Album sales down by 21% in 2007
Music sales during the Christmas shopping season were down an astounding 21% from last year. From the week of Thanksgiving up through the day before Christmas Eve, 83.9 million albums were sold, a decrease of 21.38 million from 2006’s 105.28 million. The recent news suggests that people are turning away from the CD as a Christmas present, due in large part to the rise of online music services like iTunes, eMusic, and the Amazon MP3 shop. Now that non-DRMed music is widely available from many popular artists, giving the gift of digital downloads can be an attractive option for holiday shoppers. Certainly it’s becoming more mainstream; even my local supermarket now stocks iTunes gift cards.
Music buying has certainly been migrating online, and the spectacular decline of CD sales is putting extra pressure on labels to move more online copies of the music they publish. This is clearly one of the reasons that Warner, traditionally a staunch DRM defender, agreed to strip DRM from its tracks offered on Amazon; it needed to do something (anything) to shore up flagging sales. But as albums move online, the “album” is also losing its luster. Download services let consumers pick and choose, and many buyers seem to do just that, snagging the hits and leaving the rest behind. While digital distribution enables this, it’s hard to blame digital for the common perception that most top 40 albums contain their share of filler…
Source: Variety, Ars Technica
cant be - was buying CDs like hell for chrismas!!!
Well, I dont remember the last time I bought a CD…
posted in movies?
Well, the price of the cds up by 21% (or more)…
category fixed. it’s not too surprising, i havent bought a cd for years either although i received one for christmas…
You know that this is all because of P2P traffic right? That’s what the RIAA and such say, so it’s got to be right. Although they also say that global warming is caused primarily by farting midgets…
Same here Martin, haven’t bought a CD in years. Not just because I can download them (for free), but because there just isn’t any good stuff for a reasonable price anymore. Now online-stores like iTunes, that’s a different story.
R.I.P. CD???
bad luck for them ^^
This is what happends when you let leechers and english cowards on the net.
Not too surprising when you listen to all that dire RnB rubbish, manufactured pop, and two-a-penny “indie” bands that appear out of the woodwork every bloody week. Most radio play music is one big yawn now. Its file sharing that allows people to discover whats beyond the mainstream corporate push.
I think alot ppl including RIAA is missing the point. I agree that ppl now don’t buy albums and i don’t know when i last bought an album. However the industry need to go root of the problem.
1) The price of album is to high. How can you expect to pay about £10 - £15 / album. I know there is album i would like to buy but after 10 years they are still £15. That is rubbish
2) Console market is getting bigger and better games, have the RIAA missed the fact that there games to buy?
3) DVD / Blue Ray / HD-DVD. people have same amount of money but they now buy DVD to their friends and relative.
I think the music industry need to reinvent it self instead of blaming it on other facts like file sharing.
It’s probably because music sucks. I haven’t heard a band on MTV, the radio or anywhere else that has sparked my interest. I find a lot of interesting music on MySpace but they aren’t the bands who have CD’s in stores. The last great band (there’s been good bands, but I mean great bands with epic music…think Zeppelin) to come out IMO was Arcade Fire, and thankfully they had a new release this year or else 2007 would have been a total loss. Unfortuantely, those types of bands don’t do good because no one in it has fake tits or an Escalade.
same here cant remeber when i bought a cd!!!lol!!! y should you if you can get it 4 free??? its doesnt make sense why they charge so much for an album when they know people are simply downloding them for nothing!!! haha
Most albums you just get 3 good songs on them at most. I dont understand why albums on cd only have 12 tracks usually when album on cassette have about 24 tracks 12 on each side. I thought cd where supposed to hold more info.
I’ve never understood why people bought CD’s anyways. In 90% of the cases I’ve seen, heard or experienced it wasn’t the ideal CD for the person anyways, and ended up on the shelf because they had it, they had the single song they liked on it already, or they ripped the single song they liked.
I always buy cd’s but sometimes it’s better to download, 80% of the stuff now days suck. there getting lazier and paid too much.
Were less albums released in 2007 than 2006?
Good riddance. The RIAA shot themselves in the foot. They resisted any change, they resisted new technology.. and now people are turning away in droves. You can’t sue us all, you greedy bastards!!
I think RIAA should now ban iMusic service and sue Amazon
This situation wouldn’t exist in the first place if they hadn’t made the switch from vinyl to CD..
The difffernce in music quality from mp3 to cd is fairly slight, but there is a bigger difference bewteen cd and vinyl.. which makes the difference between mp3 and vinyl, huge, relatively speaking.
I like quality sound and full harmonic range when listening to music, that’s why I listen to all of my classical and intrumental stuff on a good sound system from vinyl. The loss of range on a cd and mp3 (which is massive on both ends of the scale)is only worth listening to “pop” and that’s all sh*t these days.
Mp3’s and cd’s have there’s place, mainly convienience, but if you honestly like quality sounding music, the bass and treble range from a vinyl record is simply impossible to reproduce.. I still pick up vinyl whenever I can, and I would buy more if it was available… but I have no reason to buy cd’s…
I buy music to affect my moods, and that’s only possible with the full harmonic range, the human body actually syncronizes with the upper and lower treble and bass range and you don’t get that with digital music, you can attempt sophisticated fakery, but it’s still nowhere near the same.
Digital music is convienient, but it’s not, and never has been, a serious substitute for analogue.
I agree with james, why buy a cd when there are only like 3 good songs on it. I have only bought a cd once in my life, and it was a crapy eminem cd. The only albums worth buying are lupe fiasco’s - cool, and common’s - finding forever and maybe a few others.
i torrent finally of dateline
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3956650/dateline.to.catch.a.predator.1605-yestv-LATEST
i bojcott jewish industry-
If you stay away from the mainstream, there is a whole world of amazing music, just because there is rubbish coming from the big labels doesnt mean music quality is dead. If there is only three songs worth listening to on a chart CD, then don’t buy chart CD’s, try something new, dig a little deeper, I personally found there were some amazing release’s in ‘07, easily over 100 CD’s that I love. The problem with music wont change when people still buy the mainstream stuff. People blame the labels and artists for stagnant music, yet people still buy it, whos really to blame.
Though the general public is sometimes portrayed as a greedy mass of pirates, the new figures show that the eyepatch-wearing demographic is only one part of the equation. Fire Mr. X Now- he is a self-hating racist homphobe who shows hatred to others because he is afraid tha everyone will find out that he secretly molests young african american boys. Given good legal alternatives to illegal downloading, consumers are happy to stay legit if that means that they can conveniently cherry-pick digital hits for their own collections.
There are few albums where most or all the songs are worthy and only for these do I buy the CD, but really to be honest there hasn’t been an album like that for many years.
Remember folks… Stay ON TOPIC..
The post above was brought to you by the RIAA!
I agree that the R & B, Rap cr@p, soulless pop, indie wannabees are ruining the industry. Funny that the 1980’s is generally regarded as the era of cr@p music when really most of the decent artists started then and even the cheesy pop sounds good (eg A-ha, and Roxy Music)compared to the shi-te out now as it had heart at the very least!
Yeah, SmiercDlaZydow (btw, it was the post above you first I was referring to.)
The 80’s has a hell of a lot to answer for, that was really the beginning of the soulless manufacturing of “popular” music.
Stock, Aitken and Waterman should have been burned at the stake.
The soulless manufacturing of music has been with us for well over 50 years now, and it got more aggressive in the 60’s. the 70-80’s were just a natural expansion of that.
@19, Wibble I agree, but whatever happened to the *music DVD* I ask? Now there was a very high fidelity format that I’d be happy to pay current album price for, as it’s a KEEPER.
Nowadays, we don’t think of CD’s as keepers, because, like you say, MP3 isn’t very far away from it, so the whole experience is cheapened. iPod is also making us think “single-track” - pick and choose for your playlist. The iPod paradigm isn’t about albums, it’s about songs. So why buy an album?
Also a CD doesn’t fit in your pocket.. in iPodLand it’s almost an anachronism. Nevermind BUYING CDs, I never even PLAY CDs! They’re all on my PC, iPod, and my HiFi plays MP3 CDs so it’s compilation-land there too.
If music-DVD was more available for classical & other good stuff, I’d be buying a few definitely. Until then, MP3 is fine.
p.s. your #28 post - the 80’s rule everything!!!
@ BlackPlastic..
Lol.. it went the same way as the “indesructable” CD, binned in favour of a cheaper alternative.
Admittedly though the MDVD certainly did produce a fidelity far surpassing the CD.. and music suffered because of the non take up of better tech, (doesn’t beat vinyl, but it’s far superior to a CD. ;)) shame. Good point about not actually playing cd’s anymore, it’s all just files now.
@ MelC (lol)
Maybe so, but the 80’s where when they stopped pretending about it … 80’s was also the advent of pitch correction (a mortal sin against the ethos of music), anyone remember Kylie and Rick Astley sounding the same at different speeds?
Why buy when you get for free? Who cares about moral issues?
Just an example, Britney Spears.
She releases a new song.
Almost instantly, and sometimes even before the CD is released in stores, it’s available online to download.
I download it, takes me max 120 seconds, cost me nothing & absolutely no effort.
1) I didn’t like the song - DELETE.
2) I liked it, may listen again - KEEP.
Why on earth would I want to go out and spend my money on buying the CD? Whether I liked it or not, I see no reason to purchase…
Legal issues? Couldn’t care less.
Britney might go out of business? Couldn’t care less.
She wont release any more songs? Couldn’t care less.
There’s thousands of artists out there and I couldnt give a rat’s poop about any single one or what happens to them…
ThePirateBay free music for the win 2008!!!
Free music for the masses, dont like it artists/record companies? Dont release any!
Pirates will live ON!!!
I wonder what the RIAA response will be. Probably all the usual nonsense…
And please, do stop promoting racism via nicks or ideas, it only shows your mental and philosophical immaturity or muslim/arab background which nowadays translates into same thing. To put it plainly, stop being pubertal.
off topic:
does anyone remember the app that for storing the movies in your hdd to a database? i saw it here some time back.
oh yes…..not the moviez collector.
Well……if quality albums were being release, maybe people will go buy them!
1. The majority of the music blows.
2. Why buy a whole CD to get 1 good song.
3. Who the hell under 35, 30 or 25 is using CD’s? It’s all IPODs and other digital stuff. Hell, I still call them albums.
4. The music industry spends so much time and effort concentrating on piracy, they forgot to prepare for the future or should I say the now.
5 The majority of the music blows.
@35: Whereisit
SmierczDlaPoliakov
eh wait a minute, you tell people to stop being racist with a racist statement? classic
Indeed. What else did you expect, peanuts?
@SmierczDlaPoliakov - why are YOU promoting racism then? For everybody’s information: “SmierczDlaPoliakov” translates to “DeathForPoles”.
) and there was no problem with law then. All the sudden, something everybody does is a capital crime. For me it’s greed not crime.
About the topic of discussion now: I personally don’t remember when I bought a CD (either for me or as a present). The reasons are:
1. CD’s are way too expensive (10$ is maximum worth paying for a new album). In my country is often twice that price (sometimes more).
2. CD’s are inconvenient - for quite long time I’m using MP3 player, which is simply smaller, lighter and runs longer on batteries than discman.
3. I can hardly find NEW music that interests me. Most of the OLD I already have ;).
4. There’s absolutely no reason to pay for something you can have for free. People always “exchanged” music (walkman times
no thats cos no one needs CD’s i have and ipod, media center with 5.1 decoder amp hooked to it
lots people are getting media centres why would they need a CD?
nerly every one i know has a media centre.
@38
thanks a lot mate.
All of the comments here are important.
It is critical to note that the music industry
dropped the ball at a crucial crossroads during the
Digital infancy. If they would have embraced Napster
instead of trying to crucify them, alot of excellent
points being made now would be mute.
Along with the fact that music nowdays truly is crap,
the music industry as we no it will fade to black
like Bethlehem Steel, no one will pay for music anymore,
because the majority can see it for what it is….
simple greed that will never be tolerated at this level again!
did they really think everyone still has a Coby CD player? What ever happened to DVD-Audio? oh yeah, sony killed it off with their crappy SA-CD format that nobody bought.
so, album sales down? sucks to be them! and where are those mp3 multichannel surround files? why are people dumb enough to pay for old tech?
buying cds are for the over thirties,free music rocks dude,and what music has pubertal(@34) released never heard ov them before
The industry doesn’t determine the standard format anymore, the costumer/user does! That is something they just can’t get into their fat heads!
CD’s take in to much volume and are prone to damage compared to the digital formats like MP3. But still they keep putting out those damn coasters for insanely high prices! Let’s face it, selling CD’s is a dead-end. The future is free music, or at least being able to listen first and then buy the songs you like instead of the whole album. Artists will make money from concerts, not from albums anymore. This way, the real artists (who are not digitally improved, like Britney) will survive the rest.
another 5-10 yrs therell be no
cds or dvds,theyll go the same way as vinyl.
if i had my music and movies on cd or dvd
id have to live in a castle,
that sounds good, anyone got a cheap castle
MOST OF THE MUSIC SUCK,come on must
of the music is r@b or hip hop bring back rock
or fun music and yes onlin help bring sale down
but when you buy a cd only for one good song for $10.00
forget it.thank god for internet.
The point many people seem to be missing is that the article speaks of sales MIGRATING from cds to online stores (NOT p2p ruining their sales).
CD sales are 21% down but that not a 21% loss when online SALES are up. Sales make them money too lol. It’s no more than a market shift…and yes, most cds only have a few good songs at most with the rest being filler…..and I hope overall sales are down.
Now that people have more options than simply buying a complete cd, maybe the music industry will be forced to stop relying on formulaic music and demand more of their spoiled artists.
Main stream music sucks. The musicians don’t even get most of the money from the album so its not about the art.I prefer bands that make their money on tour ie…. ticket sales,t-shirts,hats , ect.If i do buy a cd i buy it at the show from the band.F*ck corporate media!!!
anyone got links for Alvin.And.The.Chipmunks.PROPER.R5.LINE.XvID.Ac3.5.1.x264-COCAIN
heard it is real, and my mates got a copy of it, just wondering if anyone had and links?
boolean
Shalom. Please buy our music or we will shoot ya.
Tito is the best
All of the good CD’s came out in the summer. Nothing worth buying now a days
I have tons of cds here but none I think was released after 2004. for christmas, I got DVD-Rs
First of all, CD can become scratched. I’ve learned from my brother’s mistakes. His CDs that be bought several years ago are even lost, unplayable or broken. I rarely purchase CDs, as I prefer to have them on my album program. Also, I just purchase CDs of indie artists, that are not selling their CD in Mp3.
“Download services let consumers pick and choose, and many buyers seem to do just that, snagging the hits and leaving the rest behind.”
This one should they absolutely focus more on. Why are they purchasing just the hits? Because rest of the songs are usually crap or have a lower quality in them. If the producers would create better songs to everyone, everyone would also purchase all the tracks. What’s the moaning?
haha owned
Interesting & Expected
The artist aren’t mad but the record labels are. Artist don’t make a whole lot of money off cd sales but the labels do. Have you ever heard of an artist complaining about their music being downloaded. Nope. An artist doesn’t care about how you hear their music as long as you hear it. The artist makes their money when they hit the road and do concerts and shows. Just to perform at a small club can get you 10,000 to 15,000.
Glad to see the riia in trouble. Serves them right for giving the world such crap as britney spears.
what is a CD?
I havent bought a single cd in the last 3yrs I get 99% of my music online for free so why pay for something that you can get for free.I also havent rented or bought a dvd for at least a year and a half blockbusters is a con and the price of films are a rip off so there to i get them for free.The only thing i buy is games for my 360 or pc thats it.
news to me
People are opting to download singles rather than a full album.
Dont become a musician as no money in it now,Thanks why im doing performing arts as at least people have to pay for a live show.
It’s not only music CDs that were down in sales… almost all retailers saw a decline in sales for the 2007 holidays. Also there’s a shift in activity to computer games and console games so if people spend more money there then they won’t magically have money for CDs too. And then there were the studies that the people with tons of music on their computer were also those that bought the most music… so whatever. I for one bought one physical CD in 2007 because there just wasn’t anything I cared for.
I bought only 1 new CD, but I downloaded ZERO. Why? The new albums sucked.
Internet radio > y0u
(@61)umm any1 remember Metalica hav’n a major b!tch about record sales? its not just the record company’s, the artist as well 2 a degree. All record companies have ever been is a thorn in the artists side (Creative control, playing for certain demographics/age groups/races etc.) the Record company’s = talentless circle jerkers who can’t make money without praying on more talented ppl then them-selves.
R.I.P a CD a day
Keeps the Record companies not paid.
Now on2 the artists.
If your Music is worth your CD price, Money will b made. If your music can stand the test of time, it will make money time-after-time-after-time.
If your music is utter sh!t, guess how much money will b made.
I AM SO SICK OF TALENTLESS HACKS THAT BLAME RIPPING MUSIC FOR THE DECLINE IN ALBUM SALES WHEN IN FACT IT HAS EVERYTHING 2 DO WITH THEIR LACK OF EFFORT PUT IN THE RECORDING STUDIO 2 BEGIN WITH.
If u want 2 hang around clubs all night, become a bouncer.
If u want 2 make a classic album, get ya tush in the recording booth and don’t come out till its PERFECT.
Near enough aint good enough no more.
Tell’n it how it is since 0-Day.
OST
Why would I go buy a cd from a millionaire that is not giving me quality music. If I download it and I like it, then I will go buy one just to show I appreciate good music, but if it not good, commercial artist are still going to make their money doing many other things, so I have no pity for them.
Yes i agree with some of one shady thug comments,the talentless hacks that ad lib,lip sync or repeat unintelligible non rhythmic repetitive gabbage.And they still get to the top of the charts because the people buying or downloading the music are either in a drug induced state or are also talentless
and move to any beat that appeals to them.
You go though a album these days and you might only get 2 or 3 songs that are in the pass mark.
Is it that the lack the magic or flare of the artists of the early era?The problem might arise because its marketed at teens.Where as in the early era say when elvis was playing he appealed to all age groups and is still listened to today,where as most of these artists will be forgotten.
Elvis was about i think in the top ten in england recently with burning love and hes dead what hope is their for todays artists?
I also agree with inumers comment look recording artists if you anit going to produce 3 or more great songs on a album album sales will die no doubt about that.All you get is people downloading the tracks or track they like.Its better to delay the album to make it really good then ill go and buy it.
yes ok Elvis was marketed at teens but also produced ballads that older people appreciated.And their lies the answer.
Way back, when I bought my first cd player, I was buying cds like crazy. The sad part of this, was that I was buying them for just one track that I liked. Sometimes I would get luck and find 2 tracks that I really enjoyed. Then I discovered the world of kazaa and now limewire. I haven’t bought a cd in years and I have more music than the law allows.
LOL… LMAO.
okay.
” iTunes, eMusic, and what was the other one… ‘Amazon Mp3 shop’ ”
Laughing my ASSSSSSSS OFFFF.
Are they kidding themselves? They think that’s where people are going to get their music. DAMN. Well i guess INTERNET II will roll out by the time, they figure out that people arent buying music anymore.
ChrisFromthaDtothaPHX i liked your comment yes you hit a good on a point.The music industry needs to stop being so laid back
and pay more attention to peoples habits and if they dont shape up and change with the times and pick up on the comments like here this will only get worse.
They need to produce more quality than quantity.I feel even though some may not like Robbie williams he has consistently put out great quality albums.I feel hes a artist thats deserved his 80 million even if its a gross amount lol.
I must add though guys don’t just snap the hits make sure if you download free that you at least listen to the other tracks as even radio station don’t play all the hits from a album.For example i listen to Michael buble and their were 2 great songs i liked you my everything that was played on the radio but their was a equally great song called lost which totally got lost on the radio airwaves here.
So does that mean the radio industry is partly to blame for this? maybe.Also the recording industry employing the artist bad marketing by them.Somebody or someone needs to be more pro active!
I think the decrease in album sales is half the decrease in talent these days. The crap spewing out the radio is noise… pure and simple.
boolean boolean boolean
For those of you talking about “quality” of music
your time is well due to go seek out the roots of music.
REAL MUSIC, comes from Independent Labels.
This is the breeding grounds of richly gifted Artists……everything sold by majors is like drinking piss watered down wine !…..
For any of you that are desperate for some good music do a search on youtube for “NightWish” band and song Nemo by Tarja. The come back and tell us how awesome it was.
86th yeyyyyyyyyyyyyy
haha still gonna download albums no matter what is said. the filthy pigs.
Wow that Nightwish video was a great example of the decline of music in the 21st century. Another typical metal opera combo. Sad.
Well piracy ain’t the blame. There is an easy answer for this. Nowadays everyone is buying games, movies, and buying MP3 downloads trough iTUNES. A X360 game is about 3 times the price of a CD. You can spent money only once so that is the reason that no one is buying cds anymore
THANK YOU RADIOHEAD!!!
For firing the final dart into the struggling behemoth that is the music industry and sending it crashing to the ground in a breathless, self engorged bloody mess.
Now just take down reality TV and I’ll be happy.