LONDON -- It's been dismissed as pastime for hipsters, but collecting vinyl is once again big business -- a £20 million ($31.5 million) business, to be specific.
New figures released Thursday by the UK's Official Charts Company show this year's vinyl sales have already passed the 1-million mark, and are on course to hit 1.2 million units by the end of this year, with a busy Christmas shopping season expected. It's the first time since 1996 -- a year when Oasis, Alanis Morissette and the Spice Girls dominated the charts -- that sales have hit that mark.
Sales have risen dramatically from a 20-year low in 2007, when they dipped to around 205,000 units. Last year, vinyl sales totaled 780,674.
The figures showed music fans' "continuing fascination" with the album, said Martin Talbot, head of the Official Charts Company.
"In scoring the biggest opening week for a vinyl album this millennium, Pink Floyd’s The Endless River illustrates the British public’s renewed love for this format," Talbot said about the album, which is the third bestselling album on vinyl so far this year.
Next year, the Official Charts Company will launch a weekly chart just for vinyl sales.
Despite growing interest in the format, however, vinyl is still a niche business, accounting for just 2% of the total music market.
To put this year's vinyl sales into perspective, Taylor Swift sold almost 1.3 million units of her album 1989 in the first week of its release.
Here are the top 10 albums sold on vinyl in the UK this year:
1. Arctic Monkeys, AM
2. Jack White, Lazaretto
3. Pink Floyd, The Endless River
4. Royal Blood, Royal Blood
5. Oasis, Definitely Maybe
6. The Stone Roses, The Stone Roses
7. Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon
8. Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin
9. Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin III
10. Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II
