The vinyl revival still shows no sign of stopping – it’s been reported that US sales of records have topped $1 billion for the first time since 1983.
According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sales of the format totalled $1.04 billion in 2025, with 46.8 million records sold. That’s the nineteenth consecutive year of growth. And also a rise of 7.9% from the 2024 total of 43.4 million.
And guess who is being credited as the figure behind this most recent surge? Yes, that’s right: Taylor Swift.
The Life Of A Showgirl was 2025’s best selling album on vinyl with 1.6 million sales. But then the record did come out in eight vinyl variants including one exclusive for the Target store with unseen photos, a poster and a poem penned by the artist herself. All catnip for the more obsessive Swifties out there.
Swift also worked the CD and cassette markets as well. In fact there were 34 variants of the album for sale in total. Is that exploitative? A discussion for another day, perhaps.
But it wasn’t just Swift. Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend shifted 292,000 copies in vinyl and Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy-winning GNX sold 272,000. Even Carpenter’s 2024 album Short n’ Sweet sold 262,000, a remarkable figure given it had been out for a year at that point.
And it seems that fans are buying vinyl versions of classic albums too: Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and Thriller by the seemingly un-cancellable Michael Jackson were also amongst the US Top Ten vinyl sellers.
Many industry pundits assumed that the vinyl revival would plateau as prices for the format have risen over time, and the cost-of-living crisis has continued unabated. But in an era when so much of our engagement with music is conducted via a phone screen, it turns out that punters still very much like tangible, tactile, wonderful things. Who’d have thought it?
In a statement, the RIAA Vice President of Research Matt Bass said he welcomed the findings, saying: “Fans are consuming music from the artists they love in more ways than ever, and that passion is reflected in today’s report.”
“U.S. recorded music has demonstrated sustained growth globally, reaching $6.4 billion alone in paid subscriptions and tallying 50% of global vinyl revenue, leading the way for fans to listen and connect with their favourite music whenever, wherever and however they want.”
