Though album sales have been declining, vinyl sales have been on the rise. For the past seven years, the sales of vinyl have been increasing and in 2014 sales hit another milestone. According to Billboard, 2014 vinyl sales grew by 52 percent to 9.2 million copies, which is a boost from from the 6.1 million sold in 2013. There were 94 albums that sold at least 10,000 copies in vinyl form in 2014, significantly up from 46 albums in 2013.
Rock artist Jack White sold the most vinyls this year with 40,000 copies sold when his album, Lazaretto, debuted at no. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart and on their Vinyl Albums Chart. Out of the 325,000 copies of his album that were sold, 87,000 of those were vinyl.
While 57 percent of consumers bought their vinyl from independent stores, 36 percent chose non-traditional sellers like Urban Outfitters, Hot Topic and Amazon.
As far as top selling vinyls in hip-hop, best sellers on Amazon include Run the Jewel’s Run The Jewels 2, Childish Gambino’s Because The Internet, Kendrick Lamar’s good kid, m.A.A.d city and Dr. Dre’s The Chronic.