Album Sales Continue To Decline (20 Year Comparisons)

[Bambino 23,630]

The numbers tell how many albums achieved the 1 million mark. 21 is one of them.

 

I get it now :)

[dontbesweet 7]

Wow.

 

I didn't realise it was this bad.

[calmar 21,341]

This is what iTunes and the advent of social media/portable music is doing. It's morphing the music landscape - why buy a physical album when you can pick and choose the songs you want and download them directly? 

[Luc 4,772]

But...

Is this US only or worlwide? 

[hausofmike 127]

US only

[Marco 731]

Wow..  :eek:

[Arturo 40,746]

This years numbers so far... 1 Album

Rank - Sales - TITLE - Artist

01 - 1,985,000 - THE 20/20 EXPERIENCE - Justin Timberlake

02 - 937,000 - UNORTHODOX JUKEBOX - Bruno Mars

03 - 863,000 - BABEL - Mumford & Sons

04 - 655,000 - BASED ON A TRUE STORY - Blake Shelton

05 - 648,000 - THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE - Pink

11 - 543,000 - RANDOM ACCESS MEMORIES - Daft Punk

Ok, I know it's just 2013 sales, but UJ, Babel, and TTAL all reached over 1M  when combining their 2012 sales, so although albums sales are ****, it's not as bad as it looks.

[hausofmike 127]

Only 1 album compared to 100 a decade ago

[Andy Darko 0]

This is what iTunes and the advent of social media/portable music is doing. It's morphing the music landscape - why buy a physical album when you can pick and choose the songs you want and download them directly?

Well it's this and the fact that people now a days seldom feel albums now are quality material, like ya know the whole package, the artwork, the booklet, and all the songs together as a cohesive unit.

The fact the industry focuses more on producing hit songs, rather than albums with lots of substance and emotion is a another cause.

Music professionals need to realize an album with 12 singleworthy songs does not equate to a good album.

[Asia 269]

 

Then Bionic and Lotus aren't doing bad in sales

 

[aaronyoji 2,007]

lol I never though it would be such a substantial decline. That's insane.

 

Considering that they can't compete with illegal downloads, in my opinion they have to reduce their prices. At least more people would consider to buy music.

or, artists could make good albums and strive for a bigger picture of success the way gaga does and then people would give a **** about buying people's albums.  

[Emvee 7,079]

But BTW was a flop right? Bruno and Rihanna are considered wildly successful with these flop numbers, but Gaga was the only one in recent music history to be considered a "let down" ... With an album that sold over 2 million.

[heavymlover 340]

or, artists could make good albums and strive for a bigger picture of success the way gaga does and then people would give a **** about buying people's albums.

 

Yeah, that's true. I still think that music is overpriced, but yeah, if it doesn't have enough quality, people won't be interested.

[aaronyoji 2,007]

Yeah, that's true. I still think that music is overpriced, but yeah, if it doesn't have enough quality, people won't be interested.

whats ironic is its gotten cheaper to purchase albums than single songs on itunes. after you start buying a few songs off an album they basically reduce the price in half, and you could end up spending less on a digital album with that "complete my album" feature on itunes than what you would spend in a record store. 

[Gaga is Life 90]

Just 1? :eek: From 10? :eek: :eek: Bloody illegal downloads, at least that's what I would think this decrease's cause is.