News
Album Sales In August: Not a Pretty Story…
How long does this story go on? Surprisingly, the latest CD death-watch report comes from Billboard, typically a label cheerleader. According to an analysis published Thursday, US-based album sales tanked 18.1 percent year-over-year during the month of August. And, compared to the same period in 2007, sales were off by 37.2 percent.
Bad month? Too hot for consumers? Or, is this a preview of a disastrous fourth quarter ahead? Year-to-date, album sales are down 14.5 percent compared to the same point last year, and 31.1 percent versus 2007.
All of that steps up the pressure on big labels to diversify, either through 360-degree deals or digital formats. But the big question is whether labels have enough time to develop new businesses, or, if the sinking CD ends up taking a few companies with it.
Not to date myself, but I was sitting at a table at a trade show listening to a speaker from one of the big online concert ticket sales companies, and this executive speaking says online sales for concert tickets will someday out sell traditional retail outlets! During this time his main sales occurred over the counter in outlets such as record stores. I made a comment under my breath so that only my table of record label executives could hear it, “Do you think there is anything to this Napster company allowing people to download songs for free?” “Do you think there is anything to this downloading music over the internet?” They all laughed and looked at me as if I was clueless saying, “No, consumers want the CD, the quality, this internet thing will not change anything for us!” Boy were they wrong! Maybe if they had jumped on board early on they could have survived. Or, if they had dropped their CD retail price earlier they might have kept customers, for at least a few more years!