Taylor Swift And The Beatles Earn U.K. Vinyl Sales Record In 2023
Vinyl sales in the UK have continuously grown for the 16th year, with Taylor Swift and The Beatles dominating the top positions. The Official Charts Company has revealed that Taylor Swift’s album 1989 (Taylor’s Version), released in October 2023, has sold 84,700 copies on vinyl and is the biggest-selling vinyl album of the year. Notably, the album had the biggest opening week for any album in 2023, selling over 184,000 combined units, and has spent three weeks at the top spot on the Official UK Albums Chart. Midweek data suggests it will continue to maintain its position at No. 1 for the fourth week.
It’s worth noting that 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is one of three Swift albums that have made it to the top 10 of the Official Top 40 best-selling vinyl albums of 2023. Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is at No. 4. Midnight is at No. 8. Furthermore, five other albums by the same artist have also made it to the year-end chart: Lover (No. 20), folklore (No. 21), reputation (No. 27), evermore (No. 37), and folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions, a limited-edition release on Record Store Day (No. 38). The top three positions on the year-end vinyl album chart in the UK are held by The Rolling Stones’ Hackney Diamonds (Polydor) at No. 2 and Lana Del Rey’s Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd (Polydor) at No. 3, respectively.
The single “Now and Then” by The Beatles, released via Apple Corps, has been named the top-selling vinyl single of 2023 in the UK. This song originated as a demo recorded by John Lennon in the late 1970s and includes contributions from all four iconic band members. Since its release, the single has sold 33,000 vinyl copies, which included both 12-inch and 7-inch versions, featuring clear, light blue, and blue/white marble editions. In November, “Now and Then” achieved the top spot on the weekly tally and broke several records, including the longest span between an artist’s first and last No. 1 and the fastest-selling vinyl single of the century in the UK.
As per the year-end vinyl singles tally, Boygenius’s “The Rest” (Interscope) holds second, with the Beatles ranking first. Simultaneously, Aphex Twin, a veteran electronic music wizard, secures the third position with “Blackbox Life Recorder 21F” (Warp). The Sex Pistols, British punk icons, have secured three vinyl releases in the top 10 in the U.K., all via Virgin: “Anarchy in the U.K.” (No. 5), “Holidays in the Sun” (No. 6), and “Pretty Vacant” (No. 9). Vinyl records are a significant category, and the data published by the BPI shows that the format has posted its 16th consecutive year of growth in 2023. The design has seen a year-on-year increase of 11.7%, amounting to 5.9 million units (up to week 51), marking the highest annual sales figures for the format since 1990. This is a significant increase from the previous year’s growth of 2.9%.
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