Current Record Sales

[kennybro]

Do these numbers include all self released product? Makes you wonder how the top end stats differ from pre-internet release/distribution days, if they do at all. Was there anywhere even close to a fraction of 75,000 of what could actually be called "releases" in 1990?

Wiki, for what it's worth, pegs it at about 1,240.
http://lyrics.wikia.com/Category:Alb...leased_in_1990

[djimbe]

people don't "buy" albums anymore. if someone is actually honest enough to pay money for music, they are more often than not buying by the song.

It's sort of like using a land line telephone for conducting market research then applying that research to the population as a whole. There's huge segment of the American population that has no land line, so the results you get from using that technology for research purposes is gonna be kinda skewed...

[booob]

And on the contrary how much of that 75,000 albums made was actually original?

[unitymusic]

Originally Posted by booob

And on the contrary how much of that 75,000 albums made was actually original?

Yeah, right? How many times do they really expect people to buy the same dozen or so albums? There's pretty much an album per genre that gets rehashed these days. Same with movies: they're all the same story.

I don't need purple ketchup when I have a full bottle of regular ketchup that tastes the same.

[verve92]

Part of the issue. What is a record? Vinyl? Download? CD?
Point is very few people buy whole albums, just the songs that hit them at first listen.
TBO I don't download much as CD's are so cheap anymore. Still listen to lots of older music and the market is flooded.

[The Real MC]

Well DUH! There's a recession on, many people are out of work and are losing their homes. They no longer have disposable income to buy entertainment.

CDs have been a poor value for the last twenty years. As volume increased the price of CDs stayed constant - the major labels were convicted of price fixing years ago. People got tired of paying $20 for a CD with one or two good songs and the rest useless filler.

There is no originality anymore. Labels no longer develop talent or risk a new style. Everything is copycat cookie cutter "me-too" product. Many new artists are talentless autotuned pretty faces who are not capable of writing a song on their own.

The radio stations have been homogenized to the point that many people have abandoned the format. Clearchannel ruined broadcast radio. There is no such thing as a local station anymore, the playback is distributed from a central location with the same songs rotated every 3-4 hours. Where I live there is classic rock, hip-hop, and modern country. That's it. It gets old really fast.

Consumers want something new and they're not going to find it on broadcast radio or major labels. There is a lot of good music that is not getting promoted by the labels or broadcast on radio. That's why they are flocking to the net for new music.

[PopularDemand]

Originally Posted by Ward Pike

A sad state of affairs today, as reported on MelodicRock.com

"And for the record, of the 75,000 albums released in 2010 only 2,000 sold more than 5,000 copies. Only 1,000 sold more than 10,000 copies. Interesting stats. That's 73,000 releases selling under 5,000 copies."

Very few of us are going to make much money on royalties, whether artist, songwriter or producer.

This is a bit off. First, major releases that include Adele and other major artists are selling quite well account for less than 50 releases per year. You can't lump those 75,000 in with those 50. Then take the few sucessful indys out of that equation too.

99.999% of that 75,000 are self released unknown soundclick/myspace/reverbnation type artists.

[lunaticpark]

NME just released some official UK album sales figures (downloads are included). In case you're interested...
UK album sales down by almost seven million during first half of 2012 | News | NME.COM

[Beat Poet]

The BBC have also put out their spin on it - BBC News - UK album sales fall as digital downloads grow. It's kind of telling that alot of these articles say "album sales are falling, while digital sales are rising".

[Ward Pike]

Some of you seem to have a habit of shooting the messenger around here.

[verve92]

Originally Posted by Ward Pike

Some of you seem to have a habit of shooting the messenger around here.

The messenger being who? There many.

[kennybro]

Originally Posted by AyA

Anyone noticed how many bands where the star is dead are on tour?

or just MIA. Rebuild it and they will come.

[spaceacademy]

My mate was very excited that he was number 3 in the Tech House sales chart at Beatport. He's thinking thousands of sales, hes on his way, hes made it. He excitedly calls his distributor to find that no3 so far had equated to less than ten sales. I think the track ended up selling under 100. Its a sad day. There ere literally hundreds if not thousands of records on BP that dont even get one sale. But they sell a lot because they carry a few million titles. Its just a numbers game to them. Their main chart on the main page top ten can see you selling 20,000 downloads a week if your number one. Thats the only sales chart in beatport that matters and I suspect its the same with Itunes and all the other download retailers. The internet has certainly not empowered us. For a very lucky few it has but the majority no.

And vinyl is irrelevant. Only in the US do some of you guys think its on its way back. Nonsense. seven years ago there used to be around 17 pressing plants in Europe the biggest one was EMIs in London which was the first to close down. Now there are only two. One in the Czech republic who make blank CDs and porn video reproduction as their main income and i think MPO in France is still going but they will have had to diversify their market to as CD sales continue to drop. I think they just keep the vinyl pressing machines going until the guy retires. I seriously doubt its a money maker for them.

[Animus]

I personally don't buy cds anymore. I do digital downloads either itunes, Amazon or direct from the artist.

[3rd Degree]

Originally Posted by kennybro

Do these numbers include all self released product? Makes you wonder how the top end stats differ from pre-internet release/distribution days, if they do at all. Was there anywhere even close to a fraction of 75,000 of what could actually be called "releases" in 1990?

I was thinking the same thing. It's more shocking to me that 75,000 albums were released than any other fact.