2011 Record Store Day
Nielsen SoundScan Music Sales
Record Story Day was on Saturday, April 16, 2011.
All sales figures are for the entire week, Monday-Sunday (week ending April 17, 2011) in the U.S.
Sales Highlights
2011 is the most successful Record Store Day yet.
o Independent record stores sold 13% more albums in 2011 vs. 2010 for the week of Record Store Day.
o Album sales at independent record stores increased more than 39% over the prior week.
o Top sellers at “core” independent record stores increased 88% over the prior week; in 2010 this figure was +26% and +16% in 2009.
Independent record store album sales increases by year:
(sales percentage increase over the prior week)
2011 (April 16, 2011): +39%
2010 (April 17, 2010): +12%
2009 (April 18, 2009): +21%
2008 (April 19, 2008): +0.4%
Vinyl album sales increased more than 220% at independent record stores.
o 2011 was up more than 70% from Record Store Day in 2010. The weekly increase in 2010 was 119%.
o Independent record stores sold nearly 84% of all Vinyl LPs last week.
o There were 14 new vinyl album releases that sold 1,000 copies or more, and 37 that sold at least 500 copies.
o The top selling vinyl album was Panda Bear’s Tomboy, with 7,000 copies sold for the week.
Vinyl singles sold at a rate of over 13-times greater than the normal sales week.
o Record Store Day sales doubled the entire year-to-date vinyl single total in just one week; sales of vinyl singles last week are nearly double last year’s 2010 Record Store Day.
o There were 27 new vinyl single releases that sold at least 500 copies.
o “Brown Sugar”/The Rolling Stones is the best selling vinyl single released for Record Store Day, with 2,000 copies sold.
The Foo Fighters released Medium Rare – a 120 gram Record Store Day exclusive – which sold 2,000 copies. The Foo Fighters also had the best-selling album overall for the week, Wasting Light with 235,000 copies sold.