Analysis and perspective for the increase in vinyl sales

What is clear from these figures is that vinyl is definitely selling more year on year. Not as daft a statement as it sounds as in an industry that often relies on smoke and mirrors it was by no means a foregone conclusion. Radiohead’s “The King of Limbs” album was a clear example of something that was distorting the figures in both total sales and average price but it is also clear that there is more to this than one big album. It would be interesting to see the percentage of total sales for each release that vinyl held and also to see how many albums for instance broke 500 which is often considered the minimum cost effective pressing for vinyl.

The effect of Record Store Day has been mentioned in analysis before but does need to be stripped out to present a more balanced picture and it would be good to know if more vinyl generally was made available in 2011 as that too is relevant. Practically what an artist/label wants to know is if it is worth making a release available on vinyl. Has vinyl sales just improved at the top end. The Top 8 in 2011 outsold the Top 40 in 2010. Certainly while in 2010 the Top 40 constituted 17% of the total vinyl sales in 2011 it had risen to 25%. That does still leave any number of possibilities as to how the remaining 75% is made up. I should hopefully have the answers in the next couple of days.