U.S. CD Sales Down 20 Percent
March 22, 2007 | by Geoff Duncan
Nielsen SoundScan says music CD sales are down 20 percent in the first quarter of 2007: digital album sales also dropped, while digital singles sales climbed.
New figures from media research group Nielsen SoundScan claim that U.S. sales of music CDs declinedby 20 percent in the first quarter of 2007 compared to the sale period a year ago, underscoring the music industry's sentiment that digital music downloads are undermining their business. SoundScan also offered figures for digital music sales, noting that while sales of digital albums fell during the same period, the sales of digital music singles actually rose. The numbers may indicate a fundamental shift in the music industry away from album-based sales to a singles-driven, digital market.
According to SoundScan, from January 1 through March 18, 2007, the music industry managed to sell 89 million music CDs to U.S. consumers, compared to 112 million CDs sold during the same period of 2006. Digital album sales were also down year over year, from 119 million in 2006 to 99 million during the first quarter of 2007. However, digital sales of individual tracks actually increased year-on-year, cloing from 242 million tracks during the first quarter of 2006 to 288 million tracks during the first quarter of 2007.
Music industry figures have shown a steady decline in music CD sales over the last several years; however, music CDs still account for more than 90 percent of all album purchases. Nielsen's combined CD and digital album sales figures (which the company estimates by considering every 10 digital tracks to be an album) show overall album sales down 10 percent during the first quarter of 2007.
The drop in album sales and rise in the purchase of individual tracks highlights the popularity of a la carte music selection, whereby music fans can choose to purchase just to two or three songs from an entire album rather than buying every track. From the perspective of the music industry, however, these track-by-track purchases create a significant revenue shortfall: where in the past those consumers would have generated revenue equivalent to an entire album's worth of sales, now they only offer a small percentage of that revenue. The trend may signal a fundamental shift for the music industry, away from album-based marketing and sales and into a system driven by the sales of individual tracks, promoted aggressively in online communities and services.
Post Your Comment...Comments
Trevor on Apr 19th, 2007 at 6:26 PM:
Not surprising. But I dont think that digital singles are the only reason. It could also be that radio and television aren't really supporting bands like they used to. MTV needed to spawn three extra TV channels in order to be able to play some music videos (wouldnt want to deprive the masses from the Road Rules Challenges). Clear Channel only played 10 bands, all of which are pretty interchangeable. Labels, blame your support system.
treysean on Jul 1st, 2007 at 1:56 PM:
the reason that albums are down is simple very very simple. ill tell you it is brecause you can download on the internet for free.But my honest reason is that music isnt creative and expressive like it used to be.back in the day people use tomake music of course for money and to express themselves but everyone was talented and made good music for there genre. know everyone makes music for that check and everything that comes with it. they go in that booth and rap sing and dance around about nothing. the only thing poppin in music is producers and musicians. i love rap and rand b but they are getting out of hand. then i listen to these rock and pop singers and they have amazing voices.
Cynthia on Jul 5th, 2007 at 9:47 AM:
Music is about feeling, emotion, living,loving, finding love and losing love, that's R&B not only Rocker's and Pop artist are true singers. What you need to do is look deeper, make a special request to find R&B done right where every song is one that you have to have.
not just 1 or 2. make a special request to listen to tracks were every song has a message, meaning and not degrading our females, but telling everyone to love and respect our ladies for they are god's gift to the world and it's alright to relax, kick back and " pour the wine " to say " I Know a secret " and it's that the girls in love and it's me she's thinking of, and all girls love to " Tease " hell maybe they just have " Heavenly Eyes " but what ever it is when comes to real R&B, Soul, or Contemporary Music, You have to make a " Special Request " to Appreciate a good thing.
By A true fan of "R&B" and "Special Request".
Bret Carr on Mar 20th, 2008 at 1:14 AM:
Todays artist are not creative or innovative AT ALL..todays artist are a bunch of copy cats and repeaters..you listen to a rap record today and they all sound the same and the lyrics talk about nothing but garbage..if I hear another record talking about rims and a candy painted ride I'm gonna throw a brick at the radio and smash it to bits..Way too many knuckleheads being promoted and not enough intelligent artist with Style and Class ala the Old School.
kfccanada on May 12th, 2008 at 6:02 PM:
Music is about feeling, emotion, living,loving, finding love and losing love
I was happy to read what Cynthia said...and the other writers, too. Clay Aiken has just released, On My Way Here, a Cd filled with original songs that are exactly what Cynthia and others claim is important.But, the music reviewers and journalists aren't on the same page as we are. It appears that negativity sells.....newscopy..but not necessarily CD's.
IMHO, the sale of albums are down because radio stations play the same handful of songs ad nauseum, simply because they are edgy, controversial or downright sexy; they are playing to a select group of listeners and...definitely not the 40+ age group nor the female demographic.
Journalists love to mock Clay because of his huge female fanbase simply because they refer to themselves as Claymates. Hmmmm doesn't seem to matter how many men ogle Hugh Hefner's Playboy bunnies.... Perhaps if the music industry would realize that women could , conceivably, be interested in CD's enough to buy them, and cooperate in playing songs that appeal to them, they may find sales figures can increase significantly. After all, just who do they think is paying for the CD's/d/l's the younger age groups are buying?
The music industry and related media are rife with jaded, negative, gossip-loving, biased men at every level and will never see the need to change their attitudes until music sales reach rock-bottom. In the meantime, they are dragging deserving artists down with them.
Perhaps the industry should go back to releasing singles, as they used to. Or, perhaps the stations should go back to playing whatever song on a CD the public requests...rather than just one song out of the 12-14 on a CD. Yeah, I know, costs would be greater.....and money really is the whole issue...not trying to supply what people actually want.
Comment on this article
Please keep your comments relevant to this article. Email addresses are not displayed, they are only required to verify you are human.
When you submit your comment, an email will be sent to your email address with a confirmation link. Once you have clicked on that confirmation link your comment will be posted.
HTML is not allowed.
RSS Feed
Ian Bell on Mar 22nd, 2007 at 11:13 AM:
This is not suprising, I am anxious for the day when people will wake up and realize that DRM has screwed them. Nothing like having hundreds of songs without a player to support it right?