Vinyl‘s resurgence has reached a new milestone, as vinyl revenue surpassed $1 billion in revenue in the United States in 2025, the RIAA reported in its annual year-end report published on Monday.
Overall, vinyl sales grew about 9.3 percent year over year, the RIAA said, with overall units sold rising from 43.4 million to 46.8 million. That’s a sharp contrast to other legacy listening formats like CDs and digital downloads, whose revenues dropped by 7.8 percent and .8 percent, respectively. And while some record store owners and collectors have expressed concern about vinyl getting consistently more expensive — the average price of a mint vinyl record grew 24 percent to $37.22 from 2020 to 2025, per Discogs — so far, the data shows that hasn’t lead to waning demand yet.
The vinyl boom started in the late 2000s as a more niche trend among audiofiles and indieheads, with alt-rock figures like Jack White serving as early trailblazers evangelizing the format. Today, it’s a mainstream hobby carried by mainstream pop; Taylor Swift in particular has had the top-selling vinyl album in the country for the last four years. Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl was by far the best-selling vinyl album in the country last year, selling 1.6 million copies in 2025 according to Luminate, with Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend in second with 292,000. Kendrick Lamar’s GNX came in third with 279,000, Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet had 262,000 and Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft rounded out the top 5 with 192,000.
While vinyl’s growth reflects a continued interest from listeners to own tangible, physical copies of music and to support their favorite artists, it still remains a small piece of the overall pie in today’s music industry. Streaming remains the business’s dominant revenue driver, making up $9.47 billion of the $11.5 billion in overall recorded revenue of 2025, the RIAA said.
That $11.5 billion is a new record high, the RIAA, continuing music’s growth since the streaming era ended the rampant piracy of the early 2000s.
Streaming revenue itself grew 3 percent year over year, with premium streaming subscriptions in particular growing 6.8 percent from 2024 to 2025 and making up about $6.4 in revenue. The RIAA said there are now 106.5 million paid music streaming accounts in the U.S. alone.
“The last 20 years have been marked by unprecedented transformation for recorded music – from the steady rise to dominance of anytime, anywhere streaming options as listeners enjoy tunes from their favorite artists to a resurgence of vinyl as both a listening experience and collectable art,” RIAA CEO and chairman Mitch Glazier said in a statement Monday, calling music a “cornerstone of culture. “And now, our industry is advancing free-market licensing, building responsible AI partnerships that enhance discovery, deepen fan engagement and unlock new creative possibilities for how music is made and experienced.”
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