These two evergreens were among the top 10 records sold in the U.S. last year, but it was Taylor Swift’s Life of a Showgirl that was the top vinyl seller in 2025, with 1,601,000 units sold. Runner up was Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend at 282,000 units. Rumours was No. 6 at 190,000 units followed by Thriller at 7th and 182,000 units.

When the Recording Industry Association of America announced recently that the sale of music on vinyl exceeded $1 billion in the U.S. last year, the 19th consecutive year of growth for the format, I couldn’t help thinking about the several times vinyl has been declared dead.

From 1983 to 1991, cassette tapes dominated new music sales, and in ’91 were replaced by CDs, which many trumpeted as the final nail in vinyl’s coffin. The ‘90s is considered the dark ages for vinyl because so many major releases were not issued on vinyl at the time, and then with the new millennium, streaming was surely going to mean the end of vinyl.

Total U.S. recorded music revenue hit a new high last year with $11.5 billion in sales. At 82 percent of the market, streaming led, pulling in $9.5 billion. But that $1-plus billion for the “once dead” format of vinyl is telling.

“It’s the ritual of it,” said musician and longtime vinyl collector Rich Mattson, leader of Rich Mattson and the Northstars and owner of Sparta Sound Studio on the Iron Range.

Mattson was bitten early by the collector bug.

“My first big purchase was joining the Columbia House record club, at probably 10 or 11 years old. I had a paper route,” Mattson said. “First I bought nine John Denver cassettes with that one penny. And then I don’t know what happened to me. I think I was going into seventh grade, and to fulfill my obligation to the Columbia House record club, I bought two Kiss records – Love Gun and Destroyer –Van Halen’s first album and Ted Nugent’s first album. So I went straight from John Denver into the dirtiest crap I could find.

“I really don’t know what happened to those records, but I kind of wish I still had them,” he said, “but I kind of turned my back on that music once I discovered Neil Young and Southern rock and new wave music.

“There’s nothing like finding that one record you’ve been searching for,” Mattson said. “It’s part treasure hunt, part history lesson.”

Mattson mentions an antique store that was just a few blocks from his home when he lived in Minneapolis.

“Nobody knew about this place, but he had a wall of records, and I’d go in there, and just pour through those records, and I’d bring up a stack, you know, like a four-inch stack of records, probably about 10 to 20. He’d look through them, and he’d giggle, and he’d smile, and he’d say, ‘Oh, this one’s great. You’ll love this one.’ He’d open up the gatefold record and look in the crack. He’d go, ‘Yep, there’s still some pot in there.’ Then he’d say, ‘How about 10 bucks?’ That’s where I really got the fever and started collecting. I love going to record stores and trying to find the deals or that holy grail record.”

The fun is that you never know when it’s going to happen, and it can happen anywhere.

“A couple years ago, I was at Cheapo Records in St. Paul, looking at the new arrivals, and they had a copy of Buffalo Springfield’s first album (1966, Atco Records). Oh, wow, for $5.99! Are you kidding me? And it was on the original pressing. Wow, the original label, and you know, it had that patina of a record that came out in the 60s. I grabbed that and a few others. I brought it up to the front, and was checking out, and the guy really raised his eyebrows. So there’s deals like that. We were in Colorado not too long ago, and I just discovered Quicksilver Messenger Service. I found five of their albums for a really good deal. So I kind of satisfied that itch.”

Rich Mattson and the Northstars’ first album on vinyl, Skylights, from 2021, and the brand-new Wake Up Songs.

As a musician who has been releasing music for public consumption for three decades, it was only very recently that Mattson was able to afford a vinyl release of his own music.

“I put out my first real album with the band called The Glenrustles (Brood, 1995), but it was on CD. From 1995 to, let’s see, 2020 I released a whole bunch of CDs, but could never afford to make the big leap into doing vinyl,” Mattson said. “It was always kind of the dream, but it was always just a little out of reach financially. Finally, a friend of mine offered to pay for half of it. He has this little label called Poor L’amour Records. We made a deal, and I finally got Rich Mattson and the North Stars pressed on vinyl with the album Skylights (2021). I remember they sent that test pressing, and I’ll never forget putting the needle down on my first vinyl record, and just going, why the hell haven’t I done this yet? I just feel like our music was made for vinyl.

“Now we’re on our third vinyl record (the just released Wake Up Songs),” he said.

And the fans like vinyl?

“Yeah, it’s gone over real well,” Mattson said. “Skylights is sold out. We sold all of them, 300 copies. That may not seem like much, but to me, that’s a big deal.”

His experience reflects a broader shift among artists, many of whom now view vinyl not only as a distribution format but as an extension of their creative work. Album artwork, liner notes and the physicality of records themselves have become part of the appeal, particularly for younger listeners discovering vinyl for the first time.

Industry data supports that trend. In 2025, vinyl records generated more than three times the revenue of CDs, with 46.8 million units sold compared to 29.5 million CDs. Even as streaming subscriptions climbed to 106.5 million accounts nationwide — producing $6.4 billion in revenue — vinyl continued to carve out a growing niche.

High-quality reissues of albums has become big business, but that’s not the sort of collecting Mattson does.

“I don’t really get a kick out of looking through reissues and $40 records, but it’s nice that they’re there for people who are new to it and have the money and want to start collecting,” he said.

Mattson shared some thoughts for anyone who wants to get into vinyl. First you’ll need a turntable.
“I tend to look at Facebook marketplace and Craigslist. People are always selling turntables for between $60 and $150. Just check and make sure they’ve got a stylus,” he said. “And there’s a website called turntablebasics.com. It’s a friend of mine, and he can find any parts for any turntable, and he’s real generous with any tips or repair info. It’s just a great resource.”