A Nielsen Music report says Record Store Day drove record-breaking vinyl sales, with more than 827,000 sold that week.
Nielsen Music says this year’s Record Store Day — held on April 13th — was the third-largest sales week for vinyl albums since 1991 (the first year the company started publishing stats). More than 827,000 vinyl records were sold during the past week, with 673,000 coming from independent record stores.
The sales total beats the previous high set by 2018’s Record Store Day week at 533,000. Seeing the trend here?
Nielsen Music estimates that it was the biggest week ever for vinyl at independent stores.
Vinyl sales surge every year in April with the annual celebration of Record Store Day. The coordinated event produces hundreds of unique and specialty vinyl releases, only available at participating indie stores.
The top-selling Record Store Day-exclusive album was Grateful Dead’s live archival acoustic concert. The release was available as a double-vinyl LP package and as a 2-CD set. The album generated over 10,000 sales of both the vinyl and CD release.
You can see the full top ten list below.
Top Record Store Day Exclusive Album Sales
1. Grateful Dead – Warfield: San Francisco, California, October 9th, 1980 / October 10th, 1980
2. Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks: Test Pressing
3. Green Day, Green Day Live! Woodstock 1994
4. Greta Van Fleet, From the Fires
5. Pink Floyd, A Saucerful of Secrets
6. Fleetwood Mac, The Alternate Fleetwood Mac
7. Prince, His Majesty’s Pop Life / The Purple Mix Club
8 (TIE). Pearl Jam, Live at Easy Street
8 (TIE). Weezer (Teal Album)
10. The Doors, London Fog: May, 1966
Nielsen says total album sales across all formats rose 29.6% during Record Store Day week.
Vinyl album sales jumped 193% compared to the previous week of just 282,000 sales. 29.5% of all albums sold in that week were vinyl albums.
Beyond that, an astonishing 81.3% of all album sales during the past week week were sold by an indie store, showcasing just how important Record Store Day is to independent retailers.