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Record Store Day Sales Numbers are In. Here’s What People Bought

According to organizers of Record Store Day, the biggest sellers this year were titles from David Bowie and the Grateful Dead. And while stores were crowded (I was at Kops on Queen West in Toronto on Saturday and it was a ZOO!) there was little to no growth in sales over 2016.

  • Buzz Angle Music sales that album sales for the day were down by 3.7%.
  • Vinyl album sales were ahead by 2.3%
  • Vinyl singles fell by 5.8%. This could be a factor of the nature of this year’s offerings. Maybe they just weren’t enticing enough.
  • The biggest seller was a Grateful Dead archive album followed by David Bowie’s Cracked Actor collection.
  • The best-selling single was the Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever”/”Penny Lane” reissue.

Here are the top 20 best-selling albums:

  1. P.N.E. Garden Auditorium, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 7/29/66 – Grateful Dead
  2. Cracked Actor – David Bowie
  3. Live From Welcome to 1979 – Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit
    Badfish – Sublime
  4. Lime and Limpid – The Claypool Lennon Delirium
  5. Decade – Neil Young
  6. Bowpromo – David Bowie
  7. Good Apollo I’m Burning Star IV, Vol. 1: From Fear
  8. Through the Eyes of Madness – Coheed & Cambria
  9. Live at Carnegie Hall – Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble
  10. Death Song – Black Angels
  11. Stinson Beach Sessions – The Head and the Heart
  12. Electric Lady Sessions – Drive-By Truckers
  13. Live at The Woodstock Music & Art Fair, August 16, 1969 – Santana
  14. Live at Red Rocks 8.15.9 – Dave Matthews Band
  15. Blade Runner – Vangelis
  16. 11/17/70 – Elton John
  17. Nilsson Schmilsson – Harry Nilsson
  18. Really Rock ‘Em Right: Sun Records Curated By Record Store Day Volume 4 – Various Artists
  19. Hammersmith Odeon, London ’75 – Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band
  20. Live at Austin City Limits – Townes Van Zandt

As for the top 10 selling single…

  1. Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane – Beatles
  2. Star Wars: A New Hope – John Williams
  3. Red Hill Mining Town – U2
  4. State of Love and Trust / Breath – Pearl Jam
  5. Interstellar Overdrive – Pink Floyd
  6. Little Red Corvette / 1999 – Prince
  7. Boy With the Thorn in His Side – The Smiths
  8. What the Hell Have I / Get Born Again – Alice in Chains
  9. Cygnus X-1 – Rush
  10. Def Leppard EP – Def Leppard

BuzzAngle has more data on Record Store Day 2017 here.

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 39645 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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