http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/05/technology/digital_music_sales/index.htm

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The times they are a-changin'. For the first time in history, digital music sales topped the physical sale of music.

According to a Nielsen and Billboard report, digital music purchases accounted for 50.3% of music sales in 2011. Digital sales were up 8.4% from the previous year, while physical album sales declined 5%.

Lady Gaga took the top spot as 2011's most streamed artist, according to the report. The most streamed song of 2011? Nicki Minaj's "Super Bass," with 84.9 million audio streams and 71 million video streams.

Adele's album 21 was the top selling album both online and physically, and her popular song, "Rolling in the Deep," was the bestselling digital song, with 5.8 million downloads.

Digital album sales ended the year on a high note, with a record 3.5 million sales in the last week of 2011.

The record industry can thank Adele for reviving the idea of buying entire albums. For the first time since 2004, total album sales -- counting both physical and digital -- rose compared to the prior year. They increased 1.3% in 2011 to 331 million units. Adele's 21 sold 5.8 million units, enough to lift the entire album catagory into postive territory for the year.

While services like Napster blazed the trail for online music consumption, offerings like Apple's 99-cents-a-song iTunes catalog as well as those from a host of startups have broken down traditional music-purchasing barriers. Most customers now prefer shopping online to buying in a store.

"Clearly the plastic format was not an optimal format for selling music," says Brian Zisk, executive producer of the SF MusicTech Summit. "It's a much healthier ecosystem for folks to be selling digital formats instead of physical formats. That's the future, and the way it's going."

Zisk also cites the rise in mobile and smartphones as a catalyst behind the digital-music surge.

"The ability for folks to purchase music everywhere has really expanded the digital marketplace," he says. "They don't need to go to physical store -- anywhere the phone is people are able to purchase music."

Traditional music magazines like Rolling Stone and Spin Magazine have now created apps that allow users to purchase music while browsing, and services like Spotify have partnered with Facebook to boost music discovery and sharing.

Mike More, CEO of Headliner.fm, says the future may not be digital sales. More cites Spotify's model as the music consumption of the future, where he says more consumers will pay for access to music streaming services rather than purchasing songs.

"I think you have a whole generation who doesn't care if they own anything," he says. "Accessibility has become paramount. This is what consumers want -- they want it everywhere and on all their devices."

smoothcriminal12 said:

http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/05/technology/digital_music_sales/index.htm

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The times they are a-changin'. For the first time in history, digital music sales topped the physical sale of music.

According to a Nielsen and Billboard report, digital music purchases accounted for 50.3% of music sales in 2011. Digital sales were up 8.4% from the previous year, while physical album sales declined 5%.

Lady Gaga took the top spot as 2011's most streamed artist, according to the report. The most streamed song of 2011? Nicki Minaj's "Super Bass," with 84.9 million audio streams and 71 million video streams.

Adele's album 21 was the top selling album both online and physically, and her popular song, "Rolling in the Deep," was the bestselling digital song, with 5.8 million downloads.

Digital album sales ended the year on a high note, with a record 3.5 million sales in the last week of 2011.

The record industry can thank Adele for reviving the idea of buying entire albums. For the first time since 2004, total album sales -- counting both physical and digital -- rose compared to the prior year. They increased 1.3% in 2011 to 331 million units. Adele's 21 sold 5.8 million units, enough to lift the entire album catagory into postive territory for the year.

While services like Napster blazed the trail for online music consumption, offerings like Apple's 99-cents-a-song iTunes catalog as well as those from a host of startups have broken down traditional music-purchasing barriers. Most customers now prefer shopping online to buying in a store.

"Clearly the plastic format was not an optimal format for selling music," says Brian Zisk, executive producer of the SF MusicTech Summit. "It's a much healthier ecosystem for folks to be selling digital formats instead of physical formats. That's the future, and the way it's going."

Zisk also cites the rise in mobile and smartphones as a catalyst behind the digital-music surge.

"The ability for folks to purchase music everywhere has really expanded the digital marketplace," he says. "They don't need to go to physical store -- anywhere the phone is people are able to purchase music."

Traditional music magazines like Rolling Stone and Spin Magazine have now created apps that allow users to purchase music while browsing, and services like Spotify have partnered with Facebook to boost music discovery and sharing.

Mike More, CEO of Headliner.fm, says the future may not be digital sales. More cites Spotify's model as the music consumption of the future, where he says more consumers will pay for access to music streaming services rather than purchasing songs.

"I think you have a whole generation who doesn't care if they own anything," he says. "Accessibility has become paramount. This is what consumers want -- they want it everywhere and on all their devices."

I think the industry hanging its hat on one or two albums, is pretty sad. Digital topping physical is more about the availablitity than anythiing, the days of the record store are gone, u have no music retailer, Best Buy has all but shut down this idea, go into a NYC best Buy and its amazing how few cds and even dvds there are now, so im not shocked about the sales topping one over the other. Taget and Walmart are not music stores, so i wont even speak on them, there is no outlet that soley caters to music so, like i mentioned in another thread, Billy Joel's Glass Houses sold 7.1 million copies and was still only the 41st biggest album of the 80's released now it would be around the top 3, so that to me is more aboout the change and music's loss of relevance today.

If they hadn't thought of closing down music retailers, this wouldn't have happened lol plus people are limited to how much music they stock in stores. People are stupid. That's all I have to say about that. But I know I may have to use iTunes gift cards again to buy new albums. Plus they ain't thinking properly on what artists to sell only digitally and what artists to sell only physically and who can sell both physically and digitally.

On the upswing of things, least Adele is proving that physical CDs can still sell. So this is a mild victory for digital sales. Just mild. We'll see what 2012 brings.

Timmy84 said:

If they hadn't thought of closing down music retailers, this wouldn't have happened lol plus people are limited to how much music they stock in stores. People are stupid. That's all I have to say about that. But I know I may have to use iTunes gift cards again to buy new albums. Plus they ain't thinking properly on what artists to sell only digitally and what artists to sell only physically and who can sell both physically and digitally.

thing is, though i have bought music this way now, because i really dont have a choice in some cases, some albums that i have wanted are just digital, but to me, digital isnt "music lover" friendly, i want a book i want something that shows i have the friggin album, i have stuff i dont even know that i have anymore, singles i bought off itunes and im like "oh shit i got that?" that never use to happen. Thing is that to sell just digital is actually better for a label or an artist direct becuase it saves on all those manufacturing fees. But labels did themselves in, ways of marketing sucks, and it has since the days of soundscans introduction, its all about and still about week one and out the box sales that nothing has shelf life, neither the artist nor the product, no one has a catalog anymore either, so you arent going to have this wealth of music still available later on, no one is going to be looking for a 15 year old Rihanna album.

lastdecember said:

Timmy84 said:

If they hadn't thought of closing down music retailers, this wouldn't have happened lol plus people are limited to how much music they stock in stores. People are stupid. That's all I have to say about that. But I know I may have to use iTunes gift cards again to buy new albums. Plus they ain't thinking properly on what artists to sell only digitally and what artists to sell only physically and who can sell both physically and digitally.

thing is, though i have bought music this way now, because i really dont have a choice in some cases, some albums that i have wanted are just digital, but to me, digital isnt "music lover" friendly, i want a book i want something that shows i have the friggin album, i have stuff i dont even know that i have anymore, singles i bought off itunes and im like "oh shit i got that?" that never use to happen. Thing is that to sell just digital is actually better for a label or an artist direct becuase it saves on all those manufacturing fees. But labels did themselves in, ways of marketing sucks, and it has since the days of soundscans introduction, its all about and still about week one and out the box sales that nothing has shelf life, neither the artist nor the product, no one has a catalog anymore either, so you arent going to have this wealth of music still available later on, no one is going to be looking for a 15 year old Rihanna album.

The labels need to start thinking do they wanna see no money coming in or money coming in because if they still want the latter, bring back more music retailers and they will come. They're just stupid, that's all.

Timmy84 said:

On the upswing of things, least Adele is proving that physical CDs can still sell. So this is a mild victory for digital sales. Just mild. We'll see what 2012 brings.

I thhink again its about marketing, you have to seperate the music from other forms of media. Kind of like seperating Rap from RB that kind of idea. The mix of media hasnt benefited music, its been its downfall of relevance. Adele to me is nothing more than this years Norah Jones, i have seen this before, she at some point will do like Norah did, and stop and say, shit i dont deserve this, and thats why slowly Norah has gone back to being quietly doing her music and side projects with other bands. You will see a decline in Adele for sure, because thats the way it goes, and holding one artist to that stature isnt smart especially for her, i mean, its again bad marketing. Physical cds will sell when you market to an older crowd for one, and also to a music crowd two, if you market to a kid and a ringtone crowd well thats what you will get, a fast food type audience.

lastdecember said:

Timmy84 said:

On the upswing of things, least Adele is proving that physical CDs can still sell. So this is a mild victory for digital sales. Just mild. We'll see what 2012 brings.

I thhink again its about marketing, you have to seperate the music from other forms of media. Kind of like seperating Rap from RB that kind of idea. The mix of media hasnt benefited music, its been its downfall of relevance. Adele to me is nothing more than this years Norah Jones, i have seen this before, she at some point will do like Norah did, and stop and say, shit i dont deserve this, and thats why slowly Norah has gone back to being quietly doing her music and side projects with other bands. You will see a decline in Adele for sure, because thats the way it goes, and holding one artist to that stature isnt smart especially for her, i mean, its again bad marketing. Physical cds will sell when you market to an older crowd for one, and also to a music crowd two, if you market to a kid and a ringtone crowd well thats what you will get, a fast food type audience.

lol that's supposedly the way things are stereotypically but I know teens who still buy physical copies. Also the fun of getting a free download is weakening for me, I wanna just buy albums now lol

Timmy84 said:

lastdecember said:

thing is, though i have bought music this way now, because i really dont have a choice in some cases, some albums that i have wanted are just digital, but to me, digital isnt "music lover" friendly, i want a book i want something that shows i have the friggin album, i have stuff i dont even know that i have anymore, singles i bought off itunes and im like "oh shit i got that?" that never use to happen. Thing is that to sell just digital is actually better for a label or an artist direct becuase it saves on all those manufacturing fees. But labels did themselves in, ways of marketing sucks, and it has since the days of soundscans introduction, its all about and still about week one and out the box sales that nothing has shelf life, neither the artist nor the product, no one has a catalog anymore either, so you arent going to have this wealth of music still available later on, no one is going to be looking for a 15 year old Rihanna album.

The labels need to start thinking do they wanna see no money coming in or money coming in because if they still want the latter, bring back more music retailers and they will come. They're just stupid, that's all.

Well to me, labels should have stepped in and saved them, becuase they could have, just like in Baseball with the New York Mets and the LA dodgers, these teams are bankrupt and losing money, but BASEBALL cannot afford to lose them because both are high market and high ratings teams and still despite bad money investing they generate money for baseball, and also it would look so bad for baseball for these two teams to go out of business! So labels should have come in, and honestly they did this for about six months, they lent some money to the Musicland retail group which was Sam Goody and SUncoast, but it pulled out on them and let Best Buy purchase them, well Best Buy was not looking to build on Music, it was looking to raid the company which is borderline illegal, but they did, they stole their customer online database and then let them flounder and dwindle because it tried to make them into mini best buys, which was not music customer friendly, so they slowly closed down, and Tower and Virgin basically were all court decisions, a judge in NYC decided that he would and i quote rather "put tower records employees out of work, than save a dwindling business".

Plus I doubt Norah had the kind of year Adele had, plus Adele's marketing team did right by her in 2008.

lastdecember said:

Timmy84 said:

The labels need to start thinking do they wanna see no money coming in or money coming in because if they still want the latter, bring back more music retailers and they will come. They're just stupid, that's all.

Well to me, labels should have stepped in and saved them, becuase they could have, just like in Baseball with the New York Mets and the LA dodgers, these teams are bankrupt and losing money, but BASEBALL cannot afford to lose them because both are high market and high ratings teams and still despite bad money investing they generate money for baseball, and also it would look so bad for baseball for these two teams to go out of business! So labels should have come in, and honestly they did this for about six months, they lent some money to the Musicland retail group which was Sam Goody and SUncoast, but it pulled out on them and let Best Buy purchase them, well Best Buy was not looking to build on Music, it was looking to raid the company which is borderline illegal, but they did, they stole their customer online database and then let them flounder and dwindle because it tried to make them into mini best buys, which was not music customer friendly, so they slowly closed down, and Tower and Virgin basically were all court decisions, a judge in NYC decided that he would and i quote rather "put tower records employees out of work, than save a dwindling business".

I think if any of those big music retailers would open again, they would have to be smarter than they were when they opened. It seemed some funny shit went into why they closed down to begin with.

Timmy84 said:

lastdecember said:

Well to me, labels should have stepped in and saved them, becuase they could have, just like in Baseball with the New York Mets and the LA dodgers, these teams are bankrupt and losing money, but BASEBALL cannot afford to lose them because both are high market and high ratings teams and still despite bad money investing they generate money for baseball, and also it would look so bad for baseball for these two teams to go out of business! So labels should have come in, and honestly they did this for about six months, they lent some money to the Musicland retail group which was Sam Goody and SUncoast, but it pulled out on them and let Best Buy purchase them, well Best Buy was not looking to build on Music, it was looking to raid the company which is borderline illegal, but they did, they stole their customer online database and then let them flounder and dwindle because it tried to make them into mini best buys, which was not music customer friendly, so they slowly closed down, and Tower and Virgin basically were all court decisions, a judge in NYC decided that he would and i quote rather "put tower records employees out of work, than save a dwindling business".

I think if any of those big music retailers would open again, they would have to be smarter than they were when they opened. It seemed some funny shit went into why they closed down to begin with.

Well again its a label thing, the labels forced them out. Stores like these had to charge 13.99 for a cd at least because they were paying up to 11 dollars for them, themselves, now yes thats a 2 dollar profit per cd for these music stores, but, they had employees working in the stores, rent, electric etc...people seem to think that this was all happening and expensive cds were the choice of the stores. The reason Best Buy could come in and sell 9.99 was they could afford the loss because they were jacking 20-30% up on computers and other things which is their business niche. So people by in large never understood this and obviously went with 9.99, but as you see now, in alot of Best Buy's prices are coming up at least after week one because best Buy is barely breaking even on computers and other niche items sales, because everyone has one already and their is so much more competition in that field, that they cannot lose 1-2 dollars a cd anymore so its in their best interest to not even carry it.

^ No one goes to Best Buy anyway unless it's a CD they really want. The rest of us go to Walmart, Target and the Mom & Pop stores.

Timmy84 said:

Plus I doubt Norah had the kind of year Adele had, plus Adele's marketing team did right by her in 2008.

Actually saleswise Norah was bigger, was one of the last over 10 million in the USA, actually Norah is the biggest selling female artist over the last 10 years (not Beyonce, though she thinks she is) and worldwide that record and her sales still are tremendous, so its hard to compare Adele in 2011 to Norah in 2002 when things were alot different.

lastdecember said:

Timmy84 said:

Plus I doubt Norah had the kind of year Adele had, plus Adele's marketing team did right by her in 2008.

Actually saleswise Norah was bigger, was one of the last over 10 million in the USA, actually Norah is the biggest selling female artist over the last 10 years (not Beyonce, though she thinks she is) and worldwide that record and her sales still are tremendous, so its hard to compare Adele in 2011 to Norah in 2002 when things were alot different.

Norah had a jazz following as well as an adult contemporary/pop following. How much did she sell with "Come Away With Me" in a calendar year?

Timmy84 said:

^ No one goes to Best Buy anyway unless it's a CD they really want. The rest of us go to Walmart, Target and the Mom & Pop stores.

Well mom and pops really have to jack up prices especially if a cd is a new one, if its old and used etc..then thats one thing, but a brand new one in a mom and pop store, especially here in NYC expect to spend 15bucks if you want it, because their overhead is even more, which is why if it wasnt for used and vinyl mom and pop would be done, expect a few here in NYC to go out in 2012 i have been told and they have been going 20-30 years but they cant sustain the loses anymore. As for Target and walmart NYC really doesnt have many of those so they dont come into the equation, they are very very spotty in locations so not relevant here at all.

lastdecember said:

Timmy84 said:

^ No one goes to Best Buy anyway unless it's a CD they really want. The rest of us go to Walmart, Target and the Mom & Pop stores.

Well mom and pops really have to jack up prices especially if a cd is a new one, if its old and used etc..then thats one thing, but a brand new one in a mom and pop store, especially here in NYC expect to spend 15bucks if you want it, because their overhead is even more, which is why if it wasnt for used and vinyl mom and pop would be done, expect a few here in NYC to go out in 2012 i have been told and they have been going 20-30 years but they cant sustain the loses anymore. As for Target and walmart NYC really doesnt have many of those so they dont come into the equation, they are very very spotty in locations so not relevant here at all.

It's relevant somewhat lol I'm not expecting a big revolution in physical sales but it would be nice.

Timmy84 said:

lastdecember said:

Actually saleswise Norah was bigger, was one of the last over 10 million in the USA, actually Norah is the biggest selling female artist over the last 10 years (not Beyonce, though she thinks she is) and worldwide that record and her sales still are tremendous, so its hard to compare Adele in 2011 to Norah in 2002 when things were alot different.

Norah had a jazz following as well as an adult contemporary/pop following. How much did she sell with "Come Away With Me" in a calendar year?

Im not seeing a firm number on that, i would most likely say around 7-8 million because she was certified 10 million in late 2004, so most of its sales happend between its release in February 2002 and grammy season in 2003, though when released Norah was a slow mover out of the gate, that album took a bit to get moving, it was probably one of biggest "word of mouth" sellers in a long time. Worldwide they rank her sales at 42 million to date for her solo work, 23 million for that album.

lastdecember said:

Timmy84 said:

Norah had a jazz following as well as an adult contemporary/pop following. How much did she sell with "Come Away With Me" in a calendar year?

Im not seeing a firm number on that, i would most likely say around 7-8 million because she was certified 10 million in late 2004, so most of its sales happend between its release in February 2002 and grammy season in 2003, though when released Norah was a slow mover out of the gate, that album took a bit to get moving, it was probably one of biggest "word of mouth" sellers in a long time. Worldwide they rank her sales at 42 million to date for her solo work, 23 million for that album.

Yeah no one was going on about how much Norah sold in a calendar year when Adele popped up so I'm thinking she might've done the same amount as her in 2002 and sold more in 2003. It's a possibility.

The only way I will buy a digtial album is if it's my only alternative (which is rare). There have been a few occasions where I downloaded an album that was out of print because it was just too expensive to purchase on CD but I eventually end up buying the physical CD once the price comes down. Otherwise, other than downloading a song here and there or bonus tracks that are only available digitally, I just can't get with MP3's. Music and buying albums/CDs has always been like a spiritual experience for me. Downloading MP3 is just so damn impersonal to me.

kitbradley said:

The only way I will buy a digtial album is if it's my only alternative (which is rare). There have been a few occasions where I downloaded an album that was out of print because it was just too expensive to purchase on CD but I eventually end up buying the physical CD once the price comes down. Otherwise, other than downloading a song here and there or bonus tracks that are only available digitally, I just can't get with MP3's. Music and buying albums/CDs has always been like a spiritual experience for me. Downloading MP3 is just so damn impersonal to me.

lastdecember said:

Timmy84 said:

^ No one goes to Best Buy anyway unless it's a CD they really want. The rest of us go to Walmart, Target and the Mom & Pop stores.

Well mom and pops really have to jack up prices especially if a cd is a new one, if its old and used etc..then thats one thing, but a brand new one in a mom and pop store, especially here in NYC expect to spend 15bucks if you want it, because their overhead is even more, which is why if it wasnt for used and vinyl mom and pop would be done, expect a few here in NYC to go out in 2012 i have been told and they have been going 20-30 years but they cant sustain the loses anymore. As for Target and walmart NYC really doesnt have many of those so they dont come into the equation, they are very very spotty in locations so not relevant here at all.

I stopped by FYE the other day just to kill some time and was shocked to see CDs priced at $17.99!!! Even a lot of the older stuff.

kitbradley said:

lastdecember said:

Well mom and pops really have to jack up prices especially if a cd is a new one, if its old and used etc..then thats one thing, but a brand new one in a mom and pop store, especially here in NYC expect to spend 15bucks if you want it, because their overhead is even more, which is why if it wasnt for used and vinyl mom and pop would be done, expect a few here in NYC to go out in 2012 i have been told and they have been going 20-30 years but they cant sustain the loses anymore. As for Target and walmart NYC really doesnt have many of those so they dont come into the equation, they are very very spotty in locations so not relevant here at all.

I stopped by FYE the other day just to kill some time and was shocked to see CDs priced at $17.99!!! Even a lot of the older stuff.

When we had an FYE in our mall, I saw older albums with the same prices.

Timmy84 said:

kitbradley said:

I stopped by FYE the other day just to kill some time and was shocked to see CDs priced at $17.99!!! Even a lot of the older stuff.

When we had an FYE in our mall, I saw older albums with the same prices.

Yeah. While I was there, I thought I would see if they had the recent Teena Marie reissue of "Irons In the Fire". Although I was not happy about the bonus material, I had decided to go ahead and replace my original issue because the mastering is so crappy. They had it in stock alright, for $17.99! I came home and ordered it brand new off of amazon for $7.

kitbradley said:

I stopped by FYE the other day just to kill some time and was shocked to see CDs priced at $17.99!!! Even a lot of the older stuff.

A new vinyl album generally costs anywhere from $16 (usually a single record) up to $45. Many releases today wind up being a double vinyl album, because a record can't hold as much time as a CD. A double CD album will be a 3 or 4 record set, so that makes it more expensive since the market is small and most stores don't stock many copies.

kitbradley said:

Timmy84 said:

When we had an FYE in our mall, I saw older albums with the same prices.

Yeah. While I was there, I thought I would see if they had the recent Teena Marie reissue of "Irons In the Fire". Although I was not happy about the bonus material, I had decided to go ahead and replace my original issue because the mastering is so crappy. They had it in stock alright, for $17.99! I came home and ordered it brand new off of amazon for $7.

When all else fails, go to Amazon.

I have been thinking of buying Amazon gift cards. I might need to go ahead and cop it when I go out next week...

kitbradley said:

The only way I will buy a digtial album is if it's my only alternative (which is rare). There have been a few occasions where I downloaded an album that was out of print because it was just too expensive to purchase on CD but I eventually end up buying the physical CD once the price comes down. Otherwise, other than downloading a song here and there or bonus tracks that are only available digitally, I just can't get with MP3's. Music and buying albums/CDs has always been like a spiritual experience for me. Downloading MP3 is just so damn impersonal to me.

Its convenient though. I travel a lot, and I need my music with me, but to have them travel with me physically is a difficult task.