There are no platinum records this year, but 2014 UK vinyl sales are set to top one million

17 October 2014, 14:28 | Written by Laurence Day

(News)

(Jack White)

While vinyl's mighty resurgence continues to stay strong, apparently due to top the one million mark by the end of the festive period, on the whole, there have been no single records that have topped that same number, registering platinum (at least in the US). By this time last year, five had.

As Forbes note in their article, the Frozen OST has actually sold over three million copies, but it doesn't qualify due to it being a soundtrack. Huge McIntyre writes on the issue on the Forbes site:

"The sales numbers for the music industry are looking particularly grim. While the fourth quarter is typically when the most sales occur, things have never been quite so bad. In 2014, not a single artist’s album has gone platinum. Not one has managed to cross that million sales mark."

Their reports suggest that Lorde or Beyonce may tip over the make by the end of the year, despite both records being released in 2013 and selling the majority of their units then.

In terms of singles, 60 have gone platinum so far this year. Great news, right? Well, that number was 83 last year, so unless these last few months are packed with mega-hits, it looks like that number is going to slip too.

On the other hand, softening the low-sales blow, Billboard point out that the vinyl sales in the UK are set to top 1,000,000 over the final months in the UK, mostly due to the Christmas period. The total so far this year is 800,000; last year topped out at just over 780,000. Billboard also notes:

"Surprisingly, the busiest month of the year for British vinyl fans was not April, when Record Store Day takes place, but September when over 110,000 vinyl LP were sold."

Jack White's Lazaretto remains the year's biggest vinyl release.

Watch a video of the records title track, if you fancy.