenues. Digital and streaming formats accounted for the remainder of the $12.2 billion in US music revenues, with paid subscriptions accounting for 57.7% of total revenue at $7.0 billion. Americans across age groups have been contributing to the preservation and revival of vinyl records. According to a 2019 YouGov poll, 31% of the U.S. population is willing to pay for music on vinyl, including 36% of
Baby boomers, 33% of
Generation X, 28% of
Millennials, and 26% of
Generation Z. In 2021, for the first time in the last 30 years, vinyl record sales exceeded CD sales; one of every 3 albums sold in the US was a vinyl LP. Indie retailers sold almost half of all vinyl LPs, while Swift was the format's top-selling artist, accounting for 2.6% of total sales. As per the MRC Data mid-year report for 2021, sales of vinyl records in the US surpassed that of the CDs; 19.2 million vinyl albums were sold in the first six months of 2021, outpacing the 18.9 million CDs sold. This has been attributed to a phenomenon of listeners looking for tangible ways to consume music, especially the fanbases of various musicians. In 2022, Swift's tenth studio album,
Midnights sold 575,000 LPs in its first week, totaling 945,000 LPs in the last two months of the year, garnering the largest vinyl sales year for an album in Luminate Data history. Swift sold 1.695 million vinyl LPs across her entire catalog in 2022, with one of every 25 vinyl LPs sold that year in the U.S. being a Swift album—a sum larger than the next two biggest-sellers of vinyl combined:
Harry Styles with 719,000 and the Beatles with 553,000. In March 2023, the RIAA published a revenue report for 2022, in which vinyl accounted for $1.2 billion of physical media sales out of a total of $1.7 billion. This was the first instance of vinyl sales growth outpacing CD sales growth since 1987 as CDs saw an 18% decline in sales year-on-year. Americans bought 49.61 million vinyl records in 2023, which was a 14% increase from the previous years sales. Swift's 2024 album,
The Tortured Poets Department sold 859,000 LPs in the album's first week alone, beating the previous set record by herself. The album ended up becoming the best selling album of the year with 1.489 million copies sold. Swift's 2025 album,
The Life of a Showgirl, sold 1.334 million LPs during its first week of release, already making it the best selling album of the year. This contributed to the net vinyl industry incomes surpassing the $1 billion mark for the first time since 1983. Vinyl sales climbed 7.9%, to 46.8 million from 43.4 million in 2024, with revenue climbing to $1 billion from $954 million. ==Reasons==