Later this week, Tesco will become the U.K.’s first supermarket to stock vinyl, Music Business World reports. The retailer will be selling Iron Maiden’s newest album, The Book of Souls, which will be released on September 4 and sold in 55 Tesco Extra stores.
The sale of this album is part of a special promotion for the band’s brand of beer, Trooper. When a customer buys an album, either vinyl or CD, they can also buy a 500ml bottle of trooper for the discounted price of £1. The regular retail price sans album is £1.99.
Vinyl album sales reached a total of 1.3 million units in the U.K. last year, up an ominous 66.6% since 2013, while CD sales decreased by 6.5% and downloads by nearly 9%.
The retailer started selling turntables within the last year, so it makes sense to give customers something to play on those decks. If Iron Maiden’s vinyl album is successful, the company will think about adding other vinyl albums to its shelves.
Michael Mulligan, Tesco’s music buyer, told MBW,
The trend for vinyl doesn’t seem to be confined to one particular age group. Parents are getting their old vinyl albums down from the loft and teenagers are discovering the joys of the 12 inch record for the first time.
