While music sales shrank in the UK this year, the US fared much better: according to Nielsen Soundscan, album sales increased 1.3 percent year-over-year to 330.57 million units, the first such increase since 2004. Similar to the trend seen in the UK, digital album sales increased 19.5 percent to account for 103.1 million units in 2011, while CD sales shrank 5.7 percent to 223.5 million units. Still, that decline was far less severe than the 18-to-20 percent declines CD sales have experienced in the last four years.
When you add in single track and music video sales, the numbers look even better, with total US music sales increasing 6.9 percent to 1.61 billion units. English singer Adele led the way; her album 21 sold 5.82 million copies (the most sold by a single album since 2004), while hit single "Rolling in the Deep" was downloaded 5.81 million times and was the most-downloaded song since Nielsen Soundscan began tracking digital downloads in 2003. These numbers don't even include the influence of streaming subscription services like Rdio or Spotify, the latter of which added 1.5 million paid subscribers in 2011.
Comments
.. wait , do people actually buy music videos?
By jrtorrents on 01.05.12 9:15am
I don’t think so. You can just go onto YouTube or use Zune Pass to view them.
By theTechDino on 01.05.12 9:39am
Yea this what I thought.. but read :
By jrtorrents on 01.05.12 10:05am
Music Videos should cost the same price as the song.
By Adrean on 01.05.12 10:37am
Services should just give you the music video as a freebie after you purchase a song.
By hcbrasil on 01.05.12 11:32am
While I understand your feeling, there is also no requirement that they even make a music video. If you see it as a promotional piece for the song and roll that into the cost of advertisement, perhaps you could argue that it should be free. However, if you see it as a separate work of art , that is to say, the video’s director and other talent deserve recognition, then selling it seems valid, too.
Look at it this way: if the artist released their songs via videos only, that would be their only method of reimbursement. In the end, though, the music video is not something you’re required to have in order to enjoy the song, so there’s no reason to demand that it be given away for free.
By midnightbrewer on 01.07.12 12:07am
I do, only the truly excellent ones though.
By Johntheone on 01.05.12 3:26pm
Many video DJs purchase high quality videos to use in their sets. Definitely not a huge market, but there are people that will shell out for videos. The vast majority of people just view on youtube.
By RyanTV on 01.05.12 9:43pm
European music sales are down. Many of the digital music services (streaming and shops) are not available in many European countries. I hope music industry pays attention and stop being idiots with their contract negotiations. We need Google music & Spotify to be available in every country asap.
By Juhani on 01.05.12 9:21am
I thought Spotify was pretty big in Europe?
By krische on 01.05.12 11:49am
In the uk, Ireland and Sweeden, but that’s about it.
By Johntheone on 01.05.12 3:27pm
Wow, sales up 7% and the music industry needs SOPA to survive? I think not.
By CtrlAltDel121 on 01.05.12 9:57am
Fuck SOPA.
By fifa on 01.05.12 5:41pm
The resurgence of great Rock and Metal Bands aren’t hurting the situation. I’m a Spotifyer and Googler, Pandoramic and in some cases Slacker, but I mostly purchase my music either from Amazon or the Artist website. And I’m a BandCamper as well. Great News here! Thanks Graeme for the heads up!
By Sir Porkalot on 01.05.12 10:31am
I believe this is merely related to the great new content of last year with good rock and so-so pop music. It seems that the R&B/Rap (or whatever they call it nowadays) tendency of the years prior declined the entire music industry, not the internet.
By Adrean on 01.05.12 10:36am
Someone needs to forward this article + Steve Job’s open letter on DRM to Hollywood executives.
Then pray he doesn’t get a cease and desist letter back.
By yectep on 01.05.12 10:47am
Thanks to Amazon and Google, I bought more music this year than in the past 10 years combined. To steal a phrase (one that I normally dislike) the music buying experience is fairly frictionless, but with low enough prices that it is also painless.
So I say to the music industry – stop your idiotic DRM and Legal campaigns because all they do is increase the value of various forms of transaction costs! I will gladly give you my money if you make a good product and make it easy for me to do so. It’s just that simple!
By cwchase on 01.05.12 10:57am
I belive this is something iTunes has done right. The ability to purchase and redownload the music from them at no at no additional cost, has made them the obvious choice to buy music. This digital locker concept works so good. iTunes Match is just the icing on the cake.
By Adrean on 01.05.12 11:13am
iTunes is OK, but even with iTunes Match, I think Apple’s walled garden concept prevents the frictionless experience that I am talking about. This property, I believe, is absolutely key for a rich and healthy* digital music market place. Amazon and Google give you device freedom where as Apple generally requires you to own Apple products. That may be well and good for people who love apple, but its too much to ask from the entire consumer base.
*please note these are relative terms, clearly iTunes is massively successful for Apple and at least moderately so for the music industry in general.
By cwchase on 01.05.12 12:41pm
I buy more music because of Amazon MP3’s very affordable prices. iTunes prices aren’t that bad either (they only get over 10 bucks if it is a popular artist), but Amazon constantly has albums on sale for 4.99.
I tend to like the iTunes buying “experience” better because of the ability to redownload anything I have purchased whenever I want on any of my iOS devices or through iTunes.
By thenaes on 01.05.12 11:15am
you people are hilarious. “music sales are up because there’s better music available.” there’s always been good music out there however popular music (the kinds that see the largest share of market sales) is bland and homogenous on purpose so it will appeal to as wide an audience as possible. that hasn’t changed. what has changed is the over whelming amount of terrible music that is now available because it’s so easy to get your music out to the public.
music sales are up for one very simple reason, it’s far easier for most people to buy something off of itunes or another music service than it is to spend the ten seconds needed to learn how to download something illegally. the vast majority of people know nothing about computers or how to find something online and countless studies of pre-teens, teens and young adults (the groups considered to be the most active online consumers) have proven that if you make content readily available, easy to consume and priced effectively most people will go the legal route and pay for games/music/movies online.
better music. ha.
By Needlender on 01.05.12 11:42am
One could argue that, just as the barrier to BUY music has dropped, so has the barrier for independent musicians to OFFER their music without having to deal with Big Music. That means that bands and musicians who once could only sell locally can now do so globally.
From that perspective (depending on the type of music you like) there is MUCH more good music available today than there’s ever been.
(Also, music sales are more accurately countable today than ever. Soundscan, which was easily rigged by retailers and record companies, is superfluous.)
By MySleep on 01.05.12 12:21pm
I blame piracy.
Oh wait….nevermind.
By GarageBlackbelt on 01.05.12 1:35pm
All of you can thank Adele and Lady GaGa for selling a record amount of albums. Also, than Amazon for buying millions of copies of their albums and selling them for a discounted price. It is true, however, that the two are very popular singers, and on GaGa’s side, an extremely talented performer.
By cristov on 01.05.12 3:24pm
I agree, their sales really do help the music industry numbers. :)
By Kherlen on 01.29.12 7:01am