As the record industry dies, there’s been one persistent counter-narrative to all the doomsday predictions: vinyl LP sales just keep increasing. Now that the SoundScan numbers for 2010 are in, it looks like the theory still holds. In a year that saw album sales decline by 13%, vinyl is up by 14%. But don’t get too excited — LPs still comprise less than one percent of total album sales.
None of the above revelations surprised us, but here’s something that did: people aren’t buying the vinyl records we assumed they were buying! If you thought hip, young things were single-handedly reviving the LP market, think again. The #1 vinyl record of the year was The Beatles’ Abbey Road, practically doubling the sales of its nearest competitor, The Arcade Fire. Check out the oldies-laced top 10 list after the jump and let us know whether it looks odd to you.
The best-selling vinyl LPs of 2010
1. The Beatles, Abbey Road (35,000) 2. Arcade Fire, The Suburbs (18,800) 3. The Black Keys, Brothers (18,400) 4. Vampire Weekend, Contra (15,000) 5. Michael Jackson, Thriller (14,200) 6. The National, High Violet (13,600) 7. Beach House, Teen Dream (13,000) 8. Jimi Hendrix Experience, Valleys of Neptune (11,400) 9. Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon (10,600) 10. The xx, The xx (10,200)