Vinyl and cassette sales see double digit growth
[Photo by: Pexels]

Vinyl and cassette sales grow while CD sales continue to decline

It looks like music fans are bringing back the oldschool ways of jamming their favorite tracks after albums sold on vinyl and cassette saw double digit sales growth in the U.S. last year. Unfortunately, it looks like physical CD sales still have a long way to go.

Read more: ‘The Greatest Showman’ soundtrack outsells every album in 2018

According to a new report from BuzzAngle, vinyl sales grew from 8.6 million to 9.7 million while cassette sales jumped from 99,400 to 118,200 sold.

While it’s not the 41.8% growth we’ve seen in music streaming, it does provide a small glimmer of hope for physical sales.

Surprisingly, the increase in sales for these older formats is due in large part to sales of older albums. BuzzAngle revealed over 66% of vinyl sales were albums that were over three years old.

The list of best-selling vinyls for last year included historic works from Michael Jackson, The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, and Pink Floyd.

You may be wondering, which vinyl held the top spot for best-seller? That would be 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy compilation.

While vinyls are being driven by older album sales, it seems that cassettes are growing with the help of newer releases. Perhaps fans are digging on the nostalgia?

Still, 52.5% of cassettes sold were over three years old as well.

While the most popular physical format continues to be CDs with over 60 million sales, CDs declined in popularity by 18.5%, with total physical CD sales dropping by over 15%.

It looks like streaming continues to lead the way in music consumption with popularity increasing by 41.8% and accounting for three-quarters of the music industry’s revenue as of September 2018.

Do you still buy physical CDs? What is your preferred method for music consumption? Sound off in the comments below!

See more: 16 memorable band photos

[envira-gallery id=”186668″]