Robin L
Master Contributor
During the mid-eighties, when cars had cassette players and Walkmen became a thing, the cassette was the dominant media for recorded music. As of 1986, Cassettes were 53% of the market, CDs were 28% and LPs were 18%. Check out the animated chart of music sales by media, 1976-2020CD probably still outselling vinyl but you can overcharge a lot more for vinyl and the cd has to be cheaper if US pricing is anything like the UK. That said I don't think vinyl revenues are as large outside US. Probably the most profitable for the industry per unit though.
Vinyl discs sold still far lower than 8 track and even cassette tapes sold in vinyls heyday.
https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem/anim...-sales-by-format-share-1973-to-2020-mid-year/
Read the fine print:
" . . . the modest but perhaps temporary comeback in vinyl records from an all-time market share low of 0.2% between 2005-2007 to a market share above 1% in 2013 for the first time since 1991 before rising to 5.1% in 2015 (highest since 1988) and then falling below 5% in the last five years and dropping to 4.1% this year . . . "
My emphasis.