Interesting Article

The recording companies would have you believe that it's the end of music. I found this article interesting in that refutes the idea to a great degree. It's not music that's in danger. It's the way it's marketed , sold and distributed that would be in jeopardy...

The article came to me courtesy of Joe Webster, who is a regular on the Randy Bachman Message Board. I pop in there from time to time to answer questions for Randy's fans. It's great group of people there, and I would encourage you to visit there some time.

The article...

The Year Of Living Digitally
Updated 23:56 PST Tue, Jan 17 2006
Music purchases broke the 1 billion mark last year.

That's the story from Nielsen SoundScan & BDS. The ratings company says 2005 marked the first time the recording industry moved 1 billion units. What's more, it appears that online sales, either direct downloads or ordering CDs for snail mail delivery, proved to be a major factor in breaking the nine-figure threshold.

According to Nielsen SoundScan & BDS, digital album sales experienced a 194 % increase from the previous year, with 16.2 million units sold compared to 5.5 million in 2004. Purchasing albums through online commerce sites such as Amazon Amazon rose 11.3 percent, from 22.2 million in 2004 to 24.7 million in 2005.

And what about selling individual tracks via the Net through online stores like iTunes and Napster? A 150 percent increase over 2004, with 352.7 million tracks sold in 2005 compared against 140.9 million in 2004.

What were music fans buying online?
The number one "digital" artist for 2005 based on track sales was Green Day, with almost 3.5 million tracks sold.
The number one digital track was Weezer's "Beverly Hills," which sold 961,981 downloads, while the number one top-selling digital song (combining all versions of the title) was Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl." Nickelback's "Photograph" had the biggest selling week for a digital track with sales of 149,000.

All in all, over 250 million digital tracks were purchased last year, resulting in a 150 percent increase over the previous year.
2005 was also the first year a digital track sold more than 100,000 units, and eight different tracks achieved that milestone. Eleven different digital songs broke the 100,000 mark.

And let's not forget ringtones. Number one was 50 Cent's "Candy Shop" clocking in at 1,891,000 units sold.
While no one is predicting the immediate death of brick & mortar music stores, the latest Nielsen SoundScan & BDS report affirms that consumers feel quite comfortable getting their music fix online.

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Bottom line: Lots and lots of people are buying music, just that many are buying it in a different form. Declining CD sales just means that that format is declining not total music sales.