Taylor Swift sets staggering vinyl sale record

The pop superstar occupied five positions on 2023’s top ten chart of vinyl album sales

Taylor Swift dominated vinyl sales in the US last year, with the pop superstar accounting for one in every 15 sales.

That made 2023 the third straight year that Swift was the top-selling act on vinyl. In 2022, one out of every 25 vinyl albums sold was by Swift.

According to reports in Billboard, last year 49.61 million vinyl albums were sold in the US, an increase of 14.2% from 2022 when 43.46 million were sold.

Of all the records sold in 2023, 3.484 million were by Swift – 7% of the industry’s total. The next biggest seller was Lana Del Rey, with 646,000 copies sold.

Then came Tyler, the Creator (552,000), Travis Scott (474,000), Olivia Rodrigo (408,000), Kendrick Lamar (382,000), Metallica (378,000), The Beatles (373,000), Fleetwood Mac (357,000) and Mac Miller (354,000).

Vinyl sales made up 47.1% of all album sales in the US last year, and 57% of all physical albums sold.

Taylor Swift attends the Golden Globes in January 2024 (AFP via Getty Images)

The ten best-selling vinyl albums of 2023 were:

1. Taylor Swift - 1989 (Taylor’s Version)

2. Taylor Swift - Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)

3. Taylor Swift - Midnights

4. Travis Scott - Utopia

5. Taylor Swift - Folklore

6. Olivia Rodrigo - Guts

7. Taylor Swift - Lover

8. Lana Del Rey - Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd

9. Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

10. Lana Del Rey - Born To Die

Last October, it was confirmed that Swift had officially reached billionaire status.

The 34-year-old’s achievement in reaching the financial milestone was credited to her “Taylor’s Version” re-recorded albums, her lucrative Eras tour and her box office smash concert film.

Ahead of the release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version), Bloomberg described Swift’s brand as “essentially a multinational conglomerate with the world’s most devoted customer base”.

It has been noted that Swift is one of the few performers to achieve billionaire status on music and performance alone, as opposed to through other ventures such as fashion, alcohol or make-up lines.

Bloomberg estimates that Swift’s net worth can be broken down into the following categories. Her catalogue of music released since 2019, including new albums and her re-recorded Taylor’s Versions, estimated to be worth $400m (£330m), with concerts, their ticket sales and merchandise at an estimated $370m (£305m).

She is thought to have made up the remainder of the money on streams ($120m or £99m), her five personal properties ($110m or £90m), and royalties from music sales ($80m or £66m).