Tesco dip into growing vinyl album market
Tesco will become the first UK supermarket to tap into the rapidly growing vinyl music market next week when it will sell the new album by British rock legends Iron Maiden.
The move is significant as in the last few years the vinyl album revival has been gaining momentum, year on year with sales up by more than 50% in 2014.
Vinyl albums have bucked the downward sales trend in the last year of other music formats such as CDs which fell by 6.5% and downloads which dropped by nearly 9%.
The only other music format in growth is streaming which grew by 78% last year.
Tesco music buyer Michael Mulligan explained the reasons behind the move: “In the last year we began selling record decks in our largest stores and initial sales are very encouraging so giving our customers some new vinyl to play on those decks seems like the logical next step.”
Maiden’s first studio offering in five years, The Book Of Souls, will be released on Friday September 4, with the triple LP format going on sale in 55 of the supermarket’s largest Tesco Extra stores.
“And there can be no better way to launch this trial than working with one of rock music’s most iconic bands and their eagerly anticipated new album.
“We are anticipating demand for The Book Of Souls to be high as Iron Maiden’s last album was the band’s most successful to date, reaching number one in 28 countries including the UK.
“If this trial is a success then we would consider selling more vinyl albums before the end of the year.”
After bottoming out at just over 205,000 vinyl albums in 2007, UK sales have grown every year since and in 2014 reached almost 1.3 million – the highest annual total since 1995.
Michael Mulligan added: “The trend for vinyl doesn’t seem to be confined to one particular age group. Parents are getting their old vinyl albums down from the loft and teenagers are discovering the joys of the 12 inch record for the first time.”
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