Nate Rau

The Tennessean

NASHVILLE — Black Friday sales and special releases keyed the second-best sales week for vinyl records since the industry began tracking the data in 1991.

According to Nielsen Music, 259,000 vinyl albums were sold last week, trailing only the week encompassing Record Store Day in April as the best sales week for the booming music medium.

Vinyl sales are one sector of the music industry that has seen growth in recent years. Already 7.6 million vinyl records have sold in 2014, which squashes last year's record-breaking total of 6.1 million copies.

At Nashville record shop The Groove, Black Friday is recognized as the second-best sales day behind Record Store Day, which takes place every April. Both days are promoted widely by a coalition of independent record stores called Department of Record Stores.

"It's like Record Store Day where it's just grown exponentially every year — more releases, more people, people waiting at the door," said Matt Manning, who works at The Groove. "It's a good day. It's definitely the second-biggest day of the year."

At The Groove, J. Mascis and special releases from the Grateful Dead were among the top sellers, Manning said.

Overall vinyl sales were up 49 percent versus the same week in 2013. The Beatles' Long Tall Sally sold 5,700 copies and was the No. 1 vinyl release last week.

Data released by Nielsen showed that vinyl album sales have risen significantly in rural parts of the country, where they are up 67 percent over last year. Deep catalog vinyl albums also are rising, up 82 percent over 2013.