Vinyl is back, and now it has its own UK top 40
Vinyl is making a comeback. Album sales in the UK climbed to 1.29 million last year -- the first time the 1 million mark has been surpassed since 1996. The format is still just a fraction of the total UK albums market (1.5 percent, to be precise) but now its success is being recognised in the charts. The UK's Official Charts Company is launching two vinyl-specific top 40s today -- one for albums and another for 7-inch and 12-inch singles -- for the first time in Britain. The renewed interest in vinyl doesn't appear to be slowing either, with album sales in the first quarter of 2015 up 69 percent from the same period last year. Is the growth from audiophiles, collectors, DJs, or a mixture of all three? It's not clear, but in the age of streaming, it's nice to see that analog still has a place with music lovers.
[Image Credit: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images]
