Physical music remains an important part of the soul and vinyl ecosystem, even as streaming dominates overall consumption. In the United States, physical recorded-music revenue reached $2.0145 billion at estimated retail value in 2024, while U.S. vinyl album shipments reached 43.6 million units. The UK recorded 7.6 million vinyl LP sales in 2025, and global vinyl revenue rose 13.7% that year.
Contents
- U.S. physical music at year-end
- The U.S. mid-year shift from 2024 to 2025
- UK vinyl and physical albums
- UK physical revenue and consumption
- Global physical and vinyl benchmarks
- Soul and R&B chart context
U.S. physical music at year-end
The RIAA 2024 Year-End Revenue Report places the U.S. physical market at $2.0145 billion in estimated retail value during 2024, up 5.4% from 2023. Total U.S. physical shipments reached 78.7 million units, a 2.1% year-over-year increase.
Vinyl was the larger physical format by both revenue and shipments. U.S. vinyl revenue grew 7% to $1.4 billion in 2024, while LP/EP revenue rose 6.9% to $1.4429 billion. LP/EP shipments rose 1.0%, from 43.2 million units in 2023 to 43.6 million in 2024. The RIAA reported that vinyl revenue recorded its 18th consecutive year of growth.
CDs still supplied a substantial portion of the market. U.S. CD revenue increased 1% to $541 million in 2024, and CD shipments totaled 32.9 million units. The format therefore remained important for physical listening, although the unit count was below vinyl album shipments.
| U.S. format or measure | 2024 result | Change or context |
|---|---|---|
| Total physical revenue | $2.0145 billion | Up 5.4% from 2023 |
| Vinyl revenue | $1.4 billion | Up 7%; 18th consecutive growth year |
| LP/EP shipments | 43.6 million | Up 1.0% from 43.2 million |
| CD revenue | $541 million | Up 1% |
| CD shipments | 32.9 million | Year-end 2024 |
| Total physical shipments | 78.7 million | Up 2.1% year over year |
These figures describe the U.S. recorded-music market as a whole, not soul music alone. They are useful market context for soul collectors because they show the scale of the physical formats in which classic soul reissues, contemporary R&B albums, compilations, and special editions are sold.
The U.S. mid-year shift from 2024 to 2025
The RIAA Mid-Year 2024 Recorded Music Revenue Report recorded $993.8 million in U.S. physical-format revenue during the first half of 2024, up 12.7% from the first half of 2023. LP/EP shipments reached 24.3 million units, up 10.7% year over year, and LP/EP revenue was $739.9 million, up 17.0%.
CD shipments reached 16.8 million units in the first half of 2024, up 3.3%, while CD revenue was $236.7 million, up 0.3%. Other physical shipments reached 1.2 million units, up 175.4% from the prior-year half. Music-video physical shipments moved in the opposite direction, falling 40.7% to 0.2 million units. Physical formats represented 12% of U.S. recorded-music shipments in that half, compared with 88% for digital formats.
The RIAA Mid-Year Recorded Music Revenue Report 2025 shows a different first-half picture. U.S. vinyl shipments totaled 22.1 million units in the first half of 2025, down 1.0% from the first half of 2024. Vinyl revenue was $456.9 million, also down 1.0% year over year.
CDs declined more sharply in the same comparison. Shipments fell 22.0% to 11.7 million units, and CD revenue fell 22.3% to $108.1 million. Other physical shipments totaled 1.0 million units, down 3.0%, while other physical revenue was $11.4 million, down 2.9%. Total U.S. physical revenue was $576.4 million in the first half of 2025, down 5.9% year over year.
| U.S. first-half measure | 2024 | 2025 | Reported movement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vinyl shipments | 24.3 million | 22.1 million | 2025 down 1.0% year over year |
| CD shipments | 16.8 million | 11.7 million | 2025 down 22.0% year over year |
| Vinyl revenue | $739.9 million | $456.9 million | 2025 down 1.0% year over year |
| Total physical revenue | $993.8 million | $576.4 million | 2025 down 5.9% year over year |
The two reports use different first-half reporting periods and should be read as year-over-year snapshots, not as a full-year forecast. The 2025 report also recorded U.S. wholesale recorded-music revenue of $5.5891 billion, up 0.9% year over year.
UK vinyl and physical albums
The UK market shows stronger recent vinyl growth than the U.S. mid-year snapshot. According to the BPI report on UK recorded music in 2025, UK vinyl LP sales reached 7.6 million units in 2025, up 13.3% year over year. Vinyl LP sales increased for an 18th consecutive year. The BPI also said that the 2025 UK vinyl market was more than 30 times larger than when it returned to growth in 2008.
Across all physical formats, UK album sales reached 17.6 million units in 2025, with growth of 1.4%. This broader number includes vinyl and other physical album formats, so it should not be substituted for the 7.6 million vinyl LP figure.
Physical formats also played a prominent role at the top of the UK album market. Thirty-four of the UK’s 43 different number-one albums in 2025 opened at number one with a majority of physical sales. The largest single artist-format benchmark in the supplied figures is Taylor Swift’s The Life Of A Showgirl, which sold more than 147,000 UK vinyl LPs in 2025. The BPI described that as the highest calendar-year tally since the Official Charts Company began in 1994.
Genre shares provide another useful UK comparison. In BPI analysis of Official Charts data, rock accounted for 54.9% of all UK vinyl album sales in 2025. That is a market-wide genre share and does not establish a separate soul or R&B share.
UK physical revenue and consumption
The BPI’s 2024 recorded-music market report reported £246.5 million in UK revenue from vinyl, CDs, and other physical formats in 2024, up 1.3% year over year. Vinyl LP revenue rose 2.9% to £145.7 million, while CD revenue fell 0.5% to £96.7 million.
The accompanying BPI Playback 2024 report reported 200.5 million albums or album equivalents consumed in the UK during 2024, up 9.7%. Streaming represented 88.8% of UK recorded-music consumption, up from 87.7% in 2023. The UK accumulated 199.6 billion audio streams during 2024, and the Official Charts Company recorded more than 4 billion UK audio streams in a single week in May 2024.
CD purchasing continued to contract in the UK: purchases fell 2.9% to 10.5 million units in 2024. The contrast between £145.7 million in vinyl LP revenue and £96.7 million in CD revenue indicates the different revenue scale of the two formats in the UK during that year, while the consumption figures show that streaming remained the dominant route for listening.
Global physical and vinyl benchmarks
The IFPI Global Music Report 2026 reported global recorded-music revenue of $31.7 billion in 2025, growing 6.4% year over year. Global physical-format revenue grew 8.0%, and global vinyl revenue rose 13.7%, marking a 19th consecutive year of vinyl-revenue growth.
Physical music is distributed unevenly around the world. Asia accounted for 45.1% of global physical-music revenue in 2025, while physical formats represented 16.6% of global recorded-music revenue. These percentages refer to revenue, not units or listening time.
The IFPI Global Music Report 2025 State of the Industry reported global physical revenue of $4.8 billion in 2024, down 3.1% from 2023. Global vinyl revenue nevertheless grew 4.6% in 2024, the format’s 18th consecutive year of growth. The 2024 and 2025 figures come from separate annual reports, so the change in reported direction should be treated as year-specific market reporting rather than an unsupported combined forecast.
Soul and R&B chart context
The supplied Official Charts snapshots do not provide unit sales, but they quantify how soul-adjacent and R&B albums performed on the UK Official Hip Hop and R&B Albums Chart in specific weeks. The 4–10 August 1996 chart placed The Score by Fugees at number one, with a peak of one and 25 chart weeks. Secrets by Toni Braxton ranked fourth, with a peak of three and seven chart weeks.
On the 14–20 February 2010 chart, Alicia Keys’ The Element of Freedom ranked number one and had nine chart weeks at that point. R&B Lovesongs 2010 ranked second, with a peak of two and three chart weeks.
The 12–18 June 2011 chart placed Cee Lo Green’s The Lady Killer at number two. Its peak was number one, and it had 31 chart weeks. On the 19–25 October 2014 chart, John Legend’s Love in the Future ranked third, with a peak of one and 57 chart weeks.
Earlier examples include Luther Vandross’ Lovesongs, which ranked number one on the 15–21 February 2009 chart and had two chart weeks, and the Black Eyed Peas’ Elephunk, which ranked number one on the 21–27 December 2003 chart and had 21 chart weeks. These chart positions and week counts describe chart performance for the stated periods; they are not physical-sales totals.