-The Top 22 – Triple A, Indie, Alternative Rock
Yes, cassette sales climbed toward a half million units in 2022. On-Demand Streams did pretty well too – more than a trillion…
By Paul Marszalek
TheTop22.com
Luminate’s Year End Music Report is full of pleasant surprises for the music industry, led by the headline that consumption is up overall and On-Demand Streaming Audio eclipsed one trillion streams in 2022.
Digital track and album sales continue to slide, down 25.1% and 22.8%, respectively.
Vinyl continued to climb, held back only by the lack of manufacturing capacity. The format was up 4.2% to 43.5 million units. Physical sales are up a tick more when you account for, wait for it, cassettes!
Artists that cannot wait nine months or more for their vinyl order to be shipped (of at all) have turned to cassettes as a collectible alternative. Cassette sales jumped 28% to 440,000 units, up from 343k last year.
The industry, in a nutshell:
