TopDawg14 Posted March 23, 2007 Report Share Posted March 23, 2007 US CD sales plummet as people turn to digital music downloads Mar 22 07:15 AM US/Eastern View larger image US sales of music compact discs plummeted 20 percent in the first three months of the year as downloading of songs continued to knock the underpinnings from record studio revenues. Eighty-nine million CDs were sold from the start of the year through March 18 as compared with 112 million CDs sold during the same period in 2006, according to figures released Wednesday by industry tracker Nielsen SoundScan. Purchases of digitized albums online failed to make up the difference -- instead they dropped from 119 million during that time period in 2006 to 99 million during the first three months of this year, SoundScan reported. Meanwhile, sales of individual songs in digital format on the Internet rose from 242 million tracks during those months last year to 288 million this year, according to SoundScan. Consumers are sending a message to artists that "while you may have put a lot of thought into the sequence of the album, I only like these three songs," said digital music industry analyst Michael McGuire of Gartner Research. "It comes back to consumers being in complete control of their media experience, and that is not going backwards," Gartner told AFP while discussing the drop in album sales and the rise in single-song track purchases. "This is a tough business being a record label because they have to find new sources of revenue." Overall album purchases, calculated by considering every 10 track sales the equivalent of an album, were down by 10 percent in the first quarter this year from last year when 131 million albums were sold, SoundScan figures showed. Music industry statistics show that CD sales have declined steadily for more than five years but still account for 90 percent of album purchases. The relentless popularity of digital music downloads on the Internet is taking the legs out from under CD sales and leaving studios with nothing to stand on if they fail to adapt to online distribution, McGuire said. "The last couple of years the music industry didn't move fast enough and they are trying to catch up now," McGuire said. "But, the whole digital thing is a train that is picking up speed." EMI and Warner Music, two of the world's four major studios, are quickly investing in online "search, discovery and recommendation" tools such as websites at which users share song playlists and recommendations, McGuire said. Instead of letting CD sales erode as they warily eye online forms of distribution, studios should turn the Internet to their advantage, according to McGuire. Online communities can be courted and members given easy paths to websites or real-world stores where music can be purchased. "The imperative is for studios to find as many frictionless transaction paths as possible for digital content," McGuire said. "An important component is embracing discovery tools on social networks." Protecting music from piracy is an unavoidable burden of online song distribution. Music must also compete more than ever with computer games and online video for people's "time, eye balls and wallet share," McGuire said. A high-profile casualty of the shift to digital distribution of music was the iconic Tower Records chain of stores started in California in 1960. Tower records closed its real-world stores in December of 2006 and exists as an online book, music and video stop at the website www.tower.com. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TopDawg14 Posted March 23, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2007 The title should read U.S. CD Sales plummet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Hero1 Posted March 23, 2007 Admin Report Share Posted March 23, 2007 it wouldn't have anything to do with the rubbish that the record labels are putting out there would it :paperbag: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TopDawg14 Posted March 23, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2007 it wouldn't have anything to do with the rubbish that the record labels are putting out there would it :paperbag: (sarcastically) no way tim! the record labels are wise and all-knowing. no way would they put out rubbish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JumpinJack AJ Posted March 23, 2007 Report Share Posted March 23, 2007 So many different things contribute 2 this. So many albums only have 1 or 2 good songs...or at least 1 or 2 songs that record companies pay lots of money 2 get played. Real talent has 2 settle for next to nothing. The creative process of putting any album 2gether is ignored by fluff artists who just make songs with big name producers. Real albums have flow and concept. They have a vibe that simply can't be created unless u have in the zone and trying 2 accomplish something with the music u make. Record labels only care about the here and now and the dollar that can be made. They don't care about music or the craft in general. They don't care about the fans or anything. And fans obviously don't demand anything from the artists or labels or the state of music wouldn't be so crappy. There are definitly those artists and those groups who only exist for that single download, but it's time 4 music fans 2 step up and start buying these albums. Show that support. If a true artist drops and album and u can count on them 4 quality music, go get it for God's sake. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Hero1 Posted March 23, 2007 Admin Report Share Posted March 23, 2007 Yeah Aj.. I was reading an interview with the guy who started babygrande records.. they said have you had any disappointments.. he said the brand nubian album :damnyou: he said he can no longer put an album out by an artist who hasnt released anything in a few years and expect people to buy it.. he said he should have had guest stars from todays youngest stars..and he should have got some of the hot producers..thats what he'd do now..that is so sad. Brand nubian put out a great hip-hop album, it had no guest stars, no "hot producers" it was just classic hip-hop... AND NO ONE BOUGHT IT :bat: Because of that the head of the record label said he's not gonna take a chance on artists like that anymore.. I've kind of become disullisioned with whats popular these days.. no one seems to buy anything I like..and the young kids wouldn't know good hip hop if it slapped em across the face.. Sigh.. thats the way it is I guess..<crawls away and goes back to listening to my hip hop records from 93> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevTastic Posted March 23, 2007 Report Share Posted March 23, 2007 Can't say I've bought many Albums this year so far, but i also haven't and will not download an album. There really has just been nothing out for me worth picking up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
analogue Posted March 23, 2007 Report Share Posted March 23, 2007 it wouldn't have anything to do with the rubbish that the record labels are putting out there would it :paperbag: (sarcastically) no way tim! the record labels are wise and all-knowing. no way would they put out rubbish. Yeah. The record companies are wise and all knowing :sipread: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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