Taylor Swift has helped send sales of vinyl records soaring to one of their highest levels ever.
The ‘Bad Blood’ singer, 33, who has three of her releases in the UK vinyl top 10, is being hailed for the phenomenon of LP sales in Britain being at a peak not seen since 1990.
Ut’s been reported by The Sun the sales are up 11.7 per cent this year, marking the fastest growth rate so far this decade for vinyl – after a rise of only 2.9 per cent in 2022.
Taylor’s re-recordings of her ‘1989’ and ‘Speak Now’ albums, plus her ‘Midnights’ record, are at numbers one, four and eight in the UK album charts.
The Rolling Stones – who have just released their new album ‘Hackney Diamonds’ and Fleetwood Mac’s classic ‘Rumours’ are also high in the vinyl charts, along with releases by Olivia Rodrigo, 20, and 27-year-old Lewis Capaldi.
BPI chief executive Dr Jo Twist said: “Led by vinyl, the resurgence of physical product underlines the resilience of the UK music market at a time when streaming continues to hit record levels.”
Full annual sales for vinyl editions will be revealed on 3 January, but industry body the BPI said more than 250,000 vinyls were sold in the seven days before Christmas, which The Sun said would make it the best week for the format’s sales this century.
More than four fifths of recorded music listened to in the UK is now made up of streaming – yet more than 11 million CDs have been sold this year.
A retro boom has also seen cassette tape sales top 100,000 for the fourth consecutive year.
Also in the UK vinyl top 10 is Lana Del Rey’s ‘Did You Know that There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd’ and Blur’s ‘The Ballad of Darren’, along with Pink Floyd classic ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’.