Taylor Swift Sold One of Every 15 Vinyl Albums in the U.S. in 2023 – Billboard

In 2023, Taylor Swift loomed so large in the world of vinyl albums, that one of every 15 vinyl albums sold in the U.S. was by the superstar.

Comparatively, in 2022, she accounted for one of every 25 vinyl albums sold.

Swift was the year’s top-selling act on vinyl for a third straight year, with 3.484 million copies sold across her catalog of albums, according to data tracking firm Luminate. The industry’s total vinyl album sales for 2023, across all artists in the U.S., finished at 49.61 million – up 14.2% from 43.46 million in 2022. 2023 marked the 18th consecutive year vinyl album sales grew in the U.S., and the largest year for vinyl album sales since Luminate began tracking data in 1991.  

In 2023, Swift’s vinyl sales accounted for 7% of the industry’s total vinyl album sales.

Read more about the year-end numbers in the U.S. 2023 Luminate Year-End Music Report.

Swift’s vinyl sales were so big in 2023 that she sold more than the next seven-biggest-selling acts on vinyl last year. Lana Del Rey was the year’s No. 2-seller on vinyl, with 646,000 copies sold, followed by Tyler, the Creator (552,000), Travis Scott (474,000), Olivia Rodrigo (408,000), Kendrick Lamar (382,000), Metallica (378,000) and The Beatles (373,000). (To round out the top 10-selling acts on vinyl last year, Fleetwood Mac was No. 9, with 357,000, and Mac Miller was No. 10 with 354,000.)

The top-selling vinyl album of 2023 was Swift’s 1989 (Taylor’s Version) with 1.014 million sold. That marks the largest yearly sales total for a vinyl album, and the first vinyl set to sell a million in a calendar year, since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991. The set also scored the largest sales week for a vinyl set since 1991 when it debuted with 693,000 copies sold in its first week.

Swift has five of the top 10-selling vinyl albums of 2023, and the entire top three. (See list, below.)

TOP 10-SELLING VINYL ALBUMS OF 2023 IN U.S.
1. Taylor Swift, 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (1.014 million)
2. Taylor Swift, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) (510,000)
3. Taylor Swift, Midnights (492,000)
4. Travis Scott, Utopia (373,000)
5. Taylor Swift, Folklore (308,000)
6. Olivia Rodrigo, Guts (267,000)
7. Taylor Swift, Lover (256,000)
8. Lana Del Rey, Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (215,000)
9. Fleetwood Mac, Rumours (206,000)
10. Lana Del Rey, Born To Die (192,000)
Source: Luminate, for the tracking period Dec. 30, 2022, through Dec. 28, 2023.

Vinyl album sales comprised 47.1% of all album sales in the U.S. in 2023 (49.61 million of 105.32 million). Vinyl LPs accounted for 57% of all physical album sold last year (49.61 million of 87 million). Both sums are Luminate-era records for vinyl’s share of the album sales market in the U.S.

For the third consecutive year, and the third year since Luminate began tracking sales in 1991, vinyl albums outsold CD albums in the U.S. Vinyl once again is the leading configuration for album purchases for the third year in a row. (Vinyl was the top-selling album configuration in 2023, followed by CDs and then digital download albums.)

Vinyl was the dominant configuration for album purchases in the U.S. up until the early 1980s. After that, cassettes took hold until the early ‘90s, when the CD configuration blossomed and remained king until 2021, when vinyl retook the top slot.

Luminate began tracking music sales in 1991 when the company was known as SoundScan. Luminate’s sales, streaming and airplay data is used to compile Billboard’s weekly charts. Luminate’s 2023 tracking year ran from Dec. 30, 2022, through Dec. 28, 2023. Luminate is an independently operated company and a subsidiary of PME TopCo, a joint venture between Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge. Billboard is an independently operated company owned by PME Holdings, a subsidiary of PME TopCo.