Thread: 11 Years of US CD Sales

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Post by tailspn March 9, 2015 (11 of 51)
audioholik said:

Today we are basically at 1989 CD sales level. If the trend continues into the future, we'll soon reach 1987, 85, and 84 levels......

What's different between now and the mid/late 80's is the retail purchasing infrastructure. The brick and motor has all but collapsed, and hardly replaced by internet sales. That's important because much music buying was impulse purchases rummaging through the bins. If for that reason alone, Humpty Dumpty can not be put back together again.

Post by rammiepie March 9, 2015 (12 of 51)
tailspn said:


Humpty Dumpty can not be put back together again.

Tom, ever heard of Crazy Glue?

And there you go again with the downloads.............PARTY POOPER!

Reminds me of all those Punk Rockers who used to wear "I Hate Disco" tees!

Post by Euell Neverno March 9, 2015 (13 of 51)
With gross production so far down, you would think that the number of new titles would be similarly reduced. My impression is that does not seem to be case, however.

Post by rammiepie March 9, 2015 (14 of 51)
Euell Neverno said:

With gross production so far down, you would think that the number of new titles would be similarly reduced. My impression is that does not seem to be case, however.

What I do notice is the preponderance of massive RBCD box sets among the Major Classical Labels and practically giving them away for $2~3 per disc.

I was hoping they'd release them in 96/24 on BD~A but such has not been the case.

Post by tailspn March 10, 2015 (15 of 51)
Euell Neverno said:

With gross production so far down, you would think that the number of new titles would be similarly reduced. My impression is that does not seem to be case, however.

Over the last five years, my estimate is new acoustic music recorded titles, as opposed to studio/pop/etc. are down by at least two thirds. That's especially true with orchestra and large ensemble projects.

What I do see is a massive uptake in the reissue business. The boutique label projects, with small ensembles or solo artists and low production costs are also filling the void.

Post by Euell Neverno March 10, 2015 (16 of 51)
tailspn said:

Over the last five years, my estimate is new acoustic music recorded titles, as opposed to studio/pop/etc. are down by at least two thirds. That's especially true with orchestra and large ensemble projects.

What I do see is a massive uptake in the reissue business. The boutique label projects, with small ensembles or solo artists and low production costs are also filling the void.

Does anyone keep statistics on this? Small label and ensemble recordings do seem to be proliferating. There just seems to be more variety available today than ever has been the case in the past.

Post by mknappe March 10, 2015 (17 of 51)
jackan said:

Here is a great graph/blog. Basically CD sales peaked in 2000/2001.
http://blog.thecurrent.org/2014/02/40-years-of-album-sales-data-in-one-handy-chart/

This is not adjusted for inflation, correct? Without inflation accounted for, 1970's music industry relatively strong health isn't fully represented here.

Post by mknappe March 10, 2015 (18 of 51)
mknappe said:

This is not adjusted for inflation, correct? Without inflation accounted for, 1970's music industry relatively strong health isn't fully represented here.

And i found the inflation adjusted graph further on...

Post by mknappe March 10, 2015 (19 of 51)
And interestingly the inflation adjusted numbers seem to show sales peaking at two places a) the height of the disco craze, and b) the height of grunge.

Post by rammiepie March 10, 2015 (20 of 51)
What I do find most interesting is that in the early 80's, the VHS and Beta recorders started to infiltrate the home "scene" taking away steam from purely audio escapism. People were buying and then renting movies and then the laserdisc and cable television were introduced all of which had an impact on the music industry. MTV ("I WANT my MTV!") with endless music videos which could be recorded on VCRs also somewhat curtailed sales of RBCD. I would use recorded MTV Music Video compilations for parties in tandem with physical discs. Remember the slogan: Video killed the Radio Star?

The success of the DVD which even exceeded the RBCD intro further impacted music sales as Concert videos were now becoming more mainstream.

Blu Ray with its superior audio and video never enjoyed the overwhelming success of lowly DVD, IMHO, due to the 'novelty' of owning motion picture media peaked! Music chains like Tower and Virgin Megastores followed by video giant Blockbuster folded due in no small measure to the rise of internet mavens like Amazon which no retail chains could possibly compete with.

While attempting to chart CD sales, it IS vital to take all these emerging technologies into consideration. And as Tailspn pointed out, reissues of older music IS very much in vogue which points to another somber fact: the quality of music isn't what it used to be! At this year's Grammy Awards, Prince quipped "Remember albums?" People aren't buying albums like they used to...instead, opting for singles!

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