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Without a superstar, album sales dip
As digital tracks take up the slack, the album's slide is less a death knell than a snooze alarm for the music industry.
In Nielsen SoundScan's midyear report, the album dip of 4.2% from 2005 is countered by a 77% rise in digital tracks. Factoring in track-equivalent albums (counting 10 digital tracks as one disc), overall sales are up a microscopic 0.2%. Surging digital sales offer hope and signal a need for the industry to reconsider the album as music's key component.
"From this point on, we can not look at album sales alone to get a handle on the music industry's health," says Geoff Mayfield, Billboard's director of charts. "We've seen album declines in four of the past five complete years, and it won't be alarming to see it again, but we also see robust growth in digital track sales. We'll soon have whole other streams of revenues, and it will be trickier to figure out the bottom line."
Ringtones, streaming and online music subscriptions are bolstering profits. Album sales fell, but digital transactions show consumption is up, he says.
So far this year, consumers have bought 270.6 million albums, compared with 282.6 million at the same point in 2005 and 317.7 million in 2004. By early July last year, three albums had exceeded sales of 2 million copies each. Five had crossed that mark in the equivalent period of 2004. This year, only two titles have: the High School Musical soundtrack with 2.6 million copies and Rascal Flatts' Me and My Gang with 2 million.
Fans downloaded 280.9 million digital tracks in the first half of 2006 vs. 158.8 million last year and 55 million in 2004. Single songs continue to clobber albums online. Daniel Powter's Bad Day is the leading digital track, with 1.6 million copies sold so far, while the top digital album is Jack Johnson's Curious George soundtrack, with 116,587.
Labels are adjusting to the digital era by directing more marketing efforts at single-track minds, though luring ears to an album remains the ultimate goal. When Field Mob released its So What single, the download added snippets of songs off the rap duo's album.
"The album has been the currency for the business since at least the '70s, and it's still what's driving the majority of money a music company makes," Mayfield says.
"The album isn't a dinosaur yet."
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2006-07-12-music-sales_x.htm
Record Biz Crisis: Top 20 Misses 750G
The top 20 pop albums sold fewer than a total of 750,000 CDs last week.
You read that correctly. The actual total was 738,211. The number includes 220,000 copies of a greatest hits singles collection from all the labels, "Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 22." Without “Now 22,” regular releases came in around 500,000 copies.
This is a crisis that no one acknowledges in the record business. But consider that recently dismissed Sony execs Donnie Ienner and Michelle Anthony were making $2 million a year, and that their income is typical of upper echelon management in any record company. If the half million CDs sold at full price — $15 — then they didn’t even pay for a small part of one salary.
Consider also the execs at radio conglomerates, who have tightened playlists so that few new records are played unless — as identified by New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s findings — stations receive free trips, gadgets and other gifts as inducements. You might wonder how any of the companies on either side can afford to stay in business.
Consider that last Tuesday, “Now 22” was not the only new release. Sony/Epic issued a new CD by writer-producer Butch Walker, a performer whom this column has extolled over and over. Not only did no one from the company bother to send it here, this reporter only learned about it by accident — yesterday.
Walker should have a following from his extensive touring — he produces and opens for Avril Lavigne. But he’s been ignored by his label and radio. What’s he supposed to do? The CD sold fewer than 15,535 copies — the minimum it would have taken to hit the top 50.
And here’s an amazing statistic: four songs from the new album have been played a total of 200,000 times on Walker’s MySpace page. I doubt this is the work of one person who clicked the links that many times. Some group of people is interested in Butch Walker. They’re just not a group that his label or radio stations are interested in, apparently.
If they were, there would be more of an investment in Walker’s career — and other countless talented artists like him — by the record companies. Instead, the record stores are empty, and customers are drifting toward other entertainment.
There isn’t a lot to look forward to right away in terms of new releases: Rapper DMX has a new album on Aug. 1, but his last one was three years ago. Rocker Tom Petty’s waited four years to put out his new CD, and the last one wasn’t exactly a bestseller, with fewer than 350,000 copies sold.
Yesterday’s crop of new releases has only one promising title, by Los Lonely Boys, whose previous album sold 2 million copies. All eyes will be on them to see if they can beat their last first week sales record: 4,000 copies. That shouldn’t be too hard. Or Music, a satellite label from Epic, sticks with their artists the way most labels do not.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,204314,00.html
NASHVILLE SKYLINE: Underwood, Rascal Flatts Lead Quiet Music Revolution
Country Sales Lead Music Industry and Are on Course for a Record Year
By: Chet Flippo
Not too long ago at a party, I was talking music business with David Ross of Music Row magazine when he said something I hadn't been thinking about at all. Mainly, he said that projecting from current sales numbers, the country CD sales total might reach an all-time high this year. And that's in a year with relatively few superstar releases.
It's by no means a gold rush boom, but country shows a sales increase of almost 18 percent over last year. Meanwhile, sales across the music industry have dropped more than 4 percent in the first half of this year.
Two things become very apparent in looking at the numbers. One, country is no longer dependent only on five or six A-list superstars to deliver the bulk of country sales. Secondly, country fans are not abandoning CDs in favor of rushing to the accepted trend of downloading music
In previous years, a handful of multi-platinum A-listers carried the heavy freight. Now the weight is being distributed across a wider range of artists, including newcomers who are selling well right out of the box. Back when Garth and Shania were selling 10 million-plus on a CD, they dominated sales. This year, the multiplatinum albums are smaller in sales, but there are more of them.
When the industry's health depended every year on new releases from, say, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Shania Twain, Garth Brooks and the Dixie Chicks, there was usually a huge falloff in sales numbers between them and other country artists. That's not so much the case any more.
When you look at current country sales on the Nielsen SoundScan chart (as of July 16), you see that Carrie Underwood's debut album (at 3.2 million) and Rascal Flatts' new Me and My Gang (2.1 million) will be far and away the sales leaders for the year.
But the wealth is distributed elsewhere, as well. Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Toby Keith, Brooks & Dunn and George Strait continue to sell steady. Sugarland is double platinum.
Johnny Cash sells better dead than most country artists do alive. He has four albums in the Billboard Top Current Country Albums chart with total sales well over 2 million, not counting the Walk the Line soundtrack, which is closing in on 1 million.
And, in an encouraging trend, young and debuting artists are selling strongly. Dierks Bentley has gone platinum. Josh Turner is at three-quarters of a million, Jason Aldean is at 625,000. Miranda Lambert is at more than three-quarters of a million. Billy Currington is at 640,000. And the Wreckers are approaching 200,000 after only eight weeks -- and little was expected of them.
The Dixie Chicks' sales of their Taking the Long Way are slowing at a current total of 1.4 million. That would be spectacular for some artists -- but disappointing for them.
Country fans are less likely to lean toward musical downloads, although country digital downloads are also up this year. But most of the fans want physical CDs to put their favorite music in their trucks and SUVs and convertibles and off-roaders. The demographic is a little older and they rely on Wal-Mart and other big-box stores for their music, rather than the Internet. That's why country sales are up something like 22 percent while most musical genres are well down.
In a niche market, vinyl sales are also doing well. My turntable is still alive and well, and I buy vinyl for two reasons. To me, vinyl sounds warmer and more immediate than CDs. It's the difference between analog and digital. And secondly, I like the feel and heft of actual LPs, with their large cover art and liner notes and occasional bonus inserts. In Nashville, you will see country fans buying vinyl at such stores as the amazing Lawrence Record Store on lower Broadway, which has a sweeping array of country vinyl. There, I recently found a Johnny Cash gospel double album I had been looking for quite a while. There's Great Escape, with two stores in Nashville and others in Louisville and Bowling Green, Ky. It currently lists 11 Johnny Cash LPs and scads of others by country artists and artists of all genres. And there's the beloved Grimey's on 8th Avenue South, home to music of all stripes.
So what does all this country sales growth mean? It means that certain values continue to endure. It means that country music is healthier than ever. And that seems to indicate that the record labels are investing again in artist development, which seemed in danger of withering on the vine not too long ago. And it means other artists continue the pilgrimage to Nashville to try to share the audience. The latest is longtime rocker Bob Seger, whose first album of new material in some 11 years, Face the Promise, will also see its first single "Wait for Me" being serviced to country radio. Why not? Country fans have missed that old time rock and roll for years. There'll be a big welcome sign waiting for Seger in Nashville.
http://www.cmt.com/news/articles/1536814/20060720/hill_faith.jhtml?headlines=true
U.S. album sales decline 17%
From Bloomberg News
U.S. album sales fell 17% in the first quarter as rising online piracy and fewer new hits accelerated the music industry's decline.
Retailers sold 117.1 million albums in the three months that ended April 1, researcher Nielsen SoundScan said Thursday. Nielsen said Universal Music Group retained its lead with 32% of U.S. new-album sales.
Although online purchases rose, they failed to make up for rising piracy and declining demand for compact discs. Album sales fell 4.9% last year after a 7.3% drop in 2005. Researcher NPD Group Inc. said last month that illegal downloads of music surged 47% in 2006.
"Sales have declined in nearly all the major markets year to date, with the decline in the U.S. particularly precipitous," said Jessica Reif Cohen, an analyst with Merrill Lynch & Co.
Companies such as Warner Music Group Corp. previously warned investors that first-quarter sales would be worse than a year earlier because new releases were stronger in 2006.
To combat piracy, the industry has stepped up a campus crackdown, alerting colleges to students and employees who use school computer networks to illegally swap songs.
Among the U.S. market leaders, New York-based Sony BMG Music Entertainment was second behind Universal, with 26% of new albums sold. Last year Universal had a 34% share and Sony BMG was at 27%.
The two major record companies with rising market share were New York-based Warner, which increased to 18% from 17% a year earlier, and London-based EMI Group, which climbed to 12% from 9.3%.
Sony BMG is a venture of Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann. Universal is a unit of Paris-based Vivendi.
http://www.calendarlive.com/music/cl-fi-music6apr06,0,530912.story?coll=cl-music
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