The success of audio streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music might suggest otherwise, but physical media is still relevant to today's music fans. Data from Luminate shows that in 2023, U.S. consumer bought 105 million albums. 87 million were physical versions of newer and older releases by artists like Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Travis Scott or K-pop acts Stray Kids and Tomorrow x Together. As our album sales timeline shows, the downward trend of album sales has halted - for now.
In 2007, half a billion albums were sold in the U.S., either on physical mediums like CD or vinyl or via digital downloads. A year prior, Spotify launched its service in its home country Sweden, rolling out its services in additional markets like the United Kingdom and the United States in 2009 and 2011 respectively. While physical album sales and digital album downloads had already dropped to 331 million in 2011, the decline of album sales accelerated for the remainder of the 2010s. Between 2012 and 2022, album sales fell by 70 percent.
The resurgence of vinyl records, which overtook CD sales in the U.S. for the first time since 1987 in 2022, according to the RIAA, is one likely reason why album sales have managed to stay above the 100-million-unit threshold for four years in a row, despite a dip to 100 million in 2022. The increase by five million between 2022 and 2023 is carried almost single-handedly by Taylor Swift, whose five best-selling records alone were sold 4.8 million times this past year.
