Album sales in the US hit their lowest point in 60 years earlier this month

According to Billboard, album sales fell 29% to 1.52 million in the week of 19 March. That number accumulates vinyl, CD, cassettes, and digital album sales.

That number is potentially the lowest sum of sales since the album format took off in the '60s. Billboard notes that prior to this month's decrease in album sales, the lowest point that Nielsen/MRC Data experienced was the week ending 16 January 2020, which saw a total of 1.65 million albums sold.

The decrease is undoubtedly due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Record shops have been forced to shut their stores, and Amazon decided to stop accepting new deliveries of vinyl and CD's to make room in their distribution centres for "household staples, medical supplies and other high demand products."

Despite the negative impact on the music industry, Bandcamp hosted a successful fundraiser for artists earlier this month. On 20 March, they gave up their revenue shares for 24 hours, and fans spent a staggering $4.3 million on music and merchandise.