US | Led by Taylor Swift, U.S. Vinyl Sales Rose for 19th Consecutive Year in 2025: Luminate Year-End Report. …The report is filled with notable information and statistics, but perhaps most striking are the vinyl sales—led by Taylor Swift’s “Life of a Showgirl”—which rose for the 19th consecutive year in 2025. Additional notes from the report in bullet points below. …U.S. vinyl sales increased for the 19th consecutive year, growing by +8.6% to 47.9 million units. Total U.S. Physical Album Sales increased by +6.5%. U.S. Digital Album Sales dropped by -15.9%.
US/UK | Rough Trade reveals 50th anniversary plans including subscription for vinyl exclusives: Rough Trade has revealed its 50th anniversary plans for 2026 with a year-long programme of releases and events. Founded in West London in 1976, Rough Trade is a globally recognised independent music brand and community space. The anniversary coincides with new figures on vinyl sales from ERA and the BPI showing continued growth for the format. Central to the 50th anniversary celebrations is a curated series of 50 essential albums spanning five decades, from 1976 to 2025, featuring era-defining albums by artists including Patti Smith, Aphex Twin, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, Björk, The xx, Rina Sawayama, Pulp and many more. The albums will be released as Rough Trade exclusive vinyl editions in five drops of 10 titles starting next month, each representing a decade.
Alexandria, VA | Flooded Del Ray record store raises over $5K in one day for recovery efforts: Over $5,000 has been fundraised for Crooked Beat Records less than a day after the flooded Del Ray business published fundraisers on social media to support its restoration. A GoFundMe and merchandise fundraiser have quickly garnered more than $5,300 for the vinyl shop, after a burst pipe incident flooded it with several inches of water over the weekend. As of yesterday (Tuesday), water had continued to enter the shop but crews were working to address damage, according to a Facebook video by owner Bill Daly. “About 30 minutes ago, the water started coming in again,” Daly said in the post, which published just before 2 p.m. “You can see the crew back here … they thought they fixed everything, but there’s more problems.”
Glasgow, UK | Huge queue formed outside Glasgow record shop for iconic Noughties band: Blue mania has returned to Glasgow in full force. Fans queued outside Assai Records on Wednesday, January 14, to meet one of the UK’s best-loved boybands, Blue, to mark the release of their latest album, Reflections. The group, comprised of Simon Webbe, Duncan James, Antony Costa and Lee Ryan, spent the evening meeting fans, signing copies of the album and posing for photos inside the city-centre record store, drawing a crowd of long-time supporters. Blue rose to prominence in the early 2000s and became one of the UK’s most successful boybands, scoring a string of hit singles including All Rise, One Love and Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word, a collaboration with Elton John that reached number one in 2002.
FL | New South Florida record stores feed growing vinyl demand: A new record store in Doral and the announced opening of another in Fort Lauderdale are adding to South Florida’s vinyl music scene. Why it matters: Analog music’s resurgence has seen vinyl sales in the U.S. increase for 18 straight years, selling over 43 million copies in 2024, per Statista. South Florida has no shortage of record stores—from Sweat Records in Little Haiti to We Got the Beats Records Store, which has multiple locations in Broward County. The latest: Crazy Vinyl Record opened in Doral in late December and Shellshock Records is opening in Fort Lauderdale sometime this year. Crazy Vinyl Record is designed as a community space, with plans to host DJ performances and other events, according to Miami New Times.
AU | Record Store Day returns in April: This year’s Record Store Day Australia arrives Saturday 18 April. …Since the inaugural Record Store Day in 2008, the day has grown into a worldwide event highlighting independent music retailers and the communities that support them. As with every year, record stores will have access to special edition vinyl from a wide range of artists, with artists and labels encouraged to submit expressions of interest to release music as part of Record Store Day Australia 2026. Expressions of interest close on Friday 30 January. Music lovers can expect releases on vinyl, CD, cassette and KiTbetter, which is a brand new hybrid physical and digital music format designed to “blend the collectible appeal of physical music products of albums, photo cards, booklets and merchandise,” giving fans something tangible along with a connected digital experience.
Why everyone should join an album club: Combat loneliness while building your vinyl collection. Everything about Billy’s living room is set up for listening to vinyl, and one Friday night every month, we gather at his house to do just that. There’s no TV in the room, just a tall pair of speakers standing at attention, pointed at a pair of leather chairs that recall the old Maxell Tape ad from the ’80s. Billy has spent a lot of time and money tweaking the sound in the room, but I’m more of a music fan than an audiophile, so I’ll just have to take his word for it. What I’m here for are the stories and the tunes. I joined this Album Club in January 2020, when we could still gather in basements to share the music we love with one another—“like a book club but with records” was how it was originally explained to me.
Spring Hill, TN | Mid-Tennessee Record Fair back again on Jan. 17 in Spring Hill: Middle Tennessee’s music collectors and vinyl enthusiasts are expected to gather in Spring Hill on Saturday, Jan. 17, for first Mid-Tennessee Record Fair of the year. Hosted by Rock-A-Rolla Records of Spring Hill, the fair takes place at the 14,000 square foot UAW Local 1853 Union Hall on 125 Stephen P. Yokich Pkwy, conveniently located right off Tennessee Route 396 in Spring Hill. Event organizers said last summer’s show exceeded expectations and they can’t wait to bring all the music junkies of middle Tennessee together again! There will be record and vintage clothing dealers from Michigan to Florida and everywhere in between. With 70 tables, visitors can expect to see vinyl records, CDs, DVDs, cassettes, 45s, music memorabilia, vintage clothing and t-shirts, stickers, pins and more.
Mid Hudson Valley, NY | Ware-House Vinyl Record Show: 6TonsMusic along with Vinyl Salvage Co and Bash And Pop Records will be doing a special 1 day Record Show Pop-Up at the NEWBURGH VINTAGE EMPORIUM WARE-HOUSE this Saturday January 17th. Starts at 10AM in the Lobby at the NVE Ware-House. Vintage LPs, all kinds of genres from Rock, Metal, Punk, Funk Soul, Jazz, Pop, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, etc. Lots of treasures & lots of bargains!
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