The official overseas figures for Record Store Day 2018 have been revealed and, by all accounts, it was a landmark year for the event and for vinyl sales on the whole.
The U.S Nielsen Music report marked RSD 2018 as the single largest week for vinyl in the retail sector since they started tracking sales back in 1991. In the UK, the Official Charts Company found the event smashed more records, with sales jumping 16% from 2017. Both noted it was the biggest Record Store Day in history.
Reports from the US and UK have revealed that the 11th annual Record Store Day was the biggest in history and a landmark for vinyl sales on the whole.
As Billboard reports, the 11th annual event (which took place on Saturday, April 21st), helped yield a massive 733,000 vinyl albums sold in the U.S (by the end of the week, on April 26th). This was the third-largest weekly sum for vinyl album sales since 1991.
Interestingly, 580,000 of these units were sold at indie record stores, and Nielsen notes that without these figures, the overall sales would have been down 2.5%. Instead, they were up 17%, showing just how huge Record Store Day is for indie retailers.
In the UK, 60,000 albums and 30,000 singles were sold.
Amongst the biggest selling releases were Welcome to the Blackout, a live album by David Bowie, a mono version of Pink Floyd’s first album, Piper at the Gates of Dawn, a live album from The National and a blue vinyl reissue of Arcade Fire’s debut EP.
