[Dixielandjazz] Album Sales Decline Again

Fri Jan 6 16:48:48 PST 2006

Did anyone ever think that they may have priced themselves out of the market 
or that the American public just doesn't like what they are doing.

The phenomenon of Rock and Roll happened because people were looking for 
something new and became the new music.  The public may be tired of a couple 
of guitars and a drummer with a chick singer sound.  I certainly am.

When anyone is buying anything they must have the money and they must want 
what they are buying.  If either part isn't there then there is no sale. 
Often there is only one or two good tunes on any album.  Why spend $15-$20 
for two tunes especially if you can buy them for a buck or two online or 
better still off of satellite radio or some other source.  If the artists 
and record companies are not giving fair value the people won't buy.
Larry Walton
St .Louis
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve barbone" <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
To: "DJML" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2006 3:05 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Album Sales Decline Again

> Album Sales Shift Back to a Decline
>
> NY TIMES By JEFF LEEDS - January 5, 2006
>
> The music business cannot seem to shake the blues.
>
> Music executives have attributed the drop in album sales to online piracy,
> lackluster creative product and competition from DVD's.
>
> Sales of music albums in the United States fell 7 percent last year, to
> 618.9 million units, according to Nielsen Soundscan data released 
> yesterday.
> Sales of downloaded tracks are increasing rapidly, but not enough to
> compensate for the decline: overall sales of music are down about 4 
> percent
> if 10 tracks counts as an album.
>
> The drop reverses the previous year's slight uptick in sales, and means 
> the
> industry has posted declines for four of the last five years, despite
> laborious efforts to hang on to consumers and contain piracy.
>
> Some executives had held out hope that a strong holiday period, 
> particularly
> the last six weeks of the year, which account for 20 percent of annual
> sales, would salvage a weak year. But a slate of fourth-quarter hopefuls 
> got
> off to sluggish starts.
>
> Sounding a potentially positive note, there are signs that sales of
> downloaded tracks may soon make up for the decline in albums. Sales of
> individual tracks hit a record 19.9 million units in the last week of the
> year, more than double the previous high. It was the first time that 
> weekly
> sales of individual tracks exceeded those of albums, according to Nielsen
> SoundScan. For the year, sales of downloaded tracks exceeded 352 million
> units, up 150 percent from a year earlier.
>
> But the industry remains uncertain about whether, and when, a broader 
> shift
> to downloaded music sales will take hold. And as those sales rise, the 
> major
> record companies are forced to strike a tricky balancing act that includes
> promoting music online while preserving sales of plastic CD's, the
> industry's mainstay format for roughly two decades.
>
> There have been exceptions to an otherwise bleak year, including the pop
> singer Mariah Carey, whose "The Emancipation of Mimi" began a career
> comeback and sold more than 4.9 million copies, ranking as the year's top
> seller in a photo finish with the rap star 50 Cent. Other best sellers
> included Kelly Clarkson, with her second album since winning the first
> "American Idol" contest; and the rock act Green Day, making a career
> comeback of its own with a politically charged album, "American Idiot."
> Warner Brothers Records, which in addition to the Green Day album cranked
> out hits from Madonna, Mike Jones and Michael Buble, captured the title as
> the industry's top label for overall sales for the first time in nine 
> years.
>
> The overall slide, however, is a sign that the industry has not yet 
> figured
> out how to end a sales decline that began more than five years ago. Music
> executives have blamed an array of factors - online piracy, widespread CD
> burning, competition from DVD's and video games, and a creative malaise.
>
> Joe Nardone, owner of the 11-store Gallery of Sound music chain in
> Pennsylvania, said the music companies continue to charge too much for
> albums. Universal Music Group, the biggest of the four major recording
> corporations, has cut the wholesale prices of its releases as much as 25
> percent in the last two years, but its rivals have so far not followed 
> suit.
>
> Like many other traditional music retailers, Mr. Nardone has added DVD's 
> and
> used CD's to offset the damage from the slide in new hits. "The top stuff 
> is
> just not selling through like it used to," he said. "Is the business going
> to be a niche business? As long as there's still somebody willing to pay 
> for
> a CD, we'll be fine."
>
> That, however, remains the biggest question. The industry is continuing 
> its
> efforts to deter consumers from downloading free musicfrom unauthorized
> online services. It has filed more than 17,000 lawsuits against individual
> computer users accused of trading music files illegally, reaching
> settlements with roughly 3,900 of them, according to the Recording 
> Industry
> Association of America. Pressure from the major labels has also prompted
> several high-profile file-swapping networks - including Grokster and 
> WinMX,
> to cease operations.
>
> But not everyone is convinced it will be enough.
>
> "The whole landscape has been basically sullied by litigators," said Wayne
> Rosso, former president of Grokster, who has been devising a new 
> authorized
> online service called Mashboxx. "Most of the companies' resources are put
> into litigation instead of their core business, which is finding and
> marketing new fresh talent. Unless they start thinking differently, then I
> think the decline is going to keep going."
>
>
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