Vinyl sales increased 51 per cent thanks to National Album Day

Vinyl sales have reportedly increased by 51 per cent on National Album Day thanks to its 1990s reissues.

• READ MORE: Tricky on ‘Maxinquaye’: “I do appreciate it, but I can also see the damage done to my mind”

National Album Day, which took place on October 14 this year, was jointly organised by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and the Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA), and presented in association with audio partner Bowers & Wilkins and broadcast partner BBC Sounds.

Music Week reported that the Official Charts Company recorded a 51 per cent increase in vinyl sales on National Album Day compared to the previous week.

Nearly half of the 40 best-selling vinyl albums over the last weekend were releases exclusive to National Album Day, such as Blur‘s ‘Modern Life Is Rubbish’, Jeff Buckley‘s ‘Grace’, and Paul Weller‘s ‘Wild Wood’.

There were over 40 classic albums that were released or reissued in limited editions, including Tricky‘s ‘Maxinquaye‘, The Cranberries‘ ‘Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?’ and Fatboy Slim‘s ‘You’ve Come A Long Way Baby‘.

A spokesperson for National Album Day said: “From Britpop and Girl Power to ground-breaking trends in genres such as dance, rock, rap and hip hop, the 1990s was an exceptional era for music, so it’s fantastic that this year’s National Album Day has enabled fans to reconnect with some of their favourite albums from the decade or make new discoveries. The popularity of the theme is underlined by the uplift in vinyl sales thanks to the incredible array of classic albums that were re-issued or appeared for the first time on the beloved format.”

“Coupled with this was activity around the event to celebrate the art of the album, including with our partners Bowers & Wilkins and BBC Sounds. The day would have also not been possible without the support of our artist ambassadors, record labels, distributors, retailers and digital services, and everyone who helped to make it such a fantastic success – we thank them all.”

National Album Day was celebrated with a number of events. On BBC Radio 2, host Steve Wright counted down the most-streamed albums from the ’90s, with Oasis taking the top two spots with ‘What’s The Story (Morning Glory)’ and ‘Definitely Maybe’. BBC’s The One Show also featured the event, and the day coincided with the BBC2 three-part series First Ladies of Hip-Hop, narrated by Neneh Cherry.

Furthermore, Oasis shared a new lyric video for their track ‘Listen Up’ exclusively on the National Album Day website. ‘Listen Up’, a B-side to ‘Cigarettes & Alcohol’, is set to appear of their 25th Anniversary reissue of ‘The Masterplan’, their B-sides collection album, out November 3 (pre-order/pre-save here). Liam Gallagher also recently announced a 30th anniversary tour of ‘Definitely Maybe’ – you can purchase tickets here.

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