“Between August 8th and 14th, only 4.95 million albums were sold, the lowest weekly level since Neilsen Soundscan starting tracking sales in 1991. This past week, sales were up, but just barely: just over 5 million albums were sold, an increase of only 2 percent from the record low,” Caitlin Kenney reports for NPR.
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“So far this year, album sales are down 12 percent compared to the total sales at this time last year, according to Billboard,” Kenney reports. “Music industry execs blame the dropping sales numbers on illegal downloads. Exactly what percent of music downloads are illegal is difficult to calculate, but estimates range as high as 20 illegal downloads for every legal download. As for the total cost of illegal downloads, it depends on who you ask.”
Kenney reports, “Despite the dwindling album numbers, there is one bright spot for the industry: digital sales of single tracks. From 2004 to 2009, digital track sales have grown over by nearly a factor of 10, from 140 million units sold in 2004 to 1.2 billion in 2009.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Music cartels: Resign yourselves that the days of forced music bundling via artificial construct (the album) are over. Next, resume selling your singles via Apple’s dominant iTunes Store for 99-cents. You’d be farther along today if your had conquered your greedy ways and left the digital download price alone. Bad habits obviously die hard. Resuming sales of 99-cent tracks will cause you to sell more music and make more money while your industry recovers and finds a new equilibrium; one that’s not artificially inflated atop forced bundling. Apple has restored the power to the consumer, where it rightfully belongs. The days of gorging yourselves by gouging your customers with $18 CDs are gone forever.
That trough is drying up.
Content and convenience, as I always say. If the music one wants is available online without bundling (and essentially, nowadays everything IS available as ‘illegal’ downloads), no one will bother to go to the store. The only way to make money by offering ‘legal’ downloads, relatively cheap, with maximum convenience (i.e., no bundling and a nicely organized database with good search functions). Otherwise, you’re doomed.
Won’t someone think of all the music execs middle men…who is going to pay for all their cocaine now? How about moving up to $2/song downloads? That’ll increase sales for sure!
The days of forcing consumers to pay $18 for two good songs surrounded by eight unlistenable pieces of crap are over. Bands, musicians and producers are stuck with the reality that only decent product is profitable. Albums are good for a few things:
1. Concept albums like those from Pink Floyd, Beatles, The Who and a few others.
2. Concert recordings
3. Compilations priced at a significant savings over single pricing.
Most performers make a living from performing; recordings are gravy; most of which goes into executive’s pockets, not the artist.
There is still a place for A&R people, promoters, producers, etc. There is still and “industry”. The difference is that these are no longer “get rich quick” jobs. So sad.
To say the album is dead is a ridiculous statement even if it does come from a tech geek’s mouth. The album is alive and well in independent music, the major record labels are too busy promoting pretty faces instead of developing meaningful art. Vinyl sales are up because the sound quality is superior to cd and mp3. Pop music is and always will be a single driven market, but real music fans will buy real music albums.
Somebody tell the RIAA that the old model is dead. Wait, I think they already know that, which is why they are suing college students and housewives.
And for the record, depending on the artist, I still buy CDs too.
Congratulations to all of the independent bands/artists. No more effin’ middleman….unless you need hand-holding, suck-upping and general fudge-packing.
‘course that only applies to the bieber ga-gas…not artist making actual music.
Where do you go to buy albums? I see few people milling around the CD sections in stores, in the few stores that have them, with listening stations that worked to invite you to really LISTEN to music you would not have bought based on the cover or 30 second sampling alone. People still enjoy going shopping and having places to hang out, but physically browsing for music is no longer a part of our routine.
It is no longer part of our culture. You would think the music industry would try to simply copy Apple and build cool record stores/cafes with free you tube screens or something. No, they think others should do the tough sell and hate their own resellers. Jobs create and enhance culture. Industries destroy it.
I wonder if the fact that people still have to purchase an album before hearing the songs has an effect. I mean sure, you could listen to your friend’s copy of the album and decide to buy it, but if you have no clue what the songs sound like, why pay $9.99 (or more)? If it’s one of your favorite bands then yes you’ll probably buy the entire album as a matter of course.
But if it’s a new artist you are just learning about, you may have heard one particular song you like and are willing to buy it, and decide later if you want to discover more. But most people aren’t willing to buy an entire album from an unfamiliar artist unless the songs they are familiar with are amazing enough to compel them to buy the entire thing.
Plus in the old days the record companies decided what got released, so if you wanted music you either bought the album (or the single) or had to wait until it was played on the radio if you wanted to hear it. There wasn’t as much competition because few artists had record deals. Now with the internet and things like iTunes there is just too much content to sift through. I think most people would rather have 10 songs they’ve already liked from 10 new artists they are discovering than 9 unheard songs of one new artist they are discovering who’s one song they are only familiar with.
I think lala had the best solution. They let you preview an entire track or album one time. Almost no one talks about this feature like they miss it, but I think it was revolutionary. And it made me buy songs I would have not otherwise. But as long as we’re stuck with 30 second previews, don’t expect people to have faith in the rest of the song.
I must be getting old. There isn’t much new stuff that I want to buy, and I already own most of the “classic” stuff that I want. In addition, I no longer need to repurchase the same music over and over (album, 8-track, cassette…) since CDs are generally durable and the lossless versions I have stored in iTunes are forever (with proper maintenance and backup).
So the release of the CD and the more recent popularity of electronic digital formats (MP3, AAC, etc.) may have something to do with the recent decrease in sales. On the other hand, my original premise may be the best explanation – there are too many bands/performers attempting to sell cr@p.
The irony here is that, though the topic is digital downloads, MDN’s take sounds like a broken record, one that has been sticking in the same groove for the last few years: putting Apple’s interests above those of the artists who create the “content”.
But hey, screw them, right? Instead of following their own creative paths, they should bow down before iTunes and follow Job’s capitalistic mindset instead of that of the labels. . . oh, erm, excuse me, I meant the “cartels.”
Meet the new boss. . . you know how it goes.
Albums still reign for those of us who love classical music. Indeed the iTunes store is horrible for classical music. They can’t figure out how to distinguish the artist (?orchestra, ?soloists, ?conductor), what to do with the composer’s name and what to do with the long titles and subtitles of classical pieces. The also have trouble keeping sections of pieces together. Often similarly named sections (“Allegro moderato”) in different pieces get grouped together and separated from the original piece. Makes for a horrible mess in an iTunes library with lots of classical pieces. Also no album covers.
@jarrett noel
Vinyl, now that made me smile. I think it’s cute (& I think I do mean that to insulting) that there are some folks still ready to claim how much better costly,hard to maintain, short life span LPs are. Really keep up the good fight there. You and your dwindling number of friends can sit smuggling ignoring the pops and scratches at “parties” telling each other how ‘warm’ and ‘crisp’ the music is compared to to digital, I hope your mom doesn’t bump the record player again like last time. She didn’t understand how hard that is on LPs.
Maybe later tell us why paperbacks will be increasing sales over ebooks, or horses over the car…
Ok rant over, I feel better
Ok so smuggling should have been smugly , and it was such a good rant too!
I’m so thankful to have grown up in an era where you wanted to buy the entire album. Of course, I’m still the same way today because I listen to artists of high enough quality that I know the e tire album is worth a listen. There is no experience comparable to having a relevant artist take you on a journey from song to song through an album. I feel sorry for those (like the individuals who write these MDN commentaries) who have no clue of what music really has to offer them. If you quit listening to the drivel promoted by radio stations and really take the time to find the great music that is still out there you would find this news as sad. Don Henley and Stevie Nicks were dead on.
If a product isn’t selling it just could be that we, the consumers, think it’s Bullshit and choose to take a pass. I buy my music and discourage others who are tempted to file share/steal. There are plenty of great musicians out and about, but the RIAA cos seem to want to push the same garbage they have been pushing for years.
My advice to them is fire your staff, sign real musicians and put your promotional money behind them.
There are music nuts and there are people who like music. Music nuts don’t complain about how the album is a “dead” format because we never stopped following artists that were actually creative artists with a vision, and not just “bands” put together by a record company. We are in the minority, and that’s fine. Good taste is always rare.
The internet and the iPod really made music a double edged sword for music nuts. On the one hand, we can get a song or album instantly. If I want something, I don’t have to drive to a store. I can think it, and moments later, it’s mine. And I discover a lot of music that I wouldn’t have otherwise. There is way more variety, and quality music today than there was before, because of these new resources.
The bad part is the community feel that came from going to record stores. I grew up in record stores, they were like churches to me. I loved going in there and just browsing, or buying something on the day it came out. And you meet people doing this, and people form bands and friendships in the real world. That’s all gone now, because the record store is dead. The used vinyl store is still surviving so that is good. But that’s very niche.
People celebrate how Apple closed down Tower Records. Well as someone who used to make pilgrimages to the Tower on Sunset Blvd, (as well as my local tower, as well as many mom and pop record stores) I didn’t celebrate it, it was depressing. But on the other hand, I don’t have to pay $30 for a Japanese import cd anymore. There’s a good chance I can get the tracks online, legally, for much less.
Got off on a tangent there but the internet is a wonderful thing for music. It’s just not good for the face to face community that music and record stores provided. But I guess there will always be concerts so that’s something.
@rjcylon – Unfortunately, those “Japanese CD Bonus Tracks” are NOT a thing of the past; even iTunes and Amazon haven’t eradicated them.
One factor which the article didn’t mention is a significant reduction in shelf space dedicated to music at retail stores.
Wal-Mart is a prime example. Not long ago they were the leading retailer of music but with their recent redesign of their stores, in many places they went from a full two or three mini-aisles dedicated to music to about 10 feet of shelf space total. Basically they sell the top-20 selling CDs and not much more. I’d be interested to see their sales numbers of late compared to years past.
Other stores seem to have reduced their music-dedicated shelf space too. Best Buy, warehouse stores etc. That to go along with a lot of music stores going out of business has to be a significant reason for lower sales,not just illegal downloads. Of course the relatively low quality of the music is the ultimate reason.
I wonder if the Music Industry executives realize that people are cashing in their 401k’s and selling their homes to pay bills in this bad economy. So if people are not buying music they must be stealing music is their conclusion. Incredible!
Musicians are selling music, just on a more popular medium. It’s VHS from Beta story over again.
the record ‘business’ is about 50 years old, and has had its day.
This silly business depends on a bunch of screaming fans buying anything that some ‘artist’ (WTF?) plays.
But this kind of bullshit can only go on for so long.
Now we can choose, and we choose NOT to buy crap.
It is amazing to me that bunch of ‘pop’ stars have amassed huge chunks of cash and are treated like gods.
What a warped planet we live on.
When I was a kid, we used to borrow friend’s records and tape them. That was stealing but it happened then just as now.
Now kids get digitals songs the same way. They get them from their friends. It’s not necessarily downloading them from a nameless server, it’s having a pal burn you a CD from their collection. A lot easier and the same quality as the original.
Music stealing has always happened from the minute someone could record music at home. It was also a means of discovering music and could lead to people buying albums and songs themselves.
If I were a music distributor, I would look at ways of getting people to discover new music. For me it’s internet radio with song tagging and downloads. Pandora fits the bill and I’ve discovered some interesting bands. Still it’s pissed me off that the band selection is limited and if I skip too many songs (mainly because I already have them) I’m stuck listening to whatever is playing.
Unfortunately they are too short sighted for this. Restrictions everywhere and it just annoys me. I still haven’t bought any songs via Pandora because the restrictions are sending the wrong message.
I agree about making all iTunes songs 99-cents once again. Apple should not have to force it; if the music labels had any common sense, they would do it “voluntarily” (out of greedy self-interest). Even if 99-cents instead of $1.29 only increased sales just enough to make up for the decrease in profit per song, that is a net positive. A higher volume of songs is being sold legally, and that is better than selling fewer songs to make the same profit.
However, I think improved sales from selling only 99-cent songs will increase overall profit beyond the profit point of having $1.29 songs. I buy songs from the iTunes Store, and I intentionally avoid any song that is priced at $1.29. The $1.29 price artificially lowers sales volume on the songs with the highest potential for success.
I don’t think Apple really cares anymore, and will not push to get the 99-cent fixed price back. People will still buy Apple’s devices to play the songs, and that’s what Apple cares about most. The iTunes Store is more of a value-added service for Apple’s hardware customers, not Apple’s profit center.
The REAL decline is the low sound quality of digital music downloads.
For those of us who know what a real musician or orchestra playing in an actual concert hall sounds like, not a bunch of 3-chord pretty people hopping around behind a wall of electronics, it’s depressing that 128k or 256k downloads are acceptable to the vast majority.
Lowest common denominator always sells the most, I suppose.
It’s a bit like the Mac vs. Pee Sea thing.
Quality vs. Quantity.
Exceptional vs. Conventional.