Taylor Swift is the queen of vinyl, as the superstar is by far the top-selling artist in 2023 in the U.S. when it comes to vinyl albums sold. So far this year, through Nov. 2, her catalog of albums have sold 2.484 million copies on vinyl in 2023, according to data tracking firm Luminate. That equates to 6.43% of total vinyl album sales (38.585 million) — or, nearly one out of every 15 vinyl albums sold.
A healthy chunk of Swift’s vinyl sales this year come from her latest release, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), which debuted with 693,000 copies sold in the U.S. in the week ending Nov. 2, following its Oct. 27 release. That sum also broke the record for the single largest sales week for an album on vinyl since Luminate began tracking music sales in 1991. It surpassed the high-water mark previously set by Swift herself, with the debut week of Midnights in 2022, with 575,000 copies sold.
Swift’s impressive vinyl sales figures are bolstered by her catalog generally being made available in multiple collectible variants, including five different versions of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) – each in a different color vinyl with a different cover. (It’s not uncommon for artists to release multiple versions of an album on vinyl — Swift is not alone in this practice.)
2023’s second-biggest-selling artist when it comes to vinyl albums is Lana Del Rey, with 501,000 sold across her assorted albums.
In 2022 and 2021, Swift was the year’s top-selling vinyl albums artist in the U.S. In 2022, she sold 1.69 million (of the market’s total 43.46 million) and in 2021 she sold 1.093 million (of the market’s total of 41.717 million). In total, from January 2021 through Nov. 2, 2023, there were 123.762 million vinyl albums sold. Of that sum, Swift sold 5.273 million vinyl albums – equaling 4.26% of the vinyl market.
So far in 2023, Swift has five of the top 10 biggest-selling albums on vinyl, with four of those among the top five. Her latest release, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), is the year’s biggest on vinyl, with, as noted above, 693,000 sold in its first week. At Nos. 2, 3 and 5, respectively, are Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) (406,000), Midnights (367,000) and Folklore (201,000). Lover is Swift’s fifth title among the year’s top 10-sellers, at No. 9 with 151,000 sold.
