US Album Sales Down, Digital Sales Up

[DudeAsInCool]

What else is new? Here are some stats for 2007 from Nielsen's SoundScan - note that overall music sales were up 14% when you include digital sales.... If overall music sales are up, what is all the crap we hear about downloading killing the music business?

Some Stats

• U.S. album sales plunged 9.5 percent last year from 2006 (includes sales of digital singles are counted as 10-track equivalent albums)

• There was a 45 percent surge in the sale of digital tracks - 844.2 million digital tracks sold in 2007, compared to 588.2 million in 2006,

• 500.5 million albums sold as CDs, cassettes, LPs and other formats (down 15 percent from 2006)

• Digital album sales accounting for 10 percent of total album purchases.

• Apple Inc.'s iTunes Music Store became the third-largest music retailer in the U.S.

• Overall music purchases, including albums, singles, digital tracks and music videos, rose to 1.35 billion units, up 14 percent from 2006.

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[DudeAsInCool]

An analysis from the Lefsetz Letter:

You've all been reading about the plunge in album sales this year, a total of 15%. But if you think sales are dropping across the board, on a strict percentage basis, you're wrong. The best sellers are taking a disproportionate hit. In other words, they're just not selling THAT WELL!

Sales in 2007, including both physical and digital, topped out at 500.5 million albums. The peak year was 2000, when 785 million units were sold. So, you'd expect sales of best sellers to drop by approximately one third, or 36.25%, to be exact.

The best selling albums of 2000 were:

1. "No Strings Attached/'N Sync: 9,936,104

2. "Marshall Mathers LP"/Eminem: 7,921,107

3. "Oops!...I Did It Again"/Britney Spears: 7,893,544

4. "Human Clay"/Creed: 6,587,834

5. "Supernatural"/Santana: 5,857,824

6. "Beatles 1"/Beatles: 5,068,300

7. "Country Grammar"/Nelly: 5,067,529

8. "Black & Blue"/Backstreet Boys: 4,289,865

9. "Dr. Dre 2001"/Dr. Dre: 3,992,311

10. "Writing's On The Wall"/Destiny's Child: 3,802,165

The best selling albums of 2007 were:

1. "Noel"/Josh Groban: 3,699,000

2. "Soundtrack"/ High School Musical 2: 2,957,000

3. "Long Road Out of Eden"/Eagles: 2,608,000

4. "As I Am"/Alicia Keys: 2,543,000

5. "Daughtry"/Daughtry: 2,497,000

6. "Soundtrack"/Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley: 2,489,000

7. "Minutes To Midnight"/Linkin Park: 2,099,000

8. "Dutchess"/Fergie: 2,064,000

9. "Taylor Swift"/Taylor Swift: 1,951,000

10."Graduation"/Kanye West: 1,892,000

So, the drop from number one over the past seven years was a whopping 62.77%!

Number two: also a 62% drop.

Number three: 67% drop.

Number four: 61% drop.

Number five: 57% drop.

Number six: 50% drop.

Number seven: 58% drop.

Number eight: 51% drop.

Number nine: 51% drop.

Number ten: 50% drop.

In other words, best sellers aren't selling tonnage! They're outpacing the decline of the industry SIGNIFICANTLY!

[Potato]

The bestsellers in 2000 aren't the same as they are 7 years later. In any 7 year span, how many bestsellers remain bestsellers? New music-making-people come along and old ones stop making music, or stop making music that's liked by the masses, or .... die or whatever.

I like that the 2007 list is slightly more diverse than the 2000 list.

[method77]

we are talking about big label sales. If you see the indie sales, I am sure they have rised a billion percent. I have no actual figures but I bet that is the situation.

People actually find what they want and don't buy the industry crap anymore. Future will be worse for them and I am totally enjoying it.

BTW why don't they include the ringtone sales in there? They make millions from that as well. Assholes.

[Redneck4sure]

Number 10 on the list in 2000 sold more than number 1 on the list in 2007.

[DudeAsInCool]

we are talking about big label sales. If you see the indie sales, I am sure they have rised a billion percent. I have no actual figures but I bet that is the situation.

People actually find what they want and don't buy the industry crap anymore. Future will be worse for them and I am totally enjoying it.

BTW why don't they include the ringtone sales in there? They make millions from that as well. Assholes.

They did:

The recording industry continued to benefit from mobile music, with mobile phone owners buying 220 million ringtones, the firm said.