Vinyl Still Strong

While album sales have steadily declined over the past years, sales of vinyl albums continue to rise.

What may have been a niche market is getting harder to ignore. Nielsen SoundScan said 2011 sales of new LPs are almost 3.5 million year-to-date compared with 2.8 million in 2010.

Meanwhile, overall album sales dropped 13 percent in 2010 while vinyl sales increased 12 percent during the same period.

Vinyl still makes up about only 1 percent of the total recorded music market, however.

The Beatles’ Abbey Road was the top seller of 2011 with 35,000 vinyl copies purchased.

Nielsen SoundScan’s second-best was by the relatively young Fleet Foxes.

The top 25 includes Adele, The Black Keys, Mumford & Sons, Radiohead, Guns N’ Roses and Bright Eyes.