UK vinyl sales on track to reach three-decade high in 2020

As The Guardian reports, vinyl sales in the UK are up by nearly 10% in 2020, meaning vinyl sales are on track to pass the £100million mark which would mark the best year for vinnyl sales since 1990.

It appears that UK vinyl sales have increased significantly since the first coronavirus lockdown, which saw sales of all physical music drop by almost half in April due to the closure of non-essential shops. Reports suggest that music fans are spending money on their record collections because of the lack of live shows and events due to COVID-19.

Drew Hill, managing director of Proper Music (the UK’s biggest independent distributor of vinyl and CDs) told The Guardian, "We have seen 250% growth from the bottom of lockdown to where we are now. I thought it could be catastrophic for the industry but during lockdown the kind of people buying records also probably went to a lot of gigs. They can’t do that so it seems fans are spending the money they used to on going to gigs each month on records."

The pandemic has also seen a continuous rise in cassette sales, which are up 85% so far this year, but CD sales have taken a dip, with Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) reporting a 30% decrease in sales.

Despite the decline in CD sales, Proper Music's Hill doesn't think the format will die out yet, "From the beginning of lockdown to now, CDs have actually made a remarkable recovery. I don’t know if I’d say it looked like the death of the CD in April, but sales have made a remarkable recovery from the levels we saw then. If the CD was in [terminal] freefall [because of the pandemic] I wouldn’t have expected to see that sort of bounce back."