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January 15, 2008
Music Industry Going Down
The top selling cd of 2007 was Josh Groban's 'Noel,' which sold 3.8 million and shows the sad state of the music industry as we know it. It is the first time a Christmas album was the #1 album of the year and also the first time the highest sold album arrived in the Fall.
While cd sales plummeted another 15% from 2006, digital sales were up a whopping 45%, that's 844.2 million downloads from 588.2 million. In case you're wondering, Fergie sold the most downloads, over 7 million in the States alone.
What does this say about our world? It shows that people are putting together crappy albums that no one wants and are placing 2 or 3 good singles to help move the cds off the shelf. It also shows that we want to buy exactly what we want...nothing more, nothing less. You can go on iTunes and select 6 songs from Carrie Underwood's new album and only spend $6 as oppossed to the $12 for the entire cd. That's what I did...just didn't prefer half the material.
It also shows that we really like to be individualistic. I don't think there is another person on the face of the earth who has Kylie Minogue, My Morning Jacket, Dashboard Confessional, Shania Twain, Alicia Keys, and The Shins all on the same ipod. I think that's pretty cool. However, when I go and read at Wash U it seems like not many people are talking because they're all walking around with white wires going in their ears. It's pretty funny and not unlike scenes of zombies gazing straight ahead like those in Shaun of the Dead.
Music stores continue to close shop, and record companies continue to cut artists from their label. The latest casualties are American Idol alums, Taylor Hicks and Katherine McPhee. Although Hicks was never good at singing, (at campaigning, yes, but not singing), McPhee had a promising career.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few years with record labels. There is some serious work to do in figuring out how to survive in a world that will be soon cd-less.
| By Nathan Gemayel | 2:35 PM
Comments
Economically, I get only picking the songs one likes, and this does not matter when an album is simply a collection of singles. However, even though I would be hard pressed to point out more than 5 albums that meet this criteria, I lament the death of the album, or those albums that are consistent wholes, not to mention albums that are accompanied by nice packagaing.
Posted by: Neil E. Das at January 15, 2008 2:47 PM
I know, right. Speaking of nice packaging...Sufjan's Christmas cd anyone?
Posted by: Nathan Gemayel at January 15, 2008 2:50 PM
great article, very true. I found a great comment and article about the music industry and how music agencies are tearing the singer apart, http://www.opentopix.com/topic/tech-news/major-labels-allow-music-steal-sharing
Posted by: steve wang at January 27, 2008 7:22 PM
Hey man...I know, it's a tragedy.
Posted by: Nathan Gemayel at January 28, 2008 12:42 PM