Vinyl Record Sales UP!

According To Nielsen SoundScan 2011 Midyear Report

Music sales, which include singles, CD's and digital tracks are at 821 million units sold versus 756 for 2010, which is an 8.5 percent increase.

Broken out by genre, rock still leads the way with sales of 52.3 million, up 2%  compared to 2010.  Alternative music, the second most popular genre with 26.9 million, was off 1% compared to last year, while R&B, third with 26.5 million sales, has dropped 8%. Rap sales are less than a quarter of rock titles, but show an increase over 2010 of 1%, up to 12.5 million.

The biggest gainers are classical music, up 13% to 3.8 million, and electronic music, showing a 9% gain to 5.2 million.

However, the most impressive gain was the Vinyl Record LP category which saw vinyl records increase from 1.3 million sales last year to 1.9 this year. That's a 41 percent increase folks! 

Keep vinyl alive, buy vinyl!

The top 10 vinyl records of 2011 so far, are:

1. Abbey Road, The Beatles (20,200)
2. Helplessness Blues, Fleet Foxes (20,200)
3. King of Limbs, Radiohead (15,400)
4. Sigh No More, Mumford & Sons (14,800)
5. Tomboy, Panda Bear (11,500)
6. Bon Iver, Bon Iver (10,900)
7. The King Is Dead, The Decemberists (8,300)
8. Chinese Democracy, Guns 'N Roses (8,200)
9. Angels, The Strokes (7,900)
10. People's Key, Bright Eyes (7,900)