Sales Of Black Plates In UK Throughout 2023 Reach Highest Level Since 1990

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JAKARTA - Blacklist sales in the UK have reached their highest level since 1990.

The rise in physical format popularity resulted in an increase in sales for 16 consecutive years, according to British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

BPI added in its new report that the black disk market had increased four times faster with an increase of 11.7 percent to 5.9 million units in 2023.

Taylor Swift's 1989 (Taylor's Version) album is best-selling this year, followed by Hackney Diamonds of The Rolling Stones.

According to BPI's analysis, the increasing demand for albums of discs and other music releases in physical format reflects the rapidly growing music market, citing the popularity of independent cassette stores and store successes such as HMV, which reopened its flagship store at Oxford Street London last year.

In addition, seven of the 10 largest blacklist sales were footage that came out in 2023, including Swift's Speak Now (Taylor's Version), The Ballad Of Darren of Blur, Did You Know There's A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd owned by Lana Del Rey, Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent from Lewis Capaldi, and Tension from Kylie Minogue.

The report also found that British artists helped drive the growth of the disk, with more than 40 percent of the 100 most purchased disks in 2023 released in the last two years, including British artist albums. These include the Being Funny In A Foreign Language in 1975, the Memento Mori of Depeche Mode, Gorillaz's Cracker Island, and Maisie Peters' The Good Witch.

The classic album and reissue also continued to prove popular throughout 2023, with its biggest sales including Fleetwood Mac's Rumours being designated as one of last year's 10 best-selling disks for the eighth time in a row, then Courteneers' St Jude, 3 Feet High And Rising from De La Soul and Oasis' The Masterplan.