Album Sales Down Again

What are album sales hitting new lows....again?!

  • Those pesky illegal downloads hurt sales.

    Votes: 4 6.1%
  • Gimme my MP3! I'll buy one or two good songs, but don't want the other 7 so-so songs on an album.

    Votes: 9 13.6%
  • With homoginization of the airwaves by broadcast conglomerates, many good artists don't get airtime.

    Votes: 8 12.1%
  • Just want that old time rock and roll. New music just isn't all that great.

    Votes: 10 15.2%
  • Its the economy, stupid. Youth buy all the music, but they can't find jobs right now.

    Votes: 22 33.3%
  • Other. Tell me why in a post to this thread.

    Votes: 13 19.7%

  • Total voters
    66
  • Poll closed .
All of the mentioned play a part. As for me, I buy old stuff that's new to me. They don't sell that at Best Buy:D
 
Too many good reasons here.

1) With homoginization of the airwaves by broadcast conglomerates, many good artists don't get airtime.

This also affects all music sales in general, however, and is not limited to LP sales.

The way to hear new music that's not what is what the music business is pushing for maximum profit and easy marketing efforts for them?

Typically word of mouth, music blogs, college radio or internet radio, live shows, eclectic friends, and by accident.

Pandora, perhaps the greatest thing to happen to music sales in regards to radio/internet airplay, was quickly saddled by the RIAA, and now is mired with commercials and consumer-oriented fees.

2) Just want that old time rock and roll. New music just isn't all that great.

Oh boy- there's some fantastic new music out there! But we just get limited to no exposure to it. See above.


3)Its the economy...

A big part of it, I imagine.


Let me also add a few more-

1) Novelty.

Records are, to many, a novelty. A hip trend. A few may become converts, but with all the Crosley and Ion tables out there being sold, many may lose interest as they never hear true high fidelity.

Sure, they hear better music reproduction than what an overly-compressed MP3 sounds like, but nothing what a true hifi setup offers.

2)Frustration vs. convenience.

LP playback is a commitment. An effort. And doing things the hard way isn't charming to everyone, despite the dividends and high-quality payoff.

3) Sloppy pressings and high prices.

While this doesn't apply to all new re-issues and new pressings, plenty of new records are poorly pressed and priced very high. How many times does one want to shell out $30-$50 for a fancy glossy record only to have it pressed off-center, covered in fingerprints (and in my case human hair), scuffed and scratched, or just poorly mastered?


My thoughts on the topic.
 
those pesky illegal downloads actually contribute to higher album sales according to several sources outside of the RIAA.

the main thing that is killing album sales IMHO is the internet in general, and a combination of independent and MP3 sales.
take into consideration the following:

a) independent music sales aren't counted to the RIAA stats, as the RIAA does not represent them. they only represent the big labels.

b) MP3 sales aren't counted as they are most often not complete albums because most young people who buy music, only want good music, whats popular, so mainly singles are sold.


so in reality what is killing statistically counted album sales, is the slow death of a corrupt industry clinging to a business model that has died.
with the advent of the web, savvy consumers have learned the truth about the industry, and so have the artists.

the creation and consumption of music has changed, become more democratic, and the big players cannot understand that the marketplace it cutting out the middleman, one album or MP3 sale at a time.

in the long run this is a good thing for artists and consumers.
F the RIAA, and the big labels. its time that their exploitative business practices go the way of all extinct behemoths.
 
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I voted "other".


Sorry guys, it's all my fault. I've been busy and haven't been able to get to the record store recently...
 
I voted for the infamous MP3, whether it be downloaded legally or illegally. Attention spans run faiirly short. I think people seem to be largely interested in individual songs. I think of the album as a whole. I listen to them in order, from start to finish. When I play LPs, it's almost always side 1 (or A) first. I seldom shut it off before an album is complete.
 
As for me, I buy old stuff that's new to me.

Yep, I've probably bought 500 albums in the past two years, way more than I ever did when I was young. Bought 'em all at thrifts, though, and nearly all of them were first sold in the '50's or early '60's, BB (Before Beatles).
 
I think it's a combination of the economy (mostly) and the proliferation of internet/wifi downloads.
 
For me, I like buying albums, as long as a high quality digital download is included. It lets me have all the vinylyness and big artwork, with the ease of digital when I want and I can put it on my iPod as well.

What I think is killing it is the high prices and lack of attention span. I am one of the only people I know my age that sits down and will listen to an album front to back.

One thing I would like to add, is that a lot of people I know will download a ton of albums from various artists and then buy actual copies of the ones they like.
 
It'd be interesting to break out vinyl album sales, from the total sales numbers.

For the last number of years, the only people to really systematically keep track of and publicize LP vinyl album sales vs. other mediums, the British music industry, have indicated a vast INCREASE in vinyl sales.

If that's the case, still, then that might indicate that the "dedicated" music buyers are still buying (but given that LPs are usually more "niche" and/or older artists- it may be that these sales are "independent" of the seemingly lackluster "modern popular music" industry)... but that the casual listeners either aren't finding enough to "float their boat", or that they're simply too broke to buy. I'd guess a combination of both...

Regards,
Gordon.
 
It's because most new music sucks you buy a CD / album whatever and out of 12 songs 2 are good and the rest aren't, so most people download legally or illegally the ones they want. However I bought the new Breaking Benjamin CD "Dear Agony" and I like every song on it I think it's a first for me.
 
With homoginization of the airwaves by broadcast conglomerates, many good artists don't get airtime.

Replace many with all.
 
Should be noted that the referenced article is about digital album sales (CDs and complete album downloads), not vinyl album sales. It's about the decline in sales of a complete body of work on an album. The article shows that physical CD sales have been declining, and sales of complete albums as downloads have been increasing, but not fast enough to offset the decrease in CD sales. So overall sales of complete albums have been declining. The article has NOTHING to do with vinyl.

IMO, "all of the above" is the answer to the poll. A reason I don't see discussed is casual sharing and copying of digital music between friends. I think it's a bigger "problem" than illegal downloads. Maybe it gets lumped together in the statistics, maybe it's difficult to quantify and hasn't been estimated.
 
casual sharing and copying of digital music between friends. I think it's a bigger "problem" than illegal downloads. Maybe it gets lumped together in the statistics, maybe it's difficult to quantify and hasn't been estimated.

that has been happening since the advent of cassette, and likely has not increased all that much...
 
Its the ease of playing the music. Cd's and mp3's are more compact. They tend to be the main format for the new generation.

Im for vinyl. I'll never be without a tt.
 
that has been happening since the advent of cassette, and likely has not increased all that much...

I disagree about the increase. Sure, it was happening with cassettes, but making a cassette copy required investing in a tape and spending the time and effort to make the copy. And multi-generation copies weren't good and weren't done too often. Now you stick a CD in the computer and burn an absolutely perfect copy in five minutes. And once you've ripped it to your hard drive (or gotten it as a download) it takes a couple of clicks of the mouse to email it to as many people as you want simultaneously. I got very few cassette copies from friends back in the day (and I'm 51, I was prime-time for the cassette thing) because I was always particular about SQ and preferred to have LPs that I would care for and play on decent equipment. Now there's no reason in the world (other than legal and ethical ones) for me not to copy all my friends' CDs. I think my 19 year old daughter gets most of her music from a friend who's much more interested in exploring both new and old artists. I don't know how many songs she sends her, I bet it's over a dozen a month. I think the ease of making perfect copies - either high quality copies of the original CD or perfect copies of MP3s - has really hurt legitimate sales much more so than cassettes ever did. It's kind of ironic that the industry made the push to digital and digital - IMO - has caused the near-demise of the traditional music industry.
 
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