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More than 3.2 million units of vinyl were sold in the UK last year, marking the highest total in the country in over two decades, according to a new report from the British Phonographic Industry. While vinyl only accounts for 2.6 percent of the UK music market, the last time vinyl sold so well was in 1991. The spike in sales comes at a time when vinyl is experiencing a resurgence, causing turntables to fly off marketplace shelves and pressing plants to be overwhelmed with orders.The amount of vinyl sold marked a 53 percent increase on the previous year's numbers, when 2.1 million units were sold. David Bowie's posthumous studio album Blackstar, released in January, was the most popular album on vinyl in 2016.While vinyl sales are most certainly up, streaming is still the fastest growing medium for music consumption. A whopping total of 45 billion streams were served last year, which is a 68 percent rise on 2015's 26.8 billion audio streams, and a 500 percent increase on 2013's numbers. Drake's "One Dance" single from Views was the most streamed song of the year, racking in 141 million audio streams in total.These streaming figures do not account for streams done on video platforms like YouTube, because the official chart company does not collect data from those services. Researchers suggest that if streams from those platforms were included, these streaming numbers would more than double, according to Music Business Worldwide.Other analysts found that music streams far exceeded those on video platforms for the first time in history in the first half of 2016.Follow Alexander on Twitter.
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