Visualizing 40 Years of Music Industry Sales

Cool Infographics: Charts and graphs can communicate data; infographics turn data into information.

Visualizing 40 Years of Music Industry Sales from Visual Capitalist is a great data visualization design that clearly shows the evolution of music sales. Compact discs clearly set a unmatched precedent.

The record industry has seen a lot of change over the years.

8-tracks took a short-lived run at the dominance of vinyl, cassettes faded away as compact discs took the world by storm, and through it all, the music industry saw its revenue continue to climb. That is, until it was digitally disrupted.

Looking back at four decades of U.S. music industry sales data is a fascinating exercise as it charts not only the rise and fall the record company profits, but seismic shifts in technology and consumer behavior as well.

I also like this even clearer view that only distinguishes between Physical vs. Digital:

These designs hit many of the best practices:

• Clean chart design.

• A few important highlights as callouts.

• Minimal text.

• The data is labeled in the chart which eliminates the need for a separate chart legend.