Music sales keep falling and falling...

Not surprising, but still ugly.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/08/25/129428450/album-sales-hit-record-lows

I'm actually quite surprised album sales peaked as late as 2000, I would have imagined it to be a few years earlier. Still, pretty bleak outlook for the record industry. Keep in mind, that chart seems to refer to albums - to the modern mainstream consumer, the album is all but dead as a format for purchasing music. What's far more likely is picking and choosing what tracks to purchase from an album on iTunes or some other digital distributor.

The full article mentions single track sales, but even when you add them all up the figure is still lower than it should and it doesn't make up for the loss in full album sales.

They are also figuring 20 illegal downloads for every legal download...and I think that is a conservative estimate.

Where do fallen music sales go? I just don't know, I just don't know...

I am not surprised. Combine the weak economy and the availability of mp3s - it is the perfect storm. It would be more interesting if it were possible to factor out economy and see where album sales/digital sales might have been. I think the lack of disposable income has turned people who would buy cds/mp3s into illegal downloaders.

Illegal downloads aside, you don't have to buy music any more. Almost every song that has a video is on YouTube (legally or otherwise) to be seen and listened to by anyone with a computer. And some songs have fan-made videos also. Pandora, Last.fm, and other sites allow listening without purchase and they are legal, so casual listeners don't have to buy anything anymore.

No more blind buying, I think, has hurt them a bit. You can just about preview every album legally.... and if you don't like what you hear, your not going to spend your hard earned money on crap, especially in this economy.

chewie wrote:

No more blind buying, I think, has hurt them a bit. You can just about preview every album legally.... and if you don't like what you hear, your not going to spend your hard earned money on crap, especially in this economy.

I've been saying this for a while now...very true.

This is not something that I think concerns Metal fans all that much. This is the overall, mass-marketed, Billboard Hot 100, mainstream buyers. Of course music sales as a whole have fallen. The economy, downloading, no blind-buying, no emotional connectivity to the music (generally), all this contributes to low sales.

We, Metal fans, will still buy CDs.

There will always be small labels for our crowd, making CDs/physical product/box sets/reissues. There will be smaller pressings, because we are a smaller audience, but physical mediums will not totally evaporate...at least, not in our lifetime.

I'm personally not worried if the newest teen heartthrob or Lady Gaga wannabe decides to release digital only and the giant corporate labels stop making CDs. That doesn't affect me.

But I don't see Metal Blade, Century Media, Tribunal, Heaven And Hell, Inside Out, Frontiers, etc go 100% digital...there are too many collector-geeks in Metal...and that's a good thing.

Look at things like Prog Power & Wacken...TONS of vendors selling CDs & shirts and people eat it up! Because WE are the crowd who does buy CDs. 50,000 people attending Metal festivals, buying merch, etc...THIS is why Metal (or any other non-corporate-mainstream type of music) will survive...because we care about our genre and we love it.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

This is not something that I think concerns Metal fans all that much. This is the overall, mass-marketed, Billboard Hot 100, mainstream buyers. Of course music sales as a whole have fallen. The economy, downloading, no blind-buying, no emotional connectivity to the music (generally), all this contributes to low sales.

We, Metal fans, will still buy CDs.

There will always be small labels for our crowd, making CDs/physical product/box sets/reissues. There will be smaller pressings, because we are a smaller audience, but physical mediums will not totally evaporate...at least, not in our lifetime.

I'm personally not worried if the newest teen heartthrob or Lady Gaga wannabe decides to release digital only and the giant corporate labels stop making CDs. That doesn't affect me.

But I don't see Metal Blade, Century Media, Tribunal, Heaven And Hell, Inside Out, Frontiers, etc go 100% digital...there are too many collector-geeks in Metal...and that's a good thing.

Look at things like Prog Power & Wacken...TONS of vendors selling CDs & shirts and people eat it up! Because WE are the crowd who does buy CDs. 50,000 people attending Metal festivals, buying merch, etc...THIS is why Metal (or any other non-corporate-mainstream type of music) will survive...because we care about our genre and we love it.

This was an excellent post. I agree with shawn on this one.

Smindas wrote:

I'm actually quite surprised album sales peaked as late as 2000, I would have imagined it to be a few years earlier.

I'm not really surprised at all that it peaked at 2000. That year I was working at BMG Distribution, and it was the year of 'NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Eminem, etc. I remember those days clearly. It was full on Pop-fest and they were selling CD's at record numbers, numbers that I don't think will ever be matched. Not to mention the so-called Nu-metal bands that were taking off at the time. MTV's TRL really played a huge role too, and there was no real digital downloads going on like now, no myspace, facebook, or any other social networking technology to get in the way either (I think Napster was the biggest deal back then). It was like the last golden era of the CD's before technology really changed the way people started consuming music and buying albums.

We all knew this was coming. But as Shawn had said we metalheads support our genre by buying cds attending festivals, and buying merchandise whenever we can afford it.

Ever since I became sober in 1991 I have amassed more than I could have ever imagined due to sites like these and online metal vendors that support us that buy cds/dvs from those metal artists.

I buy whatever and whenever I can I want the physical copy just enhances my collection tenfold. I've have about 100 metal T's to show my support for those artists. I think because of those record companies who in the past pillaged those artists who made them rich alot of what happened back then is now affecting sales today.

Sure PC's and the internet also is a contributing factor. Who's to blame? They are. Thank god we are true to our genre and we actively support those bands. I'd kill to have alot of money and living in Europe and attending all those festivals. Over here we have basically a handful and even then those are very few.


1 other comment I want to make there are those bands from the 70's and even the 60's who put out albums and even today are still not out on cd will those artist ever see that happen? So with those artist not seeing some of those albums in CD format the only way is DL them.

Wargod51

The record companies let the digital genie out of the bottle in the first place, they had no idea the power it had. I bet they never would have guessed their CD goldmine would lead directly to it's own digital demise...it's only 1's and 0's anyway, whether physical or downloaded from the computer.

When possible I'm buying LP's again, at least there's actual audio waveform etched into that sucker.

I can't believe sales peaked in 2000! I would of guessed the mid 90's...

Wargod48 wrote:

1 other comment I want to make there are those bands from the 70's and even the 60's who put out albums and even today are still not out on cd will those artist ever see that happen? So with those artist not seeing some of those albums in CD format the only way is DL them.

Wargod51

I agree, I've had to digitize a few of my LPs myself, because there was not a cd release for it or I've had to buy the LP because the cd release sounded like crap(like the Rubicon albums).

Since I like to collect Rare prog(especially US) this tends to be a problem, as well. Some stuff is just OOP on CD and LP and paying $100 for an album that the artist makes no profit from doesn't seem right either. I had Zazu on lp for years before it was finally put on cd. Some bands have taken it upon themselves to have free downloads on their websites:

Mychael - Neon Dreams
Episode - albums Into The Epicentre and Starlight Tales
And before he released it on cd, those Proto-Kaw songs used to be on Kerry Livgren's website. They were called the Kansas II demos and I have that and the cd release.

There's also been a couple of times where I contacted the artist themselves to ask what they had available.

exact33 wrote:

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

This is not something that I think concerns Metal fans all that much. This is the overall, mass-marketed, Billboard Hot 100, mainstream buyers. Of course music sales as a whole have fallen. The economy, downloading, no blind-buying, no emotional connectivity to the music (generally), all this contributes to low sales.

We, Metal fans, will still buy CDs.

There will always be small labels for our crowd, making CDs/physical product/box sets/reissues. There will be smaller pressings, because we are a smaller audience, but physical mediums will not totally evaporate...at least, not in our lifetime.

I'm personally not worried if the newest teen heartthrob or Lady Gaga wannabe decides to release digital only and the giant corporate labels stop making CDs. That doesn't affect me.

But I don't see Metal Blade, Century Media, Tribunal, Heaven And Hell, Inside Out, Frontiers, etc go 100% digital...there are too many collector-geeks in Metal...and that's a good thing.

Look at things like Prog Power & Wacken...TONS of vendors selling CDs & shirts and people eat it up! Because WE are the crowd who does buy CDs. 50,000 people attending Metal festivals, buying merch, etc...THIS is why Metal (or any other non-corporate-mainstream type of music) will survive...because we care about our genre and we love it.

This was an excellent post. I agree with shawn on this one.

As do I. Well stated.

On an interesting note, the people who tend to download the most music also tend to buy the most music.

This is the generation of no attention span. They download the song of the moment and move on and add to that all the other entertainment options vying for their dollar and it's inevitable.

TheNazgul wrote:

This is the generation of no attention span.

No kidding, my new roomate is 25 and he says he can't focus on anything longer than 22 minutes (a 30 min TV show without commercials). He's not joking either...can watch about 20 minutes of a movie and then he has to take off and do something else.

He also owns no physical CDs at all...and finds my collection "antiquated and kind of pathetic".

detuned wrote:

He also owns no physical CDs at all...and finds my collection "antiquated and kind of pathetic".

For the sake of future generations, you need to kill this person before he has a chance to breed.

TheNazgul wrote:

This is the generation of no attention span. They download the song of the moment and move on and add to that all the other entertainment options vying for their dollar and it's inevitable.

yeah. I help with high schoolers in youth group and its all mp3s on the ipod or iphone, cds are to them what records were to me. Ask them if they care for the art and they look at you kinda funny. I am happy to be a dinosaur in this instance.

I am glad i grew up in the era that I did, if I grew up in this generation I have no idea if I would apprecited or loved music as much as I do.

Buying an album (or CD or tape) meant alot to me (still does) and I would get absorbed for hours over the artwork, lyrics, credits etc, it was not just backround noise, and a band had record an almost full album great material not just a track or two.

Also record labels are too blame, they bred no loyality toward bands anymore, if a band records a debut that is not an instant hit they get dropped, they do not help bands develop a career let alone give them a chance at long term success, it is sad and labels are to blame for treating the music, artists and the medium as disposable.

Quote :

Also record labels are too blame, they bred no loyality toward bands anymore, if a band records a debut that is not an instant hit they get dropped, they do not help bands develop a career let alone give them a chance at long term success, it is sad and labels are to blame for treating the music, artists and the medium as disposable.

Yep. They throw darts at a board songwise and see what sticks for 15 seconds. Musicians need to band together and start they're own labels, or go with ones that actually care.

manny wrote:

Also record labels are too blame, they bred no loyality toward bands anymore, if a band records a debut that is not an instant hit they get dropped, they do not help bands develop a career let alone give them a chance at long term success, it is sad and labels are to blame for treating the music, artists and the medium as disposable.

to an extent. I think the general public has an attention span of 30 seconds which leads the record companies to do the next big hit wonder thing.

I think in the end the downfall of record companies will be people just not wanting to pay for music. They missed the boat with downloads and as cool as they try to make it, free will trump legal downloads. I think people who buy cds still feel like they are getting something for the money (art, music) but those who download most often dont think of the music as something they need to pay for.

exact33 wrote:

manny wrote:

Also record labels are too blame, they bred no loyality toward bands anymore, if a band records a debut that is not an instant hit they get dropped, they do not help bands develop a career let alone give them a chance at long term success, it is sad and labels are to blame for treating the music, artists and the medium as disposable.

to an extent. I think the general public has an attention span of 30 seconds which leads the record companies to do the next big hit wonder thing.

I think in the end the downfall of record companies will be people just not wanting to pay for music. They missed the boat with downloads and as cool as they try to make it, free will trump legal downloads. I think people who buy cds still feel like they are getting something for the money (art, music) but those who download most often dont think of the music as something they need to pay for.

Very true and it is going to be a hard mindset that is going to be diffcult if impossible to change for alot of folks from this generation and onwards. Again if the industry gives you disposbale music and artist then the audience will not value it as an artform, and they will treat music and "artists" like a chewed up piece of gum.

Even an artist such as Madonna, a pop artist knew enough to give her fans not just throw away pop songs, but gave her music and albums, and image a great deal of attention, she also treated her fans with respect, as did most bands , no matter the genre that has lasted more then 5 minutes.