VinylAI Vinyl vs CD
The CD passed vinyl in 1987. Vinyl took the lead back in 2020.
Two formats, one axis, no guesswork about when the lead changed hands. Both crossovers are computed from the series rather than repeated from press coverage, and the table below gives the gap for every year since 1980 so a claim about any particular year can be checked in one line.
- Source
- RIAA, RIAJ, BPI, BVMI, SNEP, IFPI
- Coverage
- 53 years · 23 formats
- Measure
- Wholesale revenue
- Updated
- 2026-09-13
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
When the lead changed hands
Crossover years are computed by comparing the two inflation-adjusted series year by year.
- 01
The CD passed vinyl in U.S. revenue in 1987, 4 years after the format first shows revenue in the series.
First year CD exceeds LP/EP, inflation-adjusted. CD revenue first appears in 1983.
- 02
Vinyl took the lead back in 2020 — 33 years later.
First year after 1987 where LP/EP exceeds CD, inflation-adjusted.
- 03
At its 1999 peak the CD earned $14.14bn in 2025 dollars — about 14 times what vinyl earns today.
CD 1999 ÷ LP/EP 2025, both inflation-adjusted.
- 04
The CD still earned $312m in 2025, against vinyl's $1.04bn — vinyl now takes 3.3× what the CD does.
LP/EP ÷ CD, nominal, 2025.
- 05
The CD has fallen from its peak for 26 years and is now 2.2% of what it was, in the same dollars.
CD 2025 ÷ CD 1999, inflation-adjusted.
Year by year, vinyl against CD
| Year | Vinyl | CD | Ahead | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | $5.21bn | — | Vinyl | — |
| 1981 | $5.03bn | — | Vinyl | — |
| 1982 | $3.90bn | — | Vinyl | — |
| 1983 | $3.31bn | $31.7m | Vinyl | 104.3× |
| 1984 | $2.91bn | $183m | Vinyl | 15.9× |
| 1985 | $2.32bn | $665m | Vinyl | 3.5× |
| 1986 | $1.75bn | $1.56bn | Vinyl | 1.1× |
| 1987 | $1.36bn | $2.58bn | CD | 1.9× |
| 1988 | $878m | $3.25bn | CD | 3.7× |
| 1989 | $347m | $3.84bn | CD | 11.1× |
| 1990 | $129m | $4.85bn | CD | 37.6× |
| 1991 | $42.1m | $5.85bn | CD | 138.9× |
| 1992 | $18.8m | $6.98bn | CD | 371.5× |
| 1993 | $14.3m | $8.28bn | CD | 578.3× |
| 1994 | $23.5m | $10.50bn | CD | 447.7× |
| 1995 | $32.2m | $11.31bn | CD | 351.7× |
| 1996 | $45.8m | $11.64bn | CD | 254.2× |
| 1997 | $40.5m | $11.36bn | CD | 280.3× |
| 1998 | $40.7m | $12.88bn | CD | 316.1× |
| 1999 | $37.3m | $14.14bn | CD | 379.5× |
| 2000 | $31.4m | $14.11bn | CD | 449.1× |
| 2001 | $30.2m | $13.40bn | CD | 443.6× |
| 2002 | $22.3m | $12.31bn | CD | 553.1× |
| 2003 | $23.0m | $11.22bn | CD | 487.4× |
| 2004 | $20.0m | $11.14bn | CD | 558.4× |
| 2005 | $14.2m | $9.90bn | CD | 697.5× |
| 2006 | $15.2m | $8.55bn | CD | 562.1× |
| 2007 | $21.6m | $6.61bn | CD | 306.4× |
| 2008 | $51.4m | $4.67bn | CD | 90.9× |
| 2009 | $58.1m | $3.70bn | CD | 63.7× |
| 2010 | $79.6m | $2.86bn | CD | 35.9× |
| 2011 | $104m | $2.53bn | CD | 24.4× |
| 2012 | $137m | $1.99bn | CD | 14.6× |
| 2013 | $178m | $1.73bn | CD | 9.7× |
| 2014 | $209m | $1.39bn | CD | 6.7× |
| 2015 | $285m | $1.15bn | CD | 4.0× |
| 2016 | $302m | $853m | CD | 2.8× |
| 2017 | $323m | $755m | CD | 2.3× |
| 2018 | $344m | $477m | CD | 1.4× |
| 2019 | $405m | $443m | CD | 1.1× |
| 2020 | $531m | $341m | Vinyl | 1.6× |
| 2021 | $807m | $401m | Vinyl | 2.0× |
| 2022 | $880m | $297m | Vinyl | 3.0× |
| 2023 | $957m | $364m | Vinyl | 2.6× |
| 2024 | $980m | $348m | Vinyl | 2.8× |
| 2025 | $1.04bn | $312m | Vinyl | 3.3× |
Both columns inflation-adjusted to 2025 dollars, which is the only basis on which a 1985 comparison and a 2025 comparison mean the same thing. "Gap" is the ratio between the larger and the smaller.
Why the crossover years are often quoted wrongly
Two different events get collapsed into one claim. The CD passed vinyl in *revenue* in 1987, and vinyl passed CD in revenue again in 2020. Unit shipments crossed in different years, because a vinyl LP has always carried a higher price than a CD — so a sentence about "sales" needs to say which measure it means.
The second trap is inflation. On nominal figures the crossovers move, because the same dollar means different things in 1987 and 2025. The table above is inflation-adjusted throughout, and the hub's explorer will switch it to nominal if a comparison needs the dollars of the day.
Take the data, cite the source
Licensed CC BY 4.0. Credit the trade body that produced the figures — a link back lets your readers check the slice. Every file carries its source, measure and retrieval date in its own header.
Writing about this? The figures above are also available as embeddable charts — one line of HTML, no script, and the widget keeps its source line so your readers can check it.
Machine readers: every page here has a markdown twin at index.md, the statements above are served as structured claims in the page's JSON-LD, and facts.json carries all of them with their arithmetic. The catalogue entry lives at /.well-known/ai-catalog.json.
Everything behind this page
- 01
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
U.S. Sales Database / U.S. Recorded Music Analysis
1973–2025, 23 formats, wholesale revenue, nominal and inflation-adjusted · retrieved 2026-09-13
Figures were read from the published data extract behind RIAA’s own dashboard, last updated 2 August 2026 — not re-typed from a news report.
https://www.riaa.com/u-s-sales-database/ - 02
Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ)
RIAJ Yearbook 2025 — Statistics for Physical Products
1994–2024, vinyl production in units and yen · retrieved 2026-09-13
Parsed from the Yearbook’s own production tables. Every parsed row was checked against the table’s printed Total; all 31 rows reconcile.
https://www.riaj.or.jp/f/en/data/ - 03
British Phonographic Industry (BPI)
UK recorded music market 2025
2025 vinyl revenue, growth and physical share · retrieved 2026-09-13
https://www.bpi.co.uk/news/13097053 - 04
Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI)
Musikindustrie in Deutschland 2025
2025 German market, physical segment, vinyl share and growth · retrieved 2026-09-13
Read in the German original. BVMI’s English edition renders the 44.2% share ambiguously; the German text attributes it to vinyl (die Schallplatte) unambiguously.
https://www.musikindustrie.de/presse/presseinformationen/musikindustrie-in-deutschland-2025 - 05
SNEP
Bilan 2025 du marché de la musique enregistrée
2025 French market and vinyl revenue · retrieved 2026-09-13
https://snepmusique.com/communiques-dossiers-de-presse/bilan-2025-snep/ - 06
IFPI
Global Music Report 2026
2025 global revenue, vinyl and physical growth · retrieved 2026-09-13
https://www.ifpi.org/global-music-report-2026-global-recorded-music-revenues-grow-6-4-as-record-companies-drive-innovation/
The rest of the dataset
Built by VinylAI Market, where each release has a card with condition-by-condition values and listings from sellers worldwide. Spotted an error, or know a trade body publishing a series we should add? Tell us — corrections are published with the date they were made.