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Sales of vinyl, cassettes reach all-time high in 2017
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The double-vinyl pressing of The Beatles' masterpiece record 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band' is the best-selling vinyl album of 2017. (The Jakarta Post/Turntable Lab)
T
he year 2017 was a good year for labels releasing music on physical formats, with industry data showing a record number of album sales for cassette and vinyl, which were considered obsolete in the early 1990s.
A survey conducted by Nielsen showed that 14.3 million vinyl albums were sold in the US, up 9 percent from 2016. Throughout the year, vendors sold 1.2 million more vinyl albums, while CDs and digital album sales continued their downward trend.
In the US, The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band became the best-selling vinyl album with 72,000 LPs sold. The Beatles celebrated the album’s 50th anniversary in 2017 by reissuing the album in a deluxe edition.
In the US, seven of the top 10 best-selling albums were reissues, including Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon and Michael Jackson's Thriller.
In the UK, sales of vinyl records were at their highest since 1991, with 4.1 million vinyl albums sold in the the country in 2017.
Industry publication Vinyl Factory reported that 14 of the top 20 best-selling albums of the year were reissues, with Amy Winehouse’s Back To Black making the top five for the third year in a row.
Taking the top spot was Ed Sheeran's latest record Divide, while fomer Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher's first solo record As You Were sat in second position.
Cassettes also enjoyed a good run in 2017, with sales rising by 35 percent, Nielsen Music reported.
Cassette soundtracks released for Netflix hit series Stranger Things and Hollywood blockbuster Guardians of the Galaxy contributed to the astronomical growth in sales.
Other top-selling cassettes included The Hamilton Mixtape and recent reissues of Prince’s Purple Rain, Nirvana’s Nevermind and Kanye West’s Yeezus.
Still, cassettes remain an incredibly niche format, as they only comprised 0.10 percent of all album sales in 2017 and just 0.17 percent of physical album sales. (mtr)
