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Music Industry: Album Sales Hit All-Time Low

billyworld99

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A record was broken this week on the Billboard 200 but it’s not the type of feat that artists would hope to achieve. With album sales continuing their downward spiral, even the music industry’s reigning chart titan, Taylor Swift, couldn’t make a big enough impact to save the day.

Swift’s triple platinum ‘Speak Now’ LP continues to dominate the charts in the #1 spot but with only 52k copies sold, the album holds the distinction of having the lowest sales for a #1 album since Nielsen SoundScan began compiling album sales in 1991. The previous record holder was 2007’s ‘Dreamgirls’ soundtrack which hit #1 with 60k units.

Still, some artists may find reasons to smile this week. Nicki Minaj’s platinum-certified ‘Pink Friday’ album ascends to the #2 spot with sales of 39k (down 36%) while Eminem’s ‘Recovery’ maintains a position in the top tier at #5, selling 33k (down 47%).

Furthermore, Rihanna’s ‘Loud’ has yet to be silenced despite slipping 3 spots to #6 with sales of 33k (down 46%) and Kanye West’s ’My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ drops 2 places to #7 with 33k units sold (down 43%). Hopefully, when Beyonce, Lady GaGa and Britney Spears release their albums later this year, album sales will experience an upturn.

http://thatgrapejuice.net/2011/01/sales-figures-album-sales-hit-alltime/#more-28510
 
im sad to say its all about downloading these days :yes: :( but if they love the artist that much they would buy the album so they get money for there own album :yes:
 
artists hardly get a dime off records and these labels aren't pushing acts.

acts still sell if said record company elects to invest. take the MIchael album out now, getting ready to go gold with hardly no push or promotion.

money is made.

depends on the artust you are talking about.
 
I still blame the labels..................


They don't promote their acts and their take off too much money of each sale.........


The only artists who get enough promotion are the ones from so called talent shows who actually sign up the least talented people in the business............


And stop relying on the internet to sell music...........these days, people think promotion is done through Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and YouTube...........but there are a million artists on those sights and only the extreme few actually stand out.........


What we need are those live music shows, where artists (new or existing) would perform their song live to millions of people at home!!!!!.........They would perform to a live audience........and would also be broadcast live (or recorded repeats) on TV!!!


And secondly...........ban all music downloads (including legal ones like ITunes)............the fact that music is no longer in a physical format has made it disposable and an on demand item............and no longer has any value...........if something has no value, then why would anyone want to pay for it????
 
Music sales continue to bottom out this week, as Cake's latest, "Showroom of Compassion," sets a new record as the lowest-selling No. 1 album in Nielsen SoundScan history.
The Sacramento-based band's sixth solo album sold 44,000 copies its first week in stores, according to SoundScan data for the week ending Jan. 16. That's 8,000 units less than last week's figure for Taylor Swift's "Speak Now," which set the previous record for the lowest-selling chart-topper of the post-1991 SoundScan era.

Two other new albums bowed with minuscule sales in a week where just the top 40 albums on the chart sold more than 10,000 units.

Kentucky indie rock band Cage the Elephant makes a low-watt top 10 entry (its first) with "Thank You Happy Birthday" (Relentless), which arrives at No. 2 with 39,000 sold. Country duo Steel Magnolia's self-titled Big Machine debut moves in at No. 7 with a 28,000-unit frame.

After five weeks back at No. 1, "Speak Now" drops to No. 3 this week with a 35,000-unit total, off 32%. Swift's collection is succeeded in the top five by Bruno Mars' "Doo Wops & Hooligans" (No. 4, 32,000 sold, down 15%) and Nicki Minaj's "Pink Friday" (No. 5, 32,000, down 17%).

Filling out what passes for a top 10 are the "Country Strong" soundtrack (No. 6, 29,000, up 1%), Rihanna's "Loud" (No. 8, 28,000, off 16%), Mumford & Sons' "Sigh No More" (No. 9, 26,000, down 16%) and Kanye West's "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy" (No. 10, 25,000, off 24%).

Retailers look hopefully to fresh titles by James Blunt, the Decemberists and Social Distortion, which are poised for debuts next week
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118030516?refCatId=16
 
I don't think that downloading is the only factor that plays a part in decreased album sales.

I think that another reason why album sales have decreased is because now a days people are just not putting out quality music.
 
I think they ( label) are not investing on the advertisement enough of the album, 'cause i'm just seeing it on the internet, not on stores where people are, just the fans know the album was out, just talk to some people that were surprised when they knew 'Michael' was out.
 
drewhiggins said:
I can't wait for the day when the entire industry falls flat on its face. That'll be a day for celebration.
Click to expand...


Although I don't wish anyone ill, this industry is a soulless machine destroying people, so I don't feel guilty concuring with the above post.
 
analogue said:
I don't think that downloading is the only factor that plays a part in decreased album sales.

I think that another reason why album sales have decreased is because now a days people are just not putting out quality music.
Click to expand...

I agree.

Personally I used to prefer buying singles with remixes other than albums a lot of the time. But now that isn't possible here in the U.S. Even the local music stores have all closed down, so it makes remixes more difficult to get.
 
analogue said:
I don't think that downloading is the only factor that plays a part in decreased album sales.

I think that another reason why album sales have decreased is because now a days people are just not putting out quality music.
Click to expand...

Exactly my thoughts. :)
 
analogue said:
I don't think that downloading is the only factor that plays a part in decreased album sales.

I think that another reason why album sales have decreased is because now a days people are just not putting out quality music.
Click to expand...

Exactly.......there are no modern songs that have even the slightest chance of becoming a classic...........


drewhiggins said:
The music is too expensive for what it contains - 12 songs for $20 or $29 and only maybe three songs are worth listening to.
Click to expand...

Exactly.......again.......no value for money...........



Two very good points that nails the whole debate...........

...........why don't artists release albums where the majority of songs are good...........then consumers won't constantly feel ripped off........
 
Krshna28 said:
Exactly.......there are no modern songs that have even the slightest chance of becoming a classic...........
Click to expand...
There are loads of songs that never got a chance yet they could be classed as classics. Some of these might come from the last 10 years. Falling Into You, Prostitute, Rich Woman, Salvation, Moment Of Surrender and By Your Side should have been huge.

Then again, listen to the styles. They're not easily-digestible and throwaway pop.




Exactly.......again.......no value for money...........



Two very good points that nails the whole debate...........

...........why don't artists release albums where the majority of songs are good...........then consumers won't constantly feel ripped off........
Click to expand...
Some people won't buy music regardless. If two songs are released legally and maybe a remix or two given away for free then that might encourage people to check it out and maybe pick it up later on. Nobody is truly innovating in the mainstream - when was the last time you truly heard a brilliant piece of work on the radio? The last one I heard was For Crying Out Loud - that is classic. Stairway To Heaven, Bat Out Of Hell, Riders On The Storm...all absolute classics.

Nobody makes eight-minute mainstream epics anymore that reasonated with so many people. FCOL comes from Bat Out Of Hell, the second-longest track on that album - yet rejected by numerous labels because 'it would never sell' and 'Jim Steinman can't write music.' Utter dosh.

I don't even have enough fingers to count how many times I've heard something is amazing, get it home, give it a spin or four and be utterly disappointed.
 
It's not about selling well it's about how your live shows are, Queen and U2 didn't get of to the best starts but they had a massive following before they became big mainly because of the reputation they got during there concerts so if you want to last in Music my advice is to put on a killer live show and perform 100% live everyshow and gain a following as a great live act, because if you are a great live act then there will be more demand for Concerts
 
analogue said:
I don't think that downloading is the only factor that plays a part in decreased album sales.

I think that another reason why album sales have decreased is because now a days people are just not putting out quality music.
Click to expand...

Exactly. People have a lot more choices nowadays, Social networks, Videogames. MJ's videogame, at 49.99$ is outselling his 10$ album.

The movie industry is going through the same dowered spiral. It's not just music.

It makes me sad to see the industry go down...but the current artist all suck with a few exceptions (Chris Brown, Jazmine Sullivan and a few others do have talent the others are utter crap including the biggest two Beyonce & Taylor Swift)

smoothcriminal12 said:
The music industry needs some serious fixing or it'll fall flat on its face.
Click to expand...

I don't think it can be fixed.
 
The N.Y Times has a story up about how the music industry is starting to shake at a horrible thought for them: After years of massive growth, digital music sales rose only six percent in 2010, potentially meaning that digital sales as a whole have plateaued. Coupled with the news that overall music sales fell eight percent, that means that digital music isn't replacing revenues for physical sales.





In each of the past two years, the rate of increase in digital revenue has approximately halved. If that trend continues, digital sales could top out at less than $5 billion this year, about a third of the overall music market but many billions of dollars short of the amount needed to replace long-gone sales of compact discs.



“Music’s first digital decade is behind us and what do we have?” said Mark Mulligan, an analyst at Forrester Research. “Not a lot of progress.” “We are at one of the most worrying stages yet for the industry,” he continued. “As things stand now, digital music has failed.”

Big words, big worries. There's also info in the story about how music companies are probably going to start going hard at pirates, which is big news for all of us. Let's just hope they bungle that as badly as they have digital music sales. Amirite, guys? ZING! Read it at NY Times.
 
Nirvana said:
What about itunes and singles or is this just a physical copy of the album

I think singles should be a little cheaper than 99p...then more people would buy it

And tehre's lots of quality music out right now
Click to expand...
The pricing needs fixed first of all. That's easy enough - CDs were $9.95 back say 10 years ago. Go back to that and on online distribution, start giving us (the consumers) lossless copies (FLAC or WAV) with HQ-artwork and CUE sheets plus a log file, so I feel like I'm getting a better deal than a poorly-encoded MP3 or M4A file with a JPG artwork embed.

A single here - a single song costs anywhere from $1.69 to $2.19 in Australia, while a new single if you can find one costs you around $4.95 - $9.95. That's just too much. If it had six new songs and a couple of live performances longer than three minutes, plus some cool artwork it'd be worth that and maybe more. I just paid $7 total for a vinyl single that came out last year with two songs. The artwork is worth it alone and to have one original demo that goes for nearly eight minutes is worth that as an extra. Most don't have that.

On quality music, plenty of it does exist. You just gotta look past the mainstream 40 or top 25 and you'd be surprised at the great stuff out there right now.


It's not about selling well it's about how your live shows are, Queen and U2 didn't get of to the best starts but they had a massive following before they became big mainly because of the reputation they got during there concerts so if you want to last in Music my advice is to put on a killer live show and perform 100% live everyshow and gain a following as a great live act, because if you are a great live act then there will be more demand for Concerts
Click to expand...
U2 were college radio staples back in the mid-70s and early-80s and with The Joshua Tree truly gained momentum. They've sort of come to the point - luckily Queen never did - where they can afford to put out whatever they like. It can be an absolute masterpiece (Moment Of Surrender, Breathe, Yahweh, Miracle Drug) or it can be absolute rubbish (Vertigo, Beautiful Day, Elevation).

Live is where most bands live.
 
^
The price of a CD is still quite "reasonable" in the US compared to other parts of the world especially in view of the decreasing value of the dollar.

I just think there are so many ways to get music these days compared to before. In addition to the illegal and legal downloads, you also have the impact of social networks like youtube, etc., etc., These avenues make it very easy to pick and choose the specific song(s) you desire rather than an entire album.

Given the current environment, it will be very difficult for any album to ever sell more than 15M copies worldwide again regardless of its price, quality or promotion.
 
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