US Album sales decline, but is the slump slowing?

Album sales for the first quarter of 2008 are down by double digits, but that's significantly less than 2007's decline. So there's more than one way to look at the results. For the glass-half-empty crowd, this year's numbers continue a trend that has seen album sales tumble from 140.4 million in 2006's first quarter to 104.5 million this year, according to Nielsen SoundScan — a drop of more than 25% in two years. (USA Today, Digital Music News, Music Row)

Australian music sales fall 10 per cent

Rising digital sales failed to prevent Australia's music industry losing 10 per cent of its income last year. A 4 per cent slump in CD sales caused the worst damage, according to statistics from the Australian Record Industry Association. But last year was a good one for Australian artists, with 36 local albums featuring in the top 100 and four - by Silverchair, Powderfinger, The John Butler Trio and Missy Higgins - in the top 10. (News.com.au)

Does This Latte Have a Funny Mainstream Taste to You?

Despite adopting a broader musical approach, Starbucks on average sells only two CDs a store each day at company-owned shops, according to people briefed on its business. Starbucks disputed that figure but declined to provide a different one. Starbucks says it still has the power to move record sales. Though it shifts titles regularly, its sales of a CD over, say, six weeks typically accounts for 5 to 10 percent of the album’s overall sales, according to music executives who do business with the company. (NY Times)

USA : Consumers Acquired More Music in 2007, But Spent Less

According to The NPD Group, the amount of music that consumers acquired in the U.S. increased by 6 percent in 2007. A sharp increase in legal digital download revenues could not offset declines in CD sales, which resulted in a net 10 percent decline in music spending (from $44 to $40 per capita among Internet users). As a result the overall portion of music acquisition that consumers actually paid for fell to 42 percent in 2007 from 48 percent in 2006. (PR)

World Music Recording Market to Reach US$40.8 Billion by 2010

World Music Recording market is forecast to post a modest CAGR of 0.94% over the 2000-2010 analysis period and reach in excess of US$40.8 billion by 2010. The US, with a share estimated at 36.92% in 2006, forms the largest Music Recording market worldwide, while Asia-Pacific, with a CAGR of 1.93% over the aforementioned period, is expected to emerge as the fastest growing region. (PR)

Grammys Give Album Sales A Boost

As usual, many of the artists who appeared on the February 10 Grammy Awards saw a big spike in record sales the following week. Her live-via-satellite performance, not to mention the fact that she won five awards, has push Amy Winehouse's album Back To Black all the way up from #24 to #2, selling 115,300 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan. However, she couldn't quite top Jack Johnson, who held on to the #1 spot for the second week in a row with Sleep Through The Static. (FMQB)

Forrester: Digital Music To Surpass CD Sales By 2012

Half of all music sold in the US will be digital in 2011 and sales of digitally downloaded music will surpass physical CD sales in 2012, according to a new report by Forrester Research. Digital music sales will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 23 percent over the next five years, reaching $4.8 billion in revenue by 2012, but will fail to make up for the continuing steady decline in CD sales. In 2012, CD sales will be reduced to just $3.8 billion. (PR)

Digital backlash drives vinyl revival

Some audiophiles and independent music industry watchers predict the resurgence of new releases on vinyl will send the compact disc format the way of the eight-track tape. In a Wired magazine commentary piece in October 2007, writer Eliot Van Buskirk predicted vinyl’s increased sales would further damage CD sales. He said big labels are not getting on board with the vinyl upswing, but then, they are traditionally slow-moving. (The Register Guard)

Warner Music Group Corp. Reports First-Quarter 2008

Warner Music Group Corp. announced its first-quarter 2008 financial results for the period ended December 31, 2007. Total revenue of $989 million increased 7% from $928 million in the prior-year quarter, and grew 1% on a constant-currency basis. Digital revenue was $141 million, or 14% of total revenue, up 9% sequentially from $130 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 and up 41% from $100 million in the prior-year quarter. (PR, Financial Times)

Sales Bath Continues In January, Double-Digit Declines

The month featured a 10.3 percent year-over-year decline in album sales in the United States, a drop that falls below an already-depressed 2007. For the period ending January 27th, cumulative album sales topped 30.6 million, according to figures released by Nielsen Soundscan. (Digital Music News)

Sony BMG's Q3 sales were flat

Sony Corp released its Q3 earnings today. Sony BMG's Q3 sales were flat at $1.47 billion and net income dropped 12% to $208 million from $236 million last year. That figure includes income from a legal settlement and $13 million of restructuring charges. (PDF via Coolfer)

HMV on song amid music industry discord

Robbie Williams has gone on strike, illegal downloads still abound and EMI is slashing thousands of jobs. The UK music market, traditionally one of the most resilient in the world, is having a torrid year. But one of the world's best-known music retailers said today that the record industry's gloom is overdone. The HMV boss, Simon Fox, sees the year ahead being even stronger thanks to new albums from popular artists such as U2, Madonna, Kasabian, Keane and Dido. (The Guardian)

French Physical Sales Slump

The French physical recording business generated €1,176 million ($1,722 million) at retail in 2007, down 17.1% from 2006, according to figures unveiled by Gfk and French Observatoire de la Musique. In volume, the market dropped 18.3% to 83.1 million units sold. Universal lead distribution market share with 31.4% (up 2.5% year on year), followed by Sony BMG at 18.8% (down 1.7%). Warner moved ahead of EMI with 14.3% (down 0.2%) against 13.5% (down 2.5%). Altogether, independent distribution represented 22% of the market, up 1.9%. (Billboard)

US CD Sales Drop Another 10

During the most recent reporting week, US-based album sales dropped another 10 percent year-over-year, and 20 percent below first-week results according to Nielsen Soundscan.  Alicia Keys topped the charts with sales of 70,267, a modest tally that outperformed a Radiohead total of 68,784.  Overall unit sales reached roughly 7.25 million during the week. (Digital Music News)

HMV enjoys record Christmas

The retailer, which runs Waterstone's bookstores and music shops under its own name, reported group like-for-like sales growth of 9.4 percent in the five weeks ended January 5 -- its highest figure since it floated in 2002. The group was boosted by demand for DVDs, games, cookery books and albums by Leona Lewis and Amy Winehouse. It outperformed the market in music sales -- an industry that has been hit hard by Internet piracy and digital sales -- and Chief Executive Simon Fox attributed this to the experience of his staff, in spotting and promoting good music. HMV announced a three-year turnaround plan in March last year, introducing "interactive" HMV stores and promoting online sales aimed at tackling competition from supermarkets and Internet retailers. (Reuters)

Radiohead finds sales, even after downloads

In a twist for the music industry's digital revolution, "In Rainbows," the new Radiohead album that attracted wide attention when it was made available three months ago as a digital download for whatever price fans chose to pay, ranked as the top-selling album in the country this week after the CD version hit record shops and other retailers. The album, the first in four years from the closely watched British rock act, sold 122,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. That represents a mixed result for the band, but it's far from a flop, considering the steep decline in music sales in the last four years and the typically weak sales in the post-Christmas period. (International Herald Tribune)

How to make a bigger noise with a gong

The British music industry will invite the scrutiny of the wider world at London's Roundhouse this evening as the nominations for the 2008 Brit Awards are unveiled. That event, to be broadcast live by ITV1 on February 20, has a quantifiable effect. Last year, individual artist album sales rose by 21 per cent in the week after the awards. But Woolworths CD buyer Dan Brooks says there is also commercial capital to be made from the nominee list. "We always see a rise in sales of nominated artists," he notes. "Last year there was an average 30 per cent sales increase for all the artists nominated. The additional publicity and extra space in stores drive sales." (Financial Times)

Music Sales Rip Barnes and Noble

Barnes and Noble lowered its fourth-quarter profit projections as weak demand for CDs led to a decline in same-store sales for the holiday period. For the period stretching from Nov. 4 to Jan. 5, Barnes & Noble's same-store sales dropped 0.4%. The company attributed the decline to significantly lower-than-expected sales of recorded music. Excluding music sales, same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, increased 0.8% for the nine-week holiday period. (The Street)

Radiohead's "Rainbows" yields pot of gold as hits No. 1

British rock band Radiohead scored its second No. 1 album on the U.S. pop chart on Wednesday with a release that was initially sold on the Internet under a revolutionary "name your own price" system. The critically acclaimed album sold a modest 122,000 copies during its first official week in U.S. stores, according to Nielsen SoundScan data for the week ended January 6. "In Rainbows" also topped the charts in Britain, Canada, France, Japan and Ireland, said a representative for the group. (Reuters)

Classical Music Retailer ArkivMusic Posts Record Sales for 2007

Classical Music Retailer  ArkivMusic announced that the company achieved record revenues in 2007 with 30% growth year-over-year, topping one million dollars in December alone. This bucks the retail industry’s downward trend in sales of physical CDs. According to Nielsen SoundScan, U.S. album sales were down more than 15% for the year. (PR)