Vinyl remains a growing part of recorded music, even as its scale differs sharply by market. U.S. LP and EP shipments reached 43.6 million units in 2024, while U.K. vinyl LP sales reached 7.6 million units in 2025. Globally, vinyl revenue grew for the 19th consecutive year in 2025, according to the IFPI Global Music Report 2026.
Contents
- U.S. shipments and retail value
- U.S. mid-year movement
- U.K. annual LP sales
- U.K. revenue and physical music
- Chart sales and new releases
- Genres and buyer motivations
- Global vinyl growth
U.S. shipments and retail value
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) reports both units shipped and estimated retail value for U.S. LP and EP formats. These measures describe the U.S. market and should not be read as worldwide totals.
In 2022, U.S. LP and EP shipments totaled 40.5 million units and generated an estimated retail value of $1,224.4 million. The corresponding 2023 totals were 43.2 million units and $1,350.2 million in estimated retail value. RIAA reported that unit shipments rose 6.6% from 2022 to 2023, while retail value rose 10.3% (RIAA Year-End 2023 Revenue Statistics).
The market continued to expand in 2024, although the unit increase was much smaller. U.S. LP and EP shipments reached 43.6 million units, with estimated retail value of $1,442.9 million. RIAA reported a 1.0% increase in units and a 6.9% increase in retail value from 2023 to 2024 (RIAA 2024 Year-End Revenue Statistics).
| U.S. LP/EP measure | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shipments | 40.5 million | 43.2 million | 43.6 million |
| Estimated retail value | $1,224.4 million | $1,350.2 million | $1,442.9 million |
The U.S. figures show two different kinds of movement: shipments grew strongly between 2022 and 2023, then nearly leveled off in 2024; estimated retail value increased in both comparisons. The RIAA figures identify retail value as estimated, so they are not the same measure as a label’s net revenue or a consumer’s individual purchase price.
U.S. mid-year movement
RIAA’s mid-year report provides a more limited snapshot than the full-year totals. During the first half of 2022, U.S. LP and EP shipments totaled 23.8 million units and generated $624.2 million in estimated retail value. During the first half of 2023, shipments totaled 23.4 million units and estimated retail value reached $632.4 million (Mid-Year 2023 RIAA Music Revenue Statistics).
The first-half comparison therefore showed a 1.8% year-over-year fall in unit shipments from the first half of 2022 to the first half of 2023. The reported retail-value figures moved in the opposite direction over those same periods, from $624.2 million to $632.4 million. This mid-year pattern is distinct from the full-year result reported later for 2023, when total annual shipments were 43.2 million units.
U.K. annual LP sales
The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) reports a long run of annual U.K. vinyl LP growth. Sales reached 5.3 million units in 2021, up 11% year over year. They reached 5.5 million in 2022, when the format grew for a 15th consecutive year. In 2023, sales rose to 6.1 million units, up 11.8%, marking a 16th consecutive year of growth (BPI, 2021 in Music; BPI, Women enjoy a record-breaking year in music in 2023).
The annual total reached 6.7 million units in 2024, up 9.1% year over year, and BPI described that result as the 17th consecutive year of growth (BPI Playback 2024). In 2025, U.K. vinyl LP sales reached 7.6 million units, up 13.3% year over year and representing an 18th consecutive year of growth (BPI, A new wave of global British breakthrough talent).
| U.K. year | Vinyl LP sales | Reported movement |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 5.3 million | Up 11% year over year |
| 2022 | 5.5 million | 15th consecutive growth year |
| 2023 | 6.1 million | Up 11.8%; 16th consecutive growth year |
| 2024 | 6.7 million | Up 9.1%; 17th consecutive growth year |
| 2025 | 7.6 million | Up 13.3%; 18th consecutive growth year |
BPI also reported that the 2025 U.K. vinyl LP market was more than 30 times larger than when it returned to growth in 2008. That is a comparison of the market’s reported scale across the stated period, not a claim that every year grew at the same rate.
U.K. revenue and physical music
Units and revenue give different views of the U.K. market. Vinyl album trade revenue reached £119.5 million in 2022, up 3.1% year over year. Vinyl represented 55% of U.K. physical-format music revenue that year. Its £119.5 million trade revenue was higher than the £89.5 million generated by CDs, while total physical-format music revenue was £215.7 million, down 10.5% year over year (UK recorded music revenues rise for an eighth successive year in 2022).
In 2024, U.K. vinyl LP revenue rose 2.9% to £145.7 million. Total physical-format music revenue was £246.5 million, up 1.3% year over year. BPI reported CD revenue of £96.7 million in 2024; CD revenue fell 0.5% while vinyl LP revenue rose 2.9% (UK Recorded Music Market Hits £1.49 Billion in 2024).
For 2025, BPI reported U.K. vinyl revenue of £174.7 million, up 19.9% year over year. Vinyl accounted for 62.9% of physical music sales by revenue, compared with 59.1% in 2024. The format added £29.0 million of revenue between 2024 and 2025 (A new wave of global British breakthrough talent).
Chart sales and new releases
Vinyl demand in the U.K. is not limited to older catalog albums. More than 250,000 vinyl albums sold in one week in late 2023, the format’s highest sales week of the century at that point. Seven of the U.K.’s 10 biggest vinyl LP sellers in 2023 were new releases (BPI, UK vinyl LP sales increase for a 16th consecutive year).
The 2022 release-week results for individual albums illustrate the scale of major launches. Harry Styles’ Harry’s House sold more than 36,000 vinyl LPs in its first U.K. release week. Taylor Swift’s Midnights sold just under 62,000 vinyl copies in its first U.K. release week, while Arctic Monkeys’ The Car sold close to 38,000 vinyl albums in its first week. BPI also reported that Midnights sold more than 80,000 vinyl copies in the U.K. during 2022 (Album success in 2022 has been shared across the nations and regions of the UK).
New releases remained prominent in later rankings. Seven of the 10 biggest U.K. vinyl sellers in 2024 were released during 2024, and Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department sold more than 111,000 vinyl LPs in the U.K. that year (BPI Playback 2024). In 2025, The Life of a Showgirl sold more than 147,000 vinyl albums in the U.K. (A new wave of global British breakthrough talent).
Across the U.K.’s top 100 vinyl titles, new 2022 albums accounted for about 57% of sales, compared with 31.3% for new 2017 albums. BPI also reported that 86% of the 44 U.K. albums that debuted at No. 1 in 2023 had more than half of their chart-eligible sales from physical formats (Album success in 2022 has been shared across the nations and regions of the UK; Women enjoy a record-breaking year in music in 2023).
Genres and buyer motivations
Rock accounted for 55.5% of U.K. vinyl sales in 2023. Pop accounted for 23.7%, up from 19.6% in 2022, while hip-hop and rap accounted for 5.3% (BPI Yearbook highlights breadth and vibrancy of British recorded music). These genre shares describe U.K. vinyl sales in 2023 and do not represent a global genre breakdown or a specific electronic-music share.
BPI’s 2023 survey of recent U.K. vinyl buyers also recorded several reasons for purchasing the format. Among surveyed buyers, 43.5% said buying vinyl was a good way to support artists and retailers, and 39.7% named vinyl as their favorite format for listening. Another 30.5% said there were artists they tried to buy everything from on vinyl. National Album Day or Record Store Day had been a vinyl purchase occasion for 22.2% of surveyed recent buyers (BPI Yearbook highlights breadth and vibrancy of British recorded music).
Global vinyl growth
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) reported that global vinyl revenue grew 4.6% in 2024, marking the 18th consecutive year of global vinyl revenue growth. Global physical-format revenue totaled $4.8 billion in 2024, down 3.1% year over year, while global physical-format revenue had grown 14.5% in 2023 (IFPI Global Music Report 2025).
For 2025, IFPI reported global vinyl revenue growth of 13.7%, the 19th consecutive year of growth. Global physical-format revenue grew 8.0% in 2025, and physical formats represented 16.6% of global recorded-music revenue (IFPI Global Music Report 2026 — State of the Industry).
These global figures put the U.S. and U.K. results in context. The U.S. data emphasizes shipments and estimated retail value, the U.K. data emphasizes LP units, trade revenue, charts, genres, and surveyed motivations, and IFPI reports worldwide revenue and format-level growth. Each measure covers a different geography, period, and definition, so the figures are most useful when those boundaries remain explicit.