Music industry still singing the blues

By Edna Gundersen, USA TODAY
With a backslide in motion, the music industry is in a funk.

Doing his part: So far, 50 Cent's Massacre has sold 47 miillion copies and he'll issue a Get Rich soundtrack later this year.
AFP/Getty Images

Again.

Weakening album sales will place year-end totals behind 2004, making last year's modest gain over 2003 more of a hiccup than a hike.

After years of decline, the record business was encouraged by 2004's meager growth of 1.6%, which many viewed as a sign of recovery. Hopes were also fueled by an explosive rise in legal downloading, which shows no signs of slowing.

But the slide resumed this year, dipping 6% by March. Sales are now 7% behind 2004, a figure certain to stick, or more likely grow, since no surefire blockbusters are poised to stall the downhill momentum, much less reverse it.

Music ups and downs

A sharp rise in cheaper digital
track downloads has not offset
damage done by declining
album sales. Sales in millions:

CD sales
Year Sales Percentage change
2004 480.6 -7%
2005 446.9
Digital sales
2004 101.0 +162%
2005 26.4

Source: Nielsen SoundScan,
through Oct. 23.






"I know at least two major distributors think the gap will get wider before the end of the year," says Geoff Mayfield, Billboard director of charts. "There has been softness in the top 10 throughout the year, and in most weeks, it didn't take as much to be in the top 10 as it did in 2004. The music is not connecting with consumers the way it did last year."

Last fall, sales were goosed by such hot titles as Eminem's Encore, U2's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and Shania Twain's Greatest Hits.

A dearth of superstar catalysts in the current fourth quarter, combined with ongoing problems of piracy, competing entertainment options and music that isn't enticing appetites, point to a gloomy finish line.

This year's top-selling album, 50 Cent's The Massacre, has sold 4.7 million copies to date and now is No. 44. It won't catch 2004's leader. Usher's Confessions was No. 4 and had sold 6.4 million by this point a year ago. Its year-end total exceeded 7.9 million copies.

While Mayfield expects impressive sales for 50 Cent's upcoming soundtrack and new releases by Madonna, Mary J. Blige and American Idol alumni Carrie Underwood and Bo Bice, they won't foil the relapse.

Nor will the boom in sales of digital tracks, though the 162% surge over last year does offset some album losses. Downloads now dwarf sales of store singles. This week's top single, Depeche Mode's Precious, sold 2,200 copies, compared to the leading digital track, Kanye West's Gold Digger, which sold 62,000 (564,000 to date).

To account for the consumer shift to single-song purchases, Billboard recently added "track equivalent" album sales to its Market Watch report, using a factor of 10 downloads per album. That yielded a 3.8% decline in album sales last week instead of 7.2% without the digital input. The Recording Industry Association of America uses a factor of 12, cutting the year's dip to 2.4%.

Ah, how we love to see the rich elite squirm:

laurarichardson said:

That should say 4point 7 million copies. Did a serious double-take...

The actual decline is album sales is actually about 9.8% from last yr

top 3 sellins albums


50 cent 4.7min

mariah 3.6mil

The game somewhere above 2million


The digital downlaods is making it hard to sell ful albums and the problem could only get worse with the addition of subscirption service thru napster and yahoo ppl will sample and albums without buyin anything but the good tracks!!


Its is no wonder the biggest record label last yr make a profit of only $100mil
with 100s of artist signed on

While prince and madonnas combined total take was more then that
[Edited 10/27/05 23:02pm]

Universaluv said:

lol, I was like WTF ?

The industry wants to know what can be done to solve this problem? It's simple -quit releasing so many shitty albums and promoting talentless attention whores. If the music is good, it will sell.

Don't understand why these brain trusts who run the corporations can't grasp that concept.

The bottom line is,people just don't buy music the way they used to.Record companies and the artists need to accept that fact.The days when we had big albums like 'Thriller' are over.Hell,Usher sold what...10 million? That's alot,but it's only a quarter of what 'Thriller' sold.


I'm sick of all this whining by the music industry.If they would just release some quality music for a change and lower their expectations and the price of CDs,then maybe things will change.

DavidEye said:

-----
Exactly, we will never see a 40 million selling CD again. They could also take sometime to groom acts and you might see 40 million in a 10 -15 year span.

laurarichardson said:

Well, we might if we had someone with the talent of MJ or Prince in the 80's around now, instead of media "creations" who don't play an instrument, write songs, or 1/2 the time, actually sing.