Over the past five years and more CD sales have dropped significantly.
The US music industry is the world's largest market, has experienced a drop in album sales from 800m in 2002 to 316m a decade later. Industry analysts say that long-term doesnt account for a sudden drop-off. Last week US album sales, as measured since 1991 by Nielsen Soundscan, fell to a new low of 4.49m at the time of year when the industry typically rolls out its biggest acts before the holiday sales boom.
Katy Perry's No 1 album Prism sold less than 300,000 copies, Miley Cyrus's Bangerz which was No.1 two weeks ago fell to 4th place with 43,000.
"The album is dying in front of our very eyes," industry commentator Bob Lefsetz wrote. "Everybody's interested in the single, and no one's got time to sit and hear your hour-plus statement."
This drop in album sales has Spotify, YouTube and other cheap or free streaming sites up for blame because there is also a 4% rop in digital downloads, the first since Apple's iTunes was launched a decade ago.
To understand the shift to a market dominated by singles and streaming, the industry has introduced a new measure, TEA (track equivalent albums) which counts 10 track sales as one album. If the TEA measure is used, Bangerz, which only sold 245,000 traditional copies in its first week, rises to 750,000 sales.
This is an extract from the guardian.
here the BBC reports on how HMV chains closed down due to slump in sales.
You have explored the industry well.
ReplyDelete- Do you think it matters that you have explored the US market over the UK market? What significance or impact could this have on your information?