Music Sales News - 2012

Not surprisingly music sales continue to decrease, especially physical media sales, while downloadable sales gain more ground.

Music sales in 2012 were down another 4.4% from 2011.

Sales of physical CDs were down 13.5%.

Vinyl sales continue to increase, up 16% from 2011, but they still only account for 1.5% of all music sold.

Sales of downloads increased by 14% from 2011 and now account for 37% of all albums sold.

Singles continue to be the primary growth medium, up 5% from last year as people continue to move away from buying full albums.

Independent record stores now account for only 7% of all music sold.

The best selling album of 2012 was also the best selling album of 2011, Adele's "21", this is the first time in the Soundscan era that an artist has had the best selling album 2 years in a row. "21" has sold over 10 million albums since it was released in February 2011.

According to Billboard Magazine the only "Rock" act in the Top 10 best sellers for this year was Mumford & Sons with their album "Babel".

The Top 5 Best Selling albums of 2012:

1. Adele - 21
2. Taylor Swift - Red
3. One Direction - Up All Night (released in 2011)
4. Mumford & Sons - Babel
5. One Direction - Take Me Home

Data gathered from Billboard and The Los Angeles Times.

We're anachronistic, this buying of albums.

Damn kids and their loading down to their pod-eyes off the interwebs. Tools of the devil, I tells ya. (Shakes cane) HEY YOU DAMN KIDS! GIT OFF MY LAWN!

Fat Freddy wrote:

HEY YOU DAMN KIDS! GIT OFF MY LAWN!

I actually say this to my hellspawn children neighbors on a regular basis. I can't help it.

I am not surprised, a) even if you wanted to buy a CD, the inventory at Walmart and Best Buy have shrunk to almost nothingness, b) Record labels for years and years have over charged for CD's , they treated music like a box of tide, instead of something of value, c) We now have an entire generation that feels entitled to own music for free, have never purchased a physical CD, do not have the collecting bug for music like we have.

Also the way people chose to listen music has changed, so the demand of physical CD's would natuarally go down anyway. They took up a lot of room, and people like the convience of downloading music, etc

Mainly thou its because the music industry put their heads in the sand and refused to deal with, come up with, or even acknowledge the new techonlogies that was changing things in the 90's, they wrote their own ticket to their own demise.

manny wrote:

I am not surprised, a) even if you wanted to buy a CD, the inventory at Walmart and Best Buy have shrunk to almost nothingness, b) Record labels for years and years have over charged for CD's , they treated music like a box of tide, instead of something of value, c) We now have an entire generation that feels entitled to own music for free, have never purchased a physical CD, do not have the collecting bug for music like we have.

Also the way people chose to listen music has changed, so the demand of physical CD's would natuarally go down anyway. They took up a lot of room, and people like the convience of downloading music, etc

Mainly thou its because the music industry put their heads in the sand and refused to deal with, come up with, or even acknowledge the new techonlogies that was changing things in the 90's, they wrote their own ticket to their own demise.

All true.

I'm wondering what they could've done? Sure, they could've lowered prices but it's hard to beat free. And the fight for the entertainment dollar has gotten so intense.

Dark Horseman wrote:

I'm wondering what they could've done? Sure, they could've lowered prices but it's hard to beat free. And the fight for the entertainment dollar has gotten so intense.

I think Manny hit the nail on the head with his comments. I remember getting vinyl and cassette between $4.99 and $6.99. When CD's hit the market, they where price $17.99 on up, more than twice the cost of vinyl/cassette.

The advent of MP3's, Napster and torrents really killed the industry - the records companies dealt with it poorly, fighting it right away. And back then, most people where using AOL dial up when the digital piracy revolution kicked off, taking a long time to download music for free. When home broadband internet took off, they were unprepared for it and took to law suits and using the courts to try and scare people into buying music.

The industry has tried to stop technology in the past also - they tried to stop the sale/manufacture of blank cassette tapes out of fear that people would just dub music and not pay for it. Yes, we all did it and it caused most people to buy more music as they discovered new artists.

Hollywood also tried to fight blank VCR tapes too, out of fear of losing revenue. They final realized that pricing movies at a low price solved that problem. Remember when most movies were only available as rentals? Erols anyone????

Manny is correct about the stock of music at Best Buy/Walmart/Target. Where else can you buy music these days? And they don't have much in stock - not much choice. The death of the mom and pop music store (or local chains) really hurt sales too, I think. The "Mega" music chains where probably part of the problem too.

How many new bands have broke through these days? We don't have the "national" radio station, MTV, playing music anymore making it harder for newer artists to hit the big time. Radio is probably part of the problem too - it's all clear channel with the music selection programmed by someone in NYC or LA. And they decide which artists are going to break and what is going to be the hit albums. Or I should say singles, since as SD has mentioned the music world has moved to singles over albums.

The record companies are even more about the hit now mentality than ever before, that's gotten worse over time. Remember when bands where allowed to develop over time and the hit album was expected by the 3rd or 4th album? The record execs now are only thinking about what can they do to get their bonus check this year. There is no long term plan to grow revenue over time - the money has to come in now or else. Any exec that figures out how to break new bands AND find ones that can last long term (and are actually good) will be a rich, rich person.

Speaking of bands, how many new bands are actually that good to sustain a career as long as Maiden, Priest, KISS or even the Stones? Maybe we are overdue for some really good bands to make it big. If Adele can sell 10 million copies of an album, people are still willing to buy music. Maybe the next generation of musicians will put out music that really clicks with people.

Not one, but TWO albums by One Direction in the top five? That is just...sad.

Who in the blue hell are One Direction?

Lari wrote:

Who in the blue hell are One Direction?

The group bringing back the worst trend the music industry ever had - the boy band era.

Required Fields wrote:

Lari wrote:

Who in the blue hell are One Direction?

The group bringing back the worst trend the music industry ever had - the boy band era.

They were "assembled" by Simon Cowell. His quote was "If Justin Beiber is good, 5 will be better". Then he hissed, spit fire, 2 additional heads spawned from his shoulders, and they all enjoyed a hearty laugh at the fall of man.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Required Fields wrote:

Lari wrote:

Who in the blue hell are One Direction?

The group bringing back the worst trend the music industry ever had - the boy band era.

They were "assembled" by Simon Cowell. His quote was "If Justin Beiber is good, 5 will be better". Then he hissed, spit fire, 2 additional heads spawned from his shoulders, and they all enjoyed a hearty laugh at the fall of man.

He reminds me of the record exec in The Adventures Of Ford Fairlane.......