Digital music sales are up and CD sales are down, but oddly enough vinyl LPs are holding their own in today's music market. The CBS Sunday Morning show did a segment on the resurgence of vinyl, interviewing two firms that press vinyl records (one of them in Brooklyn) and examining the factors leading to vinyl's success.
One of these factors is the perceived higher sound quality of a record over a CD or digital download. The retro appeal of vinyl could also be a factor, as well as the related desire for a physical record and even cover art and liner notes that are bigger than the shrunk-down CD inserts.
I wrote about the rebound in vinyl sales back in the summer, and the pace seems to have picked up since then, if anything. The Sunday Morning report mentioned that Amazon.com actually has a section of its online store devoted just to vinyl, even though the company also started selling digital download of music last year.
Showing posts with label music sales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music sales. Show all posts
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Monday, December 31, 2007
Music Industry Has Lousy Year; Hopes for Boost from Early 2008 Releases
The downturn in sales of recorded music isn't going away. In fact, an article on Arstechnica reports that music sales are down 21% this Christmas season (Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve), according to Variety. The article notes that Josh Groban's "Noel" was the best-selling album of 2007.
These losses came, the article notes, as sales of videos stayed pretty much the same, and that of games registered a 5% gain.
With this bad news, it's no surprise that the music industry is hoping for a lift from new albums from established stars. An article from Billboard looks at some of the major releases slotted for early 2008. Among some of the new releases expected from heavy hitters in the industry from January through March:
These losses came, the article notes, as sales of videos stayed pretty much the same, and that of games registered a 5% gain.
With this bad news, it's no surprise that the music industry is hoping for a lift from new albums from established stars. An article from Billboard looks at some of the major releases slotted for early 2008. Among some of the new releases expected from heavy hitters in the industry from January through March:
- Willie Nelson, "Moment of Forever" - January 29
- Sarah Brightman, "Symphony" - January 29
- Motel, "17" - January 29
FEBRUARY - Lil Wayne, "Tha Carter III"
- Nas, "Nigger"
- Ja Rule, "The Mirror"
- Nicole Scherzinger, "Her Name Is Nicole"
- Sheryl Crow, "Detours"
- Lenny Kravitz, "It Is Time for a Love Revolution"
- Anthony Hamilton, "Me"
- Jack Johnson, "Sleep Through the Static"
- Dolly Parton, "Backwoods Barbie"
- Simple Plan, "Simple Plan"
- Rick Ross, "Trilla"
- Janet Jackson, "Discipline"
- Erykah Badu, "Nu Amerykah"
- Goldfrapp, "Seventh Tree"
MARCH - Ashlee Simpson, "Bittersweet World"
- The Offspring, TBA
- Gavin DeGraw, TBA
- Estelle, "Shine"
- Alan Jackson, "Good Time"
- Bauhaus, "Go Away White"
- Michael McDonald, "Soul Speak"
- Moby, "Last Night"
- Leona Lewis, "Spirit"
- Panic! at the Disco, TBA
JANUARY
Sunday, September 09, 2007
CD Sales Down... How Accurate are Those Numbers?
We've all heard the statistics over over the last few about CD sales plummeting, largely due to music downloading (mostly illegal ones). Everyone seems to assume those stats are accurate and that the sale of recorded music is a business permanently in decline.
But I heard an podcast recently that made me question these stats and some of the assumptions behind them. Namely, who conducted the research, what channels of CD sales did they measure (and which did they not cover), and how much of recorded music sales do they actually cover?
The LiveWire podcast from Portland, Oregon featured an interview with Derek Sivers, the founder of CD Baby, the successful online seller of indie artist CDs. I first heard of CD Baby about eight years ago when I noticed that a number of my favorite folk/Americana artists were selling their albums there.
Sivers said that contrary to the doom and gloom figures about declining CD sales, sales of independent music CD were actually up 60% or so over the last few years, I believe. So are the doom-and-gloom figures reported over the last few years only measuring CDs from major labels and not indie outfits? Do they cover only major bricks-and-mortar outlets and big online sellers like Wal-Mart and Amazon.com?
The discrepancy between the much-quoted stats and Sivers's figures make me wonder. After all, music sales charts rely on SoundScan, which is known to count sales from certain outlets and is accepted to exclude other channels.
But I heard an podcast recently that made me question these stats and some of the assumptions behind them. Namely, who conducted the research, what channels of CD sales did they measure (and which did they not cover), and how much of recorded music sales do they actually cover?
The LiveWire podcast from Portland, Oregon featured an interview with Derek Sivers, the founder of CD Baby, the successful online seller of indie artist CDs. I first heard of CD Baby about eight years ago when I noticed that a number of my favorite folk/Americana artists were selling their albums there.
Sivers said that contrary to the doom and gloom figures about declining CD sales, sales of independent music CD were actually up 60% or so over the last few years, I believe. So are the doom-and-gloom figures reported over the last few years only measuring CDs from major labels and not indie outfits? Do they cover only major bricks-and-mortar outlets and big online sellers like Wal-Mart and Amazon.com?
The discrepancy between the much-quoted stats and Sivers's figures make me wonder. After all, music sales charts rely on SoundScan, which is known to count sales from certain outlets and is accepted to exclude other channels.
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