whathifi - viinyl revenue overtakes cds for the first time since 1986

I'm sure streaming is responsible for the bottom dropping out of the CD market
i.e. as opposed to a surge in vinyl sales

Vinyl sales have been growing strong, in double-digits for decades. CD sales have been stagnant to declining. There was no surge, nor was there any drop out. Just powerful long term trends operating over time. 

There are other obvious factors at play.

I love both formats but CD/SACD so damn easy to use. I play LPs once or twice a year. Have quite a few premium vinyl platters that show impressive prices on ebay. Hope this continues until I can sell and recoup some of my investment.

I'm wondering whether these "CD stats" include online purchases that are downloaded to a computer

e.g. from Apple - I will generally buy the tracks as a "CD" - it's cheaper -  but it's downloaded to my computer 

Haven't been to a store since before COVID 

Regards 

Streaming is the reason.  Kissed my CDs good buy and love all the music available to me now. Streaming sound quality is improving by the month with all the new innovation in this space. Listening to all kinds of new artists that would have never been on my radar before. Fun! 

I'm wondering whether these "CD stats" include online purchases that are downloaded to a computer

If I understand you correctly, music downloaded to a computer is considered a download.  Here is what the report says about them:
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Digital Downloads Revenues from digitally downloaded music were down 18% to $674 million in 2020. Permanent downloads of albums fell 13% by value to $320 million, and individual track sales were down 23% to $313 million in 2020. Downloads accounted for only 6% of total recorded music revenues in 2020.
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While download revenues are falling, they still managed to beat vinyl again this year.

That article is misleading. Vinyl sales surpassed that of CDs but when looking at units sold, vinyl sales were only 2/3 of CDs sales (22.9m to 31.6m). https://darko.audio/2021/03/us-music-fans-bought-more-cds-downloads-than-vinyl-in-2020/

All the best,
Nonoise

And downloaded album units even exceeded that.
Score in units for the USA in 2020:
Digital  64,700.000
Analog  22.900,000

There is your long term trend!!!!
Hardee har har