The U.S. albums sales hit the lowest weekly sale of all time as the COVID-19 pandemic hit retail sales. But the good news with vinyl sales – it continues to deliver outstanding results, with Pearl Jam, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Beatles appearing near the top of a sales chart.
Stores were forced to close and the enforced social distancing changes everything, the Nielsen Music/MRC Data sales figure for the week ending Mar. 19 was 1.52 million – it dropped to 29 percent just a week later, and the lowest figure the firm delivered since tracking began in 1991.
Billboard estimated that it was “perhaps the smallest sum for total weekly album sales since albums began to take off as a format in the mid-1960s” — saying that it a drop of 26 percent to 979,000 units, and sales of physical products dropped below at 1 million for the first time.
“Album sales have been on the decline for years, since their heyday in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when it was common for more than 10 million albums to be sold in a single week,” Billboard reported. “Music of course is still incredibly popular… However, more and more fans have moved away from buying individual albums and instead choose to enjoy music and albums through streaming services such as Apple Music, Spotify and YouTube. There, a customer can either subscribe to an all-you-can-listen service for one monthly fee or opt to listen to music without a subscription (and listen to advertisements in-between songs).”
The good news about the vinyl sales came after the fire that destroyed one of only two vinyl master manufacturing plants in the world, threatening production worldwide.
Amazon’s Top-Selling Vinyl LPs (Mar. 29, 4 A.M.)
1. Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia
2. Pearl Jam – Gigaton
3. Bob Marley – Legend
4. Fleetwood Mac – Rumours
5. Amy Winehouse – Back to Black
6. Billie Eilish – When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
7. Pink Floyd – The Dark Side of the Moon
8. Creedence Clearwater Revival – Chronicle: The 20 Greatest Hits
9. The Beatles – Abbey Road
10. Michal Jackson – Thriller