What year had the highest sales of musical recordings?

According to Guinness World Records, Michael Jackson’s 1982 album Thriller remains the best-selling album in history, with an estimated 66 million copies sold worldwide.

Are vinyl record sales increasing?

Vinyl sales in the U.S. increased from 21.5 million units in 2020 to 41.7 million units last year, according to a 2021 report from MRC Data-Billboard, a media consumption company formerly know as Nielsen-SoundScan.

How do I track music sales?

The RIAA provides the most comprehensive data on U.S. recorded music revenues and shipments dating all the way back to 1973. This is the definitive source of revenue data for the recorded music industry in the United States.

Are album sales declining?

Recent Trends – Album Sales. Album sales have plummeted in recent decades. Over the 10 years from 2010 to 2020, album sales are expected to fall at an annualized rate of 11.3%, declining from 343.0 million to 106.34 million albums.

What is the biggest selling song of all time?

White Christmas
According to Guinness World Records, Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” (1942) as performed by Bing Crosby is the best-selling single worldwide, with estimated sales of over 50 million copies.

Is the album dying?

According to the Nielsen Music mid-year report, album sales (including CDs cassettes, vinyl LPs and digital albums) have fallen by 13.6% this year but even more worrisome is the fact that albums by current artists aren’t catching on, falling by 20.8%.

Are CDs dying out?

CDs are dead. In 2020, revenue from sales of compact discs in the US added up to $483 million, a 97 percent drop from the format’s peak in 2000. Only 31.6 million CD units were shipped in the US last year. By contrast, the Bee Gees alone have 16 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

Is vinyl going out of style?

As per the MRC Data mid-year report for 2021, sales of vinyl records in the US surpassed that of the CDs; 19.2 million vinyl albums were sold in the first six months of 2021, outpacing the 18.9 million CDs sold.

Is vinyl making a comeback?

In 2007, 1 million vinyl records were sold in the U.S. In 2020, that number rose to 27.5 million. In the first half of 2021, 19.2 million were sold. After returning from the dead, this will be the 16th consecutive year that vinyl sales have grown.