The Record Collecting Craze Reaches a High With Record Breaking Sales

Vinyl was the main way of listening to music throughout the early 21st century, however with the introduction of CDs in the late 90’s and early 2000s and the follow up of streaming platforms in the 2010s, vinyl sales started to drop as more efficient ways of listening to music emerged. So why is it that 2021 saw the highest number of record sales in 30 years? 

The BPI (British Phonographic Industry) announced that 2021 saw over five million sales in vinyl records marking an 8% increase on the year prior. Their data as showed that this increase has been slow but steady for the last 14 years and this could be down to a number of things, the main one being pop culture.  

Throughout the 2010s and into 2020 hipster and indie culture began to rise and the idea of vintage became much more mainstream. The idea of being vintage aesthetic also became trendier and people began changing their fashion to match this, similar to how musicians began releasing more 80’s and 70’s inspired music to stick with the trend. And with this came the rise in vinyl. By the year 2010 vinyl was something of the past and with the rise of vintage aesthetic people also got into vinyl to stick by this craze. 

So as the popularity of vinyl rose more people got into record collecting for a variety of reasons, whether it be for the hobby and enjoyment of collecting, for the trend or to support artists in the age of poorly paying streaming apps, it's safe to say vinyl collecting was more popular than ever. 

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