Vinyl revival

The vinyl revival, also known as the vinyl resurgence, is the renewed interest and increased sales of vinyl records, or gramophone records, that has been taking place in the music industry. Beginning in 2007,^[1][2] vinyl records experienced renewed popularity in the West^[3][4][5] and in East Asia.^[6][7]

The analogue format made of polyvinyl chloride had been the main vehicle for the commercial distribution of pop music from the 1950s until the 1980s and 1990s when it was largely replaced by the compact disc (CD). Since the turn of the millennium, CDs have been partially replaced by digital downloads and streaming services. However, in 2007, vinyl sales made a sudden small increase, starting its comeback, and by the early 2010s, it was growing at a very quick rate. In some territories, vinyl is now more popular than it has been since the late 1980s, though vinyl records still make up only a marginal percentage (less than 6%) of overall music sales.^[8]

The revival peaked in the 2020s decade, with various publications and record stores crediting Taylor Swift with driving vinyl sales.^{[9][10][11][12]} In 2022, Swift's Midnights became the first major album release to have its vinyl sales outpace CDs since 1987,^[13][14] with approximately 600,000 sold in the US and 80,000 sold in the UK at the time of the record occurring.^[15] In 2023, Swift's re-recorded 1989 (Taylor's Version) became the first album to sell over a million vinyl LPs within a single calendar year in the US.^[16] In 2024, Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department broke the record for the single-largest sales week for a vinyl album in the modern era with 859,000 sales in its first week.^[17] For 2022 the Recording Industry Association of America reported that: "Revenues from vinyl records grew 17% to $1.2 billion – the sixteenth consecutive year of growth – and accounted for 71% of physical format revenues. For the first time since 1987, vinyl albums outsold CDs in units (41 million vs 33 million)."^[18]

Along with steadily increasing vinyl sales, the vinyl revival is also evident in the renewed interest in the record shop (as seen by the creation of the annual worldwide Record Store Day), the implementation of music charts dedicated solely to vinyl, and an increased output of films (largely independent) dedicated to the vinyl record and culture.^{[citation needed]}