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We all know single sales have been dropping for a good while, and that to be Number 1 in the charts now takes a lot less effort now than 2 years ago. But it seems that album sales are dropping now too.
Album sales are down by 10% in the first half of 2007, according to the The British Phonographic Industry. That equates to 6.5 million less records sold this year than the same time last year. The industry has raked a little back by increasing digital album sales by 2 million, but that’s still quite a substantial drop.
Is this a cause for concern, for both retailers and consumers alike? The fewer albums get sold, the less money there is swilling around for the promotion and signing of new acts, which the British music industry needs to keep the momentum going.
The Entertainment Retailers Association told BBC News that they don’t see this as a huge problem quite yet.
“To be honest these figures are much better than we had feared,” said co-chairman Jim Batchelor. “The release schedule in the first half of this year was very slow, with few big acts delivering albums. The fact that, in spite of it all, we’re still selling around 10m albums a month shows the resilience of demand.“
I’m a definite albums man, and nothing beats the thrill of walking in to a shop and buying a CD, and getting home and playing it through for the first time, but the music industry is certainly shifting, with digital downloads and on demand music retailers becoming more powerful.
How do you buy your albums, online, from big retail chains or independent record shops? Can you see a day when the traditional album is no longer an option for bands, and instead they release a song at a time on the Internet? Let me know in the comments box below.
Thanks for commenting Phil.
I agree that getting a CD by one of your favourite bands dropping through the letter box is amazing.
Can you see a day when CD album become obsolete though? I think it’s getting near and a lot of artists are already considering new ways to release material.
I love albums too, it’s much nicer having a solid copy of what you just bought rather than an mp3 (which you could get by ripping the CD to your computer anyway)!
I do tend to get mine from play or cd-wow though (nothing quite as exciting as a CD dropping through the letter box!), but the current HMV and Virgin sales have got me quite excited too.
I would hate to see the day that CD albums are obsolete, it would be very, very sad.