The UK’s first weekly vinyl chart has been launched by the Official Charts Company, ahead of Record Store Day this weekend, as sales of vinyl albums and singles continue to increase.

Strictly speaking, this statement is not accurate or true as the music charts in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s were based purely on vinyl record sales as there were no other formats available. However, despite the advent of CDs and then then MP3s and streaming, which it was believed would make vinyl records obsolete, vinyl sales reached an 18-year high in 2014, at 1.29 million. Sales figures so far in 2015 indicate sales of vinyl albums are set to grow by another 70%, with “Chasing Yesterday” by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds leading the flock as the biggest-selling vinyl album so far in 2015.

The weekly vinyl albums and singles charts, published on the Official Charts Company website, are being introduced ahead of Record Store Day on the 18th April, which involves over 200 vinyl record shops across the UK.  The first official vinyl album chart is topped by All Time Low’s “Future Hearts”, whilst in the first official vinyl singles chart the number one was by Underworld vs Heller & Farley’s song “Baby Wants to Ride”. This year’s biggest-selling vinyl albums are Noel Gallagher, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, Public Service Broadcasting, The War on Drugs, Royal Blood, Led Zeppelin and Arctic Monkeys.

The Official Charts Company explained it was responding to “the huge surge of interest” that has seen vinyl sales climb from a low of 0.1% of the albums market in 2007 (205,000) to 1.5% in 2014 (1.29m). Chief executive Martin Talbot commented: “Yes, it’s still a small part of the business. But what makes this so unusual is that usually you see new formats arrive and grow in popularity, reach their peak and then they decline and kind of disappear. Here you’ve got something that has grown in popularity back in the 60s and 70s, declined in popularity through the 80s and 90s, got right the way down to the bottom and then started climbing back up again.”

Martin Talbot attributes the appeal of vinyl down to a mixture of “nostalgia”, sound quality and wider availability: “We’ve seen specialist music shops start to stock more vinyl, we’ve seen fashion retailers start to stock vinyl, and there are now mail order services where you can get vinyl much more easily than maybe 10 years ago.”

So far this year Noel Gallagher has sold the most albums and singles on vinyl, but established legendary acts such as Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and Led Zeppelin are also among the year’s biggest vinyl albums. Interspersed with the “old stagers” are contemporary acts like Brit Award-winners Royal Blood, Arctic Monkeys and The War on Drugs also feature in the Top 10 of the year. Meanwhile in the singles chart, classic artists and songs like David Bowie’s “Young Americans” rub shoulders with the likes of Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ hit “Uptown Funk”.

Martin Talbot continued: “This isn’t just about rock acts targeting men in their forties and fifties – I’ve got a 15-year-old daughter and her friends have all started to collect vinyl.”  US rockers All Time Low topped the first vinyl album chart with their sixth album “Future Hearts”. the band’s frontman Alex Gaskarth commented: “What I love is that there are different worlds of vinyl fans.  There’s the audiophiles who swear by the sound of vinyl, the people who like owning it as a collectors’ piece, and then groups like our fans who buy a vinyl of our record simply so they can hang it on their wall.”

This is borne out by Simon Sterland, Record Press Blog author and owner of online framed vinyl record gift retailer MyFirstRecord.co.uk, who corroborates this increasing trend for young and old buying contemporary and vintage vinyl: “When we established MyFirstRecord.co.uk in 2011, we naturally expected to attract a demographic audience / market from the over 35s who had grown up with vinyl. We have been pleasantly surprised to find that over half our customers are 30 or below. As you would expect the over 35s, the generations that grew up with vinyl, order framed vinyl as a musical memento of their lost youth. However we simply had not legislated  for the youth market embracing framed vinyl as a gift for their friends and family in the way they have!!”

He continues: “It seems that in the era of the invisible music download, the consumer whether old or young, seek something more tangible when buying music. Vinyl appeals to all the human senses, particularly hearing, touch, smell and sight. It would appear that although the consumer finds the music download a convenient and cost effective way to buy music on a day to day basis, the vinyl record holds a special place in our hearts. Put simply, vinyl has a personality all of its own. Therefore when looking for a special gift for a friend or relative for a landmark birthday, anniversary or a wedding, all age groups are turning to MyFirstRecord.co.uk to provide a framed vinyl single of a favourite song”.

Celebrate the phenomenon of the vinyl record in your home or office, by ordering your favourite vinyl single; framed and mounted as a picture disc souvenir. You can also personalise it with an inscribed / engraved plaque…… ORDER HERE…… www.myfirstrecord.co.uk/

Framed vinyl records make unique presents or original gifts for a special celebration  / special occasion ie a Wedding ( Wedding First Dance Song ), an Engagement Party ( Our Song ), a House Warming Party ( New Home ), a 21st, 30th, 40th, 50th, 60th Birthday ( How about the No1 song on the day of birth? ), a Silver, Ruby or Golden Wedding Anniversary, Father’s or Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day!!  THE PERFECT PERSONALISED PRESENT!!  ORDER NOW…….. www.myfirstrecord.co.uk/