Album sales in U.S. plunged in '06

[voivod]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - U.S. album sales continued to decline in 2006, down nearly five per cent from the previous year, but total music sales were up thanks to a huge increase in digital downloads.

Year-end sales figures released Thursday by Nielsen SoundScan said 588.2 million albums were sold in 2006 - a 4.9 per cent decline from 2005. But digital track sales increased by 65 per cent over the previous year, with 582 million tracks sold and digital album sales more than doubled, with nearly 33 million sold last year.

The top-selling album of the year was a soundtrack inspired by the Disney Channel movie "High School Musical," which sold more than 3.7 million copies.

Another Disney-inspired soundtrack aimed at 'tweens - "Hannah Montana" - was the No. 8-selling album and sold nearly two million copies.

Albums by Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood, Nickelback and Justin Timberlake rounded out the top five.

For the first time ever, a digital song - "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter - sold more than two million copies in one year, thanks to the play it got as the send-off song on "American Idol."

Country group Rascal Flatts was the biggest selling artist in 2006, with nearly five million albums sold and nearly four million digital track sales.

Overall country album sales dipped by less than 1 per cent.

Classical heartthrobs Andrea Bocelli and Il Divo helped give classical music the largest percentage sales boost of any genre - a 22.5 per cent increase in 2006.

[Wickett]

Is it just me, or are the top selling records selling far fewer copies than they did 15-20 years ago? It seems like the top selling record of the year used to be 6-7 million+ at that time.

[WinterlessIceness]

There basically was nothing worth bying labeled '2006' , I'm surprised it's only 5% down.

[ZeoBandit]

Yep. 2006 music sucked for the most part.

[WinterlessIceness]

Didn't you say the same thing in 2004 and 2005 ?

[voivod]

at least sexy was brought back...

[Axxman300]

Here's an idea:

Release music that doesn't smell like ass.


Just a thought.

[Majestic]

You mean K. Federline didn't boost the industry's numbers??

[3_6_9 time]

The digital numbers cushion the physical sales decline. The music industry has changed so much in the last 2 decades, hell in the last 6 years! You have to remember a few things. 1) Soundscan data is only roughly since 1990 so the "blockbuster" numbers of years proir to that are somewhat (ahem) exaggerated by the record labels reporting what they shipped, not what they sold. 2) In years past bands had a slow build to sell a million units now they can do it in 1-4 weeks. 3) 50 Cent and Norah Jones (no comments on they suck or whatever, please) have both had 8+ million selling titles in the last few years (and 1+ million FIRST WEEK sales) the demise of the music industry is greatly exaggerated. There is good music out there - it just isn't on MTV and most radio stations - you have to dig for the gems.

[willy4pres]

I always get the feeling that im supposed to feel bad after I read stuff like this. Kinda like how the news reports the Christmas shopping season, especially if it's a down year. Why would I care how well any of these huge businesses are doing? If you make a quality (im on a Pirsig kick as of late) product that I can use ill be all over it, if not im going to pass. Same goes for the auto and airline industry. I dont care if they all go out of business to be honest.

[ZeoBandit]

Didn't you say the same thing in 2004 and 2005 ?

Yep!

[Nostalgia Act]

My youngest daughter contributed to making the soundtrack of " High School Musical" #1 in sales . And she also loves Hannah Montana. Heck i'm 43 and i watch all those Disney shows too

On a side note about album sales in 2006. Didn't wanna start a new thread for this, so i will ask the question here.

What was everyone's favorite album of 2006?

My choice is Shinedown's "Us and Them"

[Axxman300]

I always get the feeling that im supposed to feel bad after I read stuff like this. Kinda like how the news reports the Christmas shopping season, especially if it's a down year. Why would I care how well any of these huge businesses are doing? If you make a quality (im on a Pirsig kick as of late) product that I can use ill be all over it, if not im going to pass. Same goes for the auto and airline industry. I dont care if they all go out of business to be honest.

Why SHOULD you care? I don't.

He who fart in church, sit in own pew.

There's only two ways to run a business:

Smart.

Stupid.

You can't run a business stupid. You eventually go broke.

Now I can't talk about the auto industry because it seems that there are too many variables to give a black & white example. Airlines are simple, they operate at a loss, meaning that many of their fights each day loose money. Not all airlines are going broke, so it boils down to management of the airlines that are in trouble.

The record industry is the most visible end result of corperate buy-outs and mergers. The ass-end, if you will. International Widget Industires buys Capital, IWI is an industrial manufacturer and doesn't know anything about the record industry. IWI's accountants come in and look at the books, then spend the next week on the toilet-crapping - because the record industry generally operated at a thin profit margin over all. Yes, some industry people have made millions of dollars, but the money is in publishing and not record sales. This has been the truth since Mozart's time.

You make money in publishing by cultivating artists who write great songs. The Beatles sold a zillion albums but their best songs only showed up around their third album. Today they'd be done long before Sgt Pepper. In the fictional case of IWI-Capitol records, they new people in charge care only for the quick-strike, the one hit wonder. If there is a trend spotted, IWI-Capitol signs any and every band that looks like the trendy band. This is why every top-40 band looks the same. My Chemical Romance has to compete with six other identical bands, sometimes even before their first album is released. This has the effect of washing out bands that might even be good in the future because they get lumped in with a trend (EMO), so when the trend is yesterday's socks so is the band.

As a result of front-end hype and hoping for record sales; instead of signing new quality acts and promoting vintage quality acts that have been on the label for decades, the record companies are stuck with shit bands, shit music and little in the way of long-term publishing because the music is shit.

The joke is:

How do you make a small furtune in the music industry?

Start with a large fortune.

It is simply the end result of what happens when people who don't know anything about the music business run it. You should ask yourself what else do these morons run that they don't know anything about?

[willy4pres]

Why SHOULD you care? I don't.

He who fart in church, sit in own pew.

There's only two ways to run a business:

Smart.

Stupid.

You can't run a business stupid. You eventually go broke.

Now I can't talk about the auto industry because it seems that there are too many variables to give a black & white example. Airlines are simple, they operate at a loss, meaning that many of their fights each day loose money. Not all airlines are going broke, so it boils down to management of the airlines that are in trouble.

The record industry is the most visible end result of corperate buy-outs and mergers. The ass-end, if you will. International Widget Industires buys Capital, IWI is an industrial manufacturer and doesn't know anything about the record industry. IWI's accountants come in and look at the books, then spend the next week on the toilet-crapping - because the record industry generally operated at a thin profit margin over all. Yes, some industry people have made millions of dollars, but the money is in publishing and not record sales. This has been the truth since Mozart's time.

You make money in publishing by cultivating artists who write great songs. The Beatles sold a zillion albums but their best songs only showed up around their third album. Today they'd be done long before Sgt Pepper. In the fictional case of IWI-Capitol records, they new people in charge care only for the quick-strike, the one hit wonder. If there is a trend spotted, IWI-Capitol signs any and every band that looks like the trendy band. This is why every top-40 band looks the same. My Chemical Romance has to compete with six other identical bands, sometimes even before their first album is released. This has the effect of washing out bands that might even be good in the future because they get lumped in with a trend (EMO), so when the trend is yesterday's socks so is the band.

As a result of front-end hype and hoping for record sales; instead of signing new quality acts and promoting vintage quality acts that have been on the label for decades, the record companies are stuck with shit bands, shit music and little in the way of long-term publishing because the music is shit.

The joke is:

How do you make a small furtune in the music industry?

Start with a large fortune.

It is simply the end result of what happens when people who don't know anything about the music business run it. You should ask yourself what else do these morons run that they don't know anything about?

Great post!

I would include high profile recording artists as well. Ten years ago it was obvious where the music industry was heading, purchasing music over the internet was the future. The musicians themselves could have gotten in on this and excluded the record companies all togethor. Instead of Metallica blaming it's fans it could have taken advantage of the situation (the technology was already invented for them) and got on board. Instead, the record industry has finally caught up and now they have an entirely new way to screw artists out of money THEY have made for the company.

At this point it would make me happy if Sony Music filed for bankruptcy and U2 wound up flat broke! They all deserve it.

[mistere]

Jackola. Why buy the cow when you get the milk for free.