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CD Music Sales Down 20% In Q1 2007

Posted by kdawson on from the RIP-CD dept.

prostoalex writes "Music sales are not just falling, they're plummeting — by as much as 20% when you compare January-March 2007 with the 2006 numbers. The revenue numbers are actually worse, since CD prices are under pressure. The Wall Street Journal lists many factors contributing to the rapid decline: 800 fewer retail outlets (Tower Records' demise alone closed 89); increasingly negative attitude towards CD sales from big-box retailers (Best Buy now dedicates less floor space to CDs in favor of better-selling items); and file sharing, among others. Songs are being traded at a rate about 17 times the iTunes Store's recent rate of sales. Diminishing CD sales means that you don't have to sell as many to get on the charts. The 'Dreamgirls' movie soundtrack recently hit #1 by selling 60,000 CDs in a week, a number that wouldn't have made the top 30 in 2005."

3 of 544 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Stage Artists will do fine, perhaps even better by amper · · Score: 0, Troll

    You really don't know *anything* about musician's lives, do you?

  2. Re:Welcome to the Asian markets by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 0, Troll

    I've heard quite a bit of random Asian music, whether it's sent by friends, in Asian films or on random peoples myspace pages. It's always the same - some syrupy pop with some girl singing over it. Maybe I'm just not used to it and it all sounds the same for the same reason Asian faces look the same to Westerners, but I would never describe the Asian music scene as "diverse". If you aren't into ballads what has Asia got to offer you? I'd agree with the parent poster that the Asian music scene is a product of rampant piracy - it targets pop stars who have personal looks/charisma to draw a crowd, and little else.

  3. Re:Stage Artists will do fine, perhaps even better by amper · · Score: 0, Troll

    Guess what, Mr. Economic Genius, customers don't want live performance. They want recordings, and they want them for free. Yes, there is always going to be a small subset of the music-consuming population that is willing to take the time out of their lives to see live, original music (assuming it's even an option where they live), but they are in the extreme minority.

    A question for you and everyone who agrees with you:

    How many live acts have you paid to see in the past month, how much did you spend, and how many of the people you know have done the same?