Record Store Day has resulted in yet another banner year for the physical format, with vinyl seeing one of its biggest weeks of sales in history.
April 13th marked the return of Record Store Day for the 12th year in a row. As expected, hordes of music-lovers made their way to their local stores to pick up some of the most exciting limited-edition releases or special editions that hit the shelves this year.
While record stores all over the country got in on the action, we were expecting a pretty big year, especially considering impressive reports of vinyl sales in 2018.
However, as report from Nielsen Music reveals, this year’s Record Store Day resulted in one of the biggest weeks for vinyl in US sales history.
As Billboard reports, Record Store Day 2019 saw an astonishing 827,000 vinyl records sold in the US for the week ending April 18th – the third-largest since Nielsen Music began keeping track back in 1991.
Only the Christmas period of 2018 eclipses this record, with the week ending December 27th seeing sales of 905,000, and December 20th seeing 880,000.
However, the biggest win comes for independent stores, which saw 673,000 records pass through their registers, a 16% increase on 2018, and their biggest in recorded history.
As for this year’s best-performing releases, we have to point our ears back a few decades, with a recording of The Grateful Dead’s 1980 Warfield concert topping the albums list, while The Rolling Stones’ ‘She’s A Rainbow’ charts atop the singles.
While names like Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, and Fleetwood Mac all dominated the albums list, a few modern names also featured prominently, with records by Weezer, Green Day, and Greta Van Fleet all reaching respectable positions.
Sadly, only one Aussie artist managed to make this year’s list of best-sellers, with Courtney Barnett’s ‘Everybody Here Hates You’ serving as the 15th most popular single for this year’s festivities.
On Australian soil, the effect of Record Store Day is also quite clear, with ARIA’s newly-launched vinyl sales chart noting exclusive releases by The Birthday Party, John Lennon, and Pink Floyd all managed to beat out the likes of local icons The Hilltop Hoods.
Check out Courtney Barnett’s ‘Everybody Here Hates You’:
Top-Selling Record Store Day albums and singles in the US
Albums
1. Grateful Dead – Warfield: San Francisco – California – October 9th – 1980 / October 10th – 1980
2. Bob Dylan – Blood on the Tracks: Test Pressing
3. Green Day – Green Day Live! Woodstock 1994
4. Greta Van Fleet – From the Fires
5. Pink Floyd – A Saucerful of Secrets
6. Fleetwood Mac – The Alternate Fleetwood Mac
7. Prince – His Majesty’s Pop Life / The Purple Mix Club
8 (TIE). Pearl Jam – Live at Easy Street
8 (TIE). Weezer (Teal Album)
10. The Doors – London Fog: May – 1966
11. John Lennon – Imagine: The Raw Studio Mixes
12. Gorillaz – The Fall
13. The Rolling Stones – Big Hits [High Tide and Green Grass] (UK)
14. U2 – The Europa EP
15. David Bowie – Pinups
16. Crosby – Stills – Nash & Young – 4 Way Street
17. Sublime – Nugs: The Best of the Box
18. The Rolling Stones – Through the Past – Darkly (Big Hits – Vol. 2) (UK)
19. Sunn O))) – Life Metal
20 (Tie) Elton John With Ray Cooper – Live From Moscow 1979
20 (Tie) Prince – The Versace Experience: Prelude 2 Gold
20 (Tie) Weezer – Dusty Gems & Raw Nuggets
23. Van Morrison – Astral Weeks: Alternative (EP)
24. Grateful Dead – Sage & Spirit
25. Soundtrack – Lost In Translation
Singles
1. The Rolling Stones – ‘She’s a Rainbow’
2. Death Grips – ‘Steroids (Crouching Tiger Hidden Gabber Megamix)’
3. Madonna – ‘La Isla Bonita (Super Mix)’
4. Cheech & Chong – ‘Up In Smoke’
5. Madonna – ‘True Blue (Super Club Mix)’
6. Julien Baker – ‘Red Door/Conversation Piece’
7. High On Fire – ‘Bat Salad’
8. Anderson .Paak – ‘Bubblin’’
9. Bad Religion – ‘My Sanity’
10. Queen – ‘Bohemian Rhapsody/I’m In Love With My Car’
11. Joe Strummer – ‘The Rockfield Studio Tracks’
12. David Bowie/Marlene Dietrich – ‘Revolutionary Song/Just a Gigolo’
13. Lord Huron featuring Phoebe Bridges – ‘The Night We Met’
14. Menzingers – ‘No Penance’
15. Courtney Barnett – ‘Everybody Here Hates You’
16. Czarface – ‘Double Dose of Danger’
17. Fela Kuti and Roy Ayers – ‘Music of Many Colours’
18. Iggy Pop – ‘The Villagers’
19. Benjamin Gibbard – ‘Me and Magdalena’
20. Dr. Dre – ‘Nuthin’ But a “G” Thang’
21 (Tie) Erykah Badu and James Poyser – ‘Tempted’
21 (Tie) Chicano Batman – ‘Black Lipstick’
21 (Tie) Mastodon – ‘Stairway to Nick John’
21 (Tie) Modest Mouse – ‘Poison the Well’
25. Dennis Wilson/Taylor Hawkins/Brian May/Roger Taylor – ‘Holy Man’
