Skip to content
Search

Taylor Swift Helps U.S. Vinyl Sales Surpass $1 Billion for First Time Since 1983

According to the RIAA’s year-end report, vinyl sales, in units, increased from 43.4 million in 2024 to 46.8 million in 2025

Taylor Swift Helps U.S. Vinyl Sales Surpass $1 Billion for First Time Since 1983

Taylor Swift performs during the The Eras Tour on Aug. 15, 2024.

Kate Green/Getty Images

In 2025, U.S. vinyl sales surpassed $1 billion in revenue for the first time since 1983. The boost came in no small part from Taylor Swift, which makes it a real shame the notable year here wasn’t 1989. The musician’s latest release, The Life of a Showgirl, accounts for 1.6 million vinyl units sold last year, the highest of any release by over 1.3 million units, according to Luminate as Variety reports.

Swift sold eight distinct versions of the Life of a Showgirl vinyl. There was the The Life of a Showgirl: The Crowd Is Your King edition, the Shiny Bug edition, the Show Business edition, the Tiny Bubbles in Champagne edition, and more pressed on varying transparent, shimmering, marbled, and sparkling vinyl.


According to the RIAA’s year-end report released Wednesday, vinyl sales, in units, increased from 43.4 million in 2024 to 46.8 million in 2025. The 7.9 percent increase accompanies a 9.3 percent revenue increase from $954.4 million to $1,042.9 billion. Besides Swift, the year’s top vinyl sellers were Sabrina Carpenter, Kendrick Lamar, Billie Eilish, Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson, the Weeknd, and Tyler, the Creator.

As vinyl numbers rose, CD sales and revenue saw a decrease of 11.6 percent and 7.8 percent, respectively. Elsewhere, paid streaming subscriptions are up 6.5 percent from 100 million accounts in 2024 to 106.5 million accounts in 2025 for a revenue increase of 6.8 percent, jumping from $5,506.5 billion to $5,881.1 billion.

The RIAA reports a record high year-end total revenue of $11.5 billion. The number is up 3.1 percent from the previous year.

“Fans are consuming music from the artists they love in more ways than ever, and that passion is reflected in today’s report,” Matt Bass, RIAA VP Research and Gold & Platinum Operation, said in a statement. “U.S. recorded music has demonstrated sustained growth globally, reaching $6.4 billion alone in paid subscriptions and tallying 50% of global vinyl revenue, leading the way for fans to listen and connect with their favorite music whenever, wherever and however they want.”

More Stories

Niall Horan: ‘There’s Only So Much of Yourself That You Can Give’
Elizabeth Weinberg

Niall Horan: ‘There’s Only So Much of Yourself That You Can Give’

When Niall Horan left his house in Los Angeles on a recent Sunday afternoon, there were a few hundred people in line at Olive and James Cafe Tea, a quaint coffee shop on Melrose Avenue. By the time he pulled up, the queue stretched around the block. There isn’t a matcha or tiramisu latte in the world delectable enough to rationalize that long of a wait, but they weren’t there for the coffee. It was all for him.

Horan, who splits his time between London and L.A., teamed up with the shop in celebration of Dinner Party, his fourth studio album, out June 5. The social media invite teased merch, drinks, and “a few surprises,” but never promised that he would be in attendance. “I couldn’t say hello to everyone because I just wasn’t expecting those types of numbers,”Horan says the following morning.

Keep ReadingShow less
Willie Nelson Is Now 93. Here’s What Keeps Him Going

Willie Nelson turned 93 this week. He’ll play a headlining show to celebrate.

Pamela Springsteen*

Willie Nelson Is Now 93. Here’s What Keeps Him Going

Willie Nelson turned 93 on Wednesday, but he’s still not slowing down. Just three days later, on Saturday, May 2, the Red Headed Stranger will headline a concert at the Whitewater Amphitheatre in New Braunfels, Texas. Then he’s off to a string of shows in the southeast before kicking off the 2026 installment of the Outlaw Music Festival Tour on July 3.

Nelson will play these gigs despite suffering a string of losses to his road band — the Family Band — over the last few years. Guitarist Jody Payne died in 2008, bassist Bee Spears in 2011, and Nelson’s longtime drummer and foil, Paul English, passed in 2020. And then there was “Sister Bobbie”: Nelson’s piano-playing older sibling Bobbie Nelson left a gaping hole in the Willie ecosystem when she died in 2022.

Keep ReadingShow less
Olivia Rodrigo Details 65-Date ‘Unraveled’ World Tour

Olivia Rodrigo

Courtesy of Live Nation

Olivia Rodrigo Details 65-Date ‘Unraveled’ World Tour

Olivia Rodrigo will return to the road later this year with a massive 65-date world tour in support of her upcoming album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love.

Dubbed the “Unraveled Tour,” the North American leg will kick off Sept. 25 at the PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford, Connecticut. The trek will continue through the fall and into early 2027, wrapping with a four-night stand at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, February 11, 12, 15, and 16.

Keep ReadingShow less
D4vd Allegedly Dismembered Celeste Rivas in Kiddie Pool With Chainsaw Purchased on Amazon

Singer D4vd performing at Coachella in Indio, California, on April 18, 2025.

Timothy Norris/Getty Images

D4vd Allegedly Dismembered Celeste Rivas in Kiddie Pool With Chainsaw Purchased on Amazon

Platinum-selling singer D4vd allegedly stabbed 14-year-old Celeste Rivas to death in his Hollywood Hills home on April 23, 2025, then later dismembered her body with a chainsaw in a blue inflatable kiddie pool in his garage before stowing her remains in his Tesla and lying to friends who noticed “the strong smell of decay.”

That’s the damning narrative Los Angeles prosecutors laid out over nine pages of a preliminary hearing brief filed Wednesday and released to the public over the objection of D4vd’s defense team. Prosecutors claim surveillance video shows the singer driving his Tesla on July 29, 2025, before he parked it around the corner from his rental house and left on a concert tour. The Tesla was later towed and impounded, with investigators finding Rivas’ dismembered and badly decomposed remains in the front truck on Sept. 8, 2025.

Keep ReadingShow less
Kacey Musgraves Is Going to the ‘Middle of Nowhere’ for Her Upcoming Arena Tour

Kacey Musgraves previewed her tour at a surprise Coachella appearance.

Scott Dudelson/Getty Images for Coachella

Kacey Musgraves Is Going to the ‘Middle of Nowhere’ for Her Upcoming Arena Tour

Kacey Musgraves will hit North American arenas this fall in support of her sixth studio album, Middle of Nowhere, out Friday (May 1). The tour opens on her birthday, Aug. 21, at the United Center in Chicago and runs through October, closing with two nights at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. Opening acts include Midland, Flatland Cavalry, Carter Faith, Estevie, Charles Wesley Godwin, William Beckmann, Gabriella Rose, and the Brudi Brothers.

Middle of Nowhere, which includes guest vocals from Willie Nelson, Billy Strings, and Miranda Lambert, takes its title from a sign in the East Texas town where Musgraves grew up: “Golden, TX: Somewhere in the Middle of Nowhere.” She debuted four songs from the new album during the second weekend of Coachella. The lead single, the twangy “Dry Spell,” arrived in March, followed by the equally rootsy title track in April.

Keep ReadingShow less