Vinyl record sales in the US

U.S. true crime podcast monthly listeners and US vinyl record sales have, between 2015 and 2023, risen together at a correlation of 0.966. Investigations of old murders and the sale of physical 12-inch records, two categories that could reasonably have been declared dead in 2005, both recovering at the same rate. The format nostalgia and the format innovation are on the same shelf.

True crime podcast listeners grew from a few million in 2015 to over 60 million by 2023, driven by Serial, My Favorite Murder, and Crime Junkie. US vinyl record sales grew from around $220 million in 2015 to over $1.3 billion by 2023, outselling CDs for the first time in decades. Both trends reflect the same millennial and Gen-Z consumer preference — long-form audio in one format, tangible music in another — and both represent a surprisingly durable rejection of the frictionless streaming economy those same listeners also use.

Eight years of two lines rising together can describe a generation that listens to hours of podcasts and also buys records. Both formats work because they commit to a duration.