Last weekend, the vinyls took over for this year’s impressively successful Record Store Day (April 20). Total album sales increased by three percent over last year, and the sales were up by 60 percent over the previous week, according to numbers cited by Nielsen SoundScan. Independent record stores certainly had a good reason to celebrate with some holiday cheer, because independent record store vinyl LP sales amounted to 200,000, a 36 percent increase over last year. A weighty 82 percent of vinyl LPs last week were sold at independent record stores. A grand total of 244,000 vinyl albums were sold during the week. Vinyl LPs accounted for 37 percent of all album sales—whether in CD format, mp3 format or otherwise—last week.

“Record Store Day is a great way to shine the spotlight on the amazing experience that independent record stores bring to music consumers,” David Bakula, senior vice president of client development and insights at Nielsen Entertainment, said. “With year-over-year growth and exclusive packages in a format that consumers value with rich content, Record Store Day will continue to be an event that drives music consumers to independent record stores.”