Billboard.biz
Billboard just released a fascinating feature on changes in album sales due to digital distribution and their conclusions aren’t as dire as you might imagine. Digital sales have increased the sales of ‘niche’ albums by giving them access to a wider market and have hurt the sales of major artist albums by allowing consumers to just buy the hit instead of an entire album. However, digital distribution has increased the sales and importance of hit tracks for major artists. Essentially, for major label artists hit songs are becoming more important while hit albums are becoming less so and for small indies, digital distribution has made albums increasingly viable. To read to full feature, follow the above link.
MUSIC SALES SLIDE NOT EXPECTED TO TURN AROUND
Hollywood Reporter
The near future appears to hold mainly sour notes for the beleaguered music business, according to eMarketer. U.S. sales of recorded music will slide to $5.5 billion in 2013, down from $7.3 billion in 2009, eMarketer said. This downward trajectory extends a pattern that began in 2000, when sales of physical sound-carriers began to decline after rising dramatically during the heyday of the CD. The patterns from the past two years are set to continue: Online music consumption will rise; mobile music stands to slip slightly; and physical unit sales will continue to plummet at an accelerated rate. Growth in digital formats as a whole (that is, the sum of online and mobile) will not compensate for losses in the realm of physical sales, but it will slow the rate of those losses to a 2.9% drop in 2013. For marketers, the depressed state of the music
