CD sales in the U.S. dropped by 20 percent, and music sales in general fell 12.8 percent compared to the already-not-good 2009 totals.
326.2 million albums sold in 2010 was the lowest total since Nielsen SoundScan began keeping tabs on sales in 1991. Only 13 albums managed to attain million-selling platinum distinction, compared to the 22 platinum albums that earned it in 2009, of those 13 platinum albums in 2010, only four sold over 2 million copies.
Catalog album sales plummeted 15.3 percent in 2010.
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I see there are *0 comments here, wonder how they are getting their music? Bad,bad,bad. lol they refuse to respond, Spider!It's a "shhh" operation but I feel it does pain the artist, did it effect you much?
ReplyDeleteShit man, I still buy stuff... How could this be happening?
ReplyDeleteI find the subject depressing, mostly because I don't see a solution on the horizon. I think music is just on the forefront the digital media apocalypse. Once we figured out how to convert songs, movies, books, etc. into a series one Ones and Zeroes we pretty much screwed ourselves.
ReplyDeleteBut maybe I'm just seeing this from a purely financial perspective. Thanks to new technology (such as ProTools, Acid, etc.) it's now easier than ever to make music. Nothing is really impeding the creation/performance of art ... just on our ability to directly profit off of it.
Long term speaking, one of the problems is that the industry didn't respond quickly enough to the demands of its customers, so they found other ways to get what they wanted. Once they caught up, the combination of mafia strong arm tactics combined with providing what the people wanted (iTunes, etc) means that those who are pirating the music are likely not a lost sale as they wouldn't have bought the media in the first place.
ReplyDeleteAnother issue at hand is the methods of distribution greatly changed. While I'm typing this post I am listening to Pandora, a music streaming service, one of a dozens of similar services. These services still pay the RIAA even if they only play indie music. Likewise, movie disc sales are hurt by the likes of netflix and redbox.
Of course, recently, people just don't have the discretionary spending that they had in years past. I could go on a political news rant here, but I'll hold off.
- a fan from Kentucky
Oh, here's to being ambiguous :b
ReplyDeleteIn the first paragraph: They, the customers, found alternative ways to get what they wanted. Once they, the music industry, caught up, ...
I should add, that I do purchase the discs of things if I like it, even if I could continually stream it. I like supporting the artists and producers of quality entertainment and prefer to purchase directly from the band.