Record Store Day in the US was very, very good

I’ve been told by various record industry people from around the world that this year’s Record Store Day was excellent.

According to Nielsen Music, 733,000 vinyl albums were sold in the US for the week ending April 26, an increase of 190% over the previous week. This is the second-highest sales week we’ve ever seen, trailing the Christmas sales ending December 21, 2017, when 811,000 records were sold.

Another fact: 588,000 of those 733,000 records were sold through independent record stores.

A look at the US vinyl SoundScan charts backs this up. Here are the top 10 selling vinyl records last week. To put things in perspective, if any record sells more than 2,500 copies in a week, it’s cause for celebration.

1. A Perfect Circle, Eat the Elephant: 6,527
2. Neil Young, Tonight’s the Night: 5,225
3. Sleep, The Sciences: 5,058
4. Bruce Springsteen, Greatest Hits: 4,801
5. David Bowie, Welcome to the Blackout (Record Store Day special): 4,433
6. Pink Floyd, Piper at the Gates of Dawn: 3,829
7. Rage Against the Machine, Democratic National Convention: 3,727
8. Bob Dylan and the Grateful Dead: Dylan and the Dead: 3,671
9. Prince, 1999: 3,534
10. The Cure, Mixed Up: 3,526

To find a record that sold fewer than 2,500 copies last week, you have to all the way down to #32 for Linkin Park’s One More Light Live (2,483). The combined total of the top 50 selling vinyl releases last week was 148,023. Excellent. Really, excellent.