While sales of compact discs and ringtones suffered double-digit declines last year, vinyl records enjoyed what appears to be an enduring resurgence in 2010, according to figures released Thursday by the Recording Industry Assn. of America.
CD sales dropped 21% in 2010 to $3.36 billion, down from $4.27 billion in 2009, said RIAA, whose members include the industry’s largest record labels. Vinyl LP sales, meanwhile, surged 26%, albeit to a modest $4 million, up from $3.2 million in 2009. The increase comes partly from live DJs who prefer vinyl over digital and partly from a new generation of collectors who see them as valuable souvenirs.
On the digital front, mobile music sales, which is made up of mostly ringtones, dropped 28% to $527 million last year. Sales of individual song downloads grew just 2.1% in 2010 with more than 1.16 billion tracks sold, compared with 1.14 billion in 2009. But overall digital music revenue grew 10%, in large part because Apple Inc. last year raised the price of top selling tunes to $1.29 from 99 cents.
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