Vinyl sales are even higher than industry figures suggest

Vinyl's resurgence could be much bigger than we first thought, as industry figures don't count used-record sales.

According to new US data revealed by Forbes, the true size of the vinyl market could be double that of reported figures.

As part of Vinyl Obsession Week, online vinyl marketplace Discogs and eBay have supplied detailed statistics on the sale of second-hand vinyl via the Internet.

Apparently, eBay and Discogs listed roughly six million used vinyl sales last year.

Combined with Amazon (900,000) and other smaller retaiilers' data the total US sales of used vinyl for 2017 comes to roughly eight million.

However, Discogs SVP Ron Rich says there may be just as many offline sales as online, which boosts the number yet further to an estimated 16 million (the same as new vinyl).

"[That's] a fraction of what is out there in the used market, considering the amounts of used inventory selling through local record stores," said Rich.

In comparison, new vinyl sales in North America were counted at 16 million by the Recording Industry Association of America last year, which doesn't include used vinyl sales because the RIAA won't consider those that don't send a percentage of the cost to artists.

As a result, Forbes has hypothesised that the vinyl industry could be twice the size of reported figures if the second-hand market were taken into account.

However, if new plans to alter the vinyl production process come to fruition, yet further change to the industry could follow.