Vinyl had another spectacular year. But how long can it last?

Sales of vinyl records jumped 25 per cent in 2023. Can the format sustain this momentum? Maybe not.

I know exactly how many single compact discs I bought this year: Zero. None. The only new CDs to enter my collection came as part of big box sets that feature rarities from The Who, The Tragically Hip, Pink Floyd, and a few others. When I wanted to hear any album, new or old, I simply fired up a streaming service.

On the other hand, I lost count of the number of new vinyl records that were added to my collection. Dozens, for sure. Some were brand new while others were bought used at independent shops and record shows. I bought into the vinyl resurrection so hard that I bought a brand new two-channel stereo system with a turntable just so I could listen to my new records.

This seems to mirror Canada as a whole. According to Luminate, the counter of music sales in Canada, the market for compact discs continues to shrink. One of the very last sales reports of 2023 shows that 12.7 per cent fewer compact discs were sold this year with the latest raw number being 1,898,738 units. Think about that for a second: In a country of 40 million, less than two million CDs from all eras were sold across the nation.

Streaming is a big part of this decline. On-demand audio streams in Canada are over 139 billion listens (yes, 139 billion), an increase of 15.3 per cent from 2023. For the week ending Dec. 14 alone, we streamed over three billion songs, 18 per cent more than the same week last year. That’s an all-time high.

Meanwhile, vinyl sales were up dramatically. The latest year-to-date figure I have shows an increase of 25.8 per cent over 2022, with a total of 1,257,435 pieces of fresh vinyl flying out of stores. And because a vinyl album is far more expensive than a CD, the revenue from vinyl sales far exceeds that of compact discs.

One more stat: Vinyl sales have been within 3,000 units of CD sales lately. It’s possible that by the end of the year, thanks to Christmas shopping and Boxing Day spending, more vinyl will be sold in a week than CDs. At this rate, vinyl sales may eclipse those of CDs by sometime next year. The last time that happened was in the very early 1990s. And don’t get me started on the high demand for used vinyl, sales of which are not tracked by Luminate. Anecdotally, it appears that used vinyl far, far outsells used CDs, so, likely, more vinyl records are already being sold than CDs.

Turntables sales continue to do very well, from the cheapest Crosley record players to high-end models from companies like Pro-Ject. Many audio shops have dedicated turntable sections with a dozen or more on display, dwarfing any selection of CD players they might have available — if they have any at all.

Yes, vinyl is booming, maintaining a winning streak that began in 2008 with the inaugural Record Store Day. No one saw this coming.