Vinyl sales keep rising, led by Taylor Swift's "Showgirl" album
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Taylor Swift's "The Life of a Showgirl" — the biggest album release in music history — sold 1.6 million vinyl copies in the U.S. last year, representing over 3% of all units sold, per industry data firm Luminate.
Why it matters: Swift helped as U.S. vinyl sales rose for the 19th straight year in 2025.
- Sales climbed 9% to nearly 48 million units, according to Luminate's Year-End Music Report.
Reality check: The year's next top-selling vinyl albums, Sabrina Carpenter's "Man's Best Friend" (292,000 units) and Kendrick Lamar's "GNX" (279,000 units), weren't even close to Swift's tally.
State of play: As vinyl becomes more mainstream, helped by younger listeners leaning into offline activities and physical media, its audience is diversifying, per the report.
- Black, Asian, Hispanic and other nonwhite consumers made up roughly half of all vinyl buyers, up 18 percentage points from the previous year.
Follow the money: Around 2 in 5 vinyl records were sold at indie stores, per the report.
- Millennials posted the biggest increase in vinyl purchases over the past year.
What's next: Record Store Day returns April 18, bringing special releases to indie shops, including titles from Pink Floyd, Bruce Springsteen, Charli XCX, Bruno Mars and the "KPop Demon Hunters" soundtrack.
