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CD sales vs. download sales: Recent statistics?


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Anybody seen any reports on how CDs are holding up vs. download sales? The demise of the CD was predicted some years ago but it appears to be hanging on, even thought they usually have to be ordered online.

My perception is that it's analogous to print books vs. e-books and online editions.

Any input appreciated. This request is for a future newspaper column

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Cliff notes - 

Digital albums dropped another 20% after having an abysmal 2015, and Physical albums are down another 16% in 2016.  Vinyl went up another 4% and comprises about a quarter of physical shipments to retail.  Streaming now counts for 51% of revenue. 

Overall revenue is up both at wholesale and retail for the first time in about 10 years.  

All this is domestic, not international. 
 

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When I was a kid and too broke to buy music, I did like a lot of folks and just recorded music off the radio, which was legal because the record companies knew you were getting a crappy copy with static, bits of commercial, or the DJ speaking over the beginning and end of the song. Still, it was a way to legally acquire a free, if poor, copy of a song.

If people were cheap before the Internet, you can bet the web is really killing music sales; with sites like Pandora and YouTube, who really needs to purchase music when you can listen for free online? Heck, I hardly have time or the inclination to listen to the bazillion songs in my iTunes right now. If anything, I'm trying to delete stuff I rarely listen to just to make room on my hard-drive. 

I still purchase DVDs of movies I enjoy, though I have to purchase them online since the selection at stores is dwindling, plus what little they stock is often BlueRay, which I don't use. But music? Nah, there's simply a glut of music and media these days. I have better uses for my limited funds. 

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The CD player in my car is busted; the cassette player in my car is busted (yes, it's old enough it has a cassette deck); my phone is too full of work to hold any music.  I would buy music, but I have no means of listening to anything I buy.

Purchased Spotify Premium - I listen to it on my phone, my work PC, my home PC.  I don't have to maintain/store any CDs and new music is presented to me in an organized fashion.  For me, problem solved.

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As far as I know in the UK vinyl sales have taken over CD sales. If that's if interest for the article. Vinyl is quite in a high over here even for young people.

Haptic is winning over virtuality. 

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If I can buy the physical product, I buy it.  With a physical product, I never have to worry about whether the record company will still be around (unlike the poor folks who bought into the Walmart/Yahoo/et. al. online music libraries).  I'm not a fan of streaming.  I have an 80 GB iPod that's mostly full, and a 128GB iPod Touch that's working it's way there.  Now that Apple has dropped the price on the 128GB Touch, it may be time to replace the Classic.

If they don't put it out on CD, sometimes I buy, sometimes I do without.  I have a few live releases from artists who released things digitally but not on a physical product.  It's not my preference, so it depends how important the artist is to me at that point in time.

Downloading and not paying?  Not an option.  Artists deserve to get paid for their work.  Fortunately, I seem to have instilled that into my kids - they're much more willing to do the streaming thing, but they pay for stuff they acquire.

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3 hours ago, DBraz said:

I'm bucking the trend and still buy CDs.  Probably at least one a month.  I still love having something to hold, look at, and the experience of inserting the CD.

I know...

^^^^^^

This. I also enjoy reading through the liner notes, credits, and such  I still will buy the odd used vinyl album as well. I currently have about 1500 albums and about 450 CD's.

 

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1 hour ago, Hamersaur said:

^^^^^^

This. I also enjoy reading through the liner notes, credits, and such  I still will buy the odd used vinyl album as well. I currently have about 1500 albums and about 450 CD's.

 

I am like this too.

Yet with my solo albums I bought download cards to sell here in mid-Missouri and the idea flopped. Even at 1/2 the price of a CD, here in the rural Midwest people would rather buy a CD than a download card and store the music on the phone or PC. I didn't predict that well....

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15 hours ago, gorch said:

As far as I know in the UK vinyl sales have taken over CD sales. 

Vinyl is pretty popular here.  I sold most of mine a while ago and made enough to buy another Hamer.  The remaining records I gave to Mike when I picked up my Shishkov. 

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19 hours ago, DBraz said:

I'm bucking the trend and still buy CDs.  Probably at least one a month.  I still love having something to hold, look at, and the experience of inserting the CD.

I know...

Right there with you.  I still buy CD's about as often as you - I just bought two today.  A lot of what I buy these days are remasters or deluxe versions of albums I really liked.

I'm also a member of SwapaCD and MusicBoomerang, two sites where you can trade away CD's you don't want anymore for credits toward other CD's you DO want.  You post all the CD's you don't want anymore to trade and a "wish list" of the ones you want.  I've traded for hundreds of CD's over the years saving a ton of money in the process.  I highly recommend both sites.  If anyone joins either of them, I think they both have some kind of referral program that will earn me a credit or something.  Cite me as your referral if you see it - my username at SACD is tommy p and at MB it's tcpear.

 

 

15 hours ago, Hamersaur said:
19 hours ago, DBraz said:

I'm bucking the trend and still buy CDs.  Probably at least one a month.  I still love having something to hold, look at, and the experience of inserting the CD.

I know...

^^^^^^

This. I also enjoy reading through the liner notes, credits, and such  I still will buy the odd used vinyl album as well. I currently have about 1500 albums and about 450 CD's.

 

This is me too.  I love the Rock Candy reissue CD's booklets and bonus material.  I have maybe 1800 CD's and two Peaches crates of LP's.

 

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I usually get CD's although alot of recent buys were from Amazon...  some were new, some were

$3 used cd's, the used ones I'm sure they were paid at some point.

 

   Another thing I do is check youtube for artists etc... There's an AWFUL lot of free material on there

and I'm not sure how bands get anything out of that besides the ole  "you don't get paid, but you get

exposure" schtick.  I'm sure the bigger bands get referral clicks tho...        

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Young people do not seem to purchase music but rather belong to streaming services, so by any measure sales will continue to plummet. 

I tend to do a cost analysis.  If I can buy the CD used cheaper than downloading the songs I'd purchase, I'll go the CD route. 

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5 minutes ago, Studio Custom said:

Young people do not seem to purchase music but rather belong to streaming services, so by any measure sales will continue to plummet. 

I tend to do a cost analysis.  If I can buy the CD used cheaper than downloading the songs I'd purchase, I'll go the CD route. 

There were a couple of RIAA representatives on Volume (XM) last week explaining the algorithm they now use.  It included some equivalency for streaming -  something like ten streams equates to one sale or some such.  At any rate, RIAA had recognized the paradigm change and was making efforts to compensate. 

To your point, however, artists' take on streaming is paltry compared to any other means of consumption other than outright theft.

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"Outright theft" is a problem all creators of intellectual property face on the web. Whether it's music, films, e-books, magazine articles, dress patterns, recipes, photography, illustrations, video games, and on and on, all such intellectual property is illegally distributed or downloaded. 

The public is more aware of it where music and films are concerned because those industries have the microphone and clout to make everyone aware of the situation. However, the average-Joe-artist is ripped off everyday and few people know about it or even care because such persons have no real voice to make the issue known to the general public. 

The internet is great for consumers but a nightmare for producers of IP. 

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On 7/28/2017 at 9:56 AM, DaveL said:

 

 

Quote

   Another thing I do is check youtube for artists etc... There's an AWFUL lot of free material on there

and I'm not sure how bands get anything out of that besides the ole  "you don't get paid, but you get

exposure" schtick.  I'm sure the bigger bands get referral clicks tho...        

I think that exposure schtick is bigger than you think. I work at a few music venues from a 500 capacity club, a 2,000 seat theater and a 7000 outdoor venue for the summer events and I have never heard of a lot of these bands but they are YouTube wonders and bring in a lot of people. Concert and the merchandise sales is the lions share of income for bands, especially rock bands. A total flip flop from radio play/album sales like it was back in the 60's until the early 90's. 

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On 7/27/2017 at 2:31 PM, DBraz said:

I'm bucking the trend and still buy CDs.  Probably at least one a month.  I still love having something to hold, look at, and the experience of inserting the CD.

I felt the same way going from LPs to CDs. For me, the art/graphics/text of CDs was too small to enjoy, although I vastly preferred the listening experience to vinyl. Now I like not being tethered to a piece of plastic to enjoy the music, and my living space is much less cluttered!

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Around here, and also a niche on the net, cassettes are making a weird comeback amoung the indie hipsterish folks. At first I thought it was super dumb (in a lot of ways it is) but I think we're going to make one for the next ep.

Any way to reach a niche of people interested in music is appreciated.

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I've got a t-shirt with a 45 RPM insert screen printed on the front. More than one observer has told me that he/she thought it was an I.U.D.

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On 7/31/2017 at 1:23 PM, sonic1974 said:

Around here, and also a niche on the net, cassettes are making a weird comeback amoung the indie hipsterish folks. At first I thought it was super dumb (in a lot of ways it is) but I think we're going to make one for the next ep.

Any way to reach a niche of people interested in music is appreciated.

I blame Guardians of the Galaxy. ;)

My wife and I were just talking about the days of "making someone a mix tape".  I jokingly told her I'd make her a playlist and she was like "that's so little effort I feel insulted". :D 

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Ha! Yeah, it's not quite the same, that's for sure. 

In some ways, digital has made stuff too easy. I love my Google Play subscription though! So I guess I'm caught between nostalgia and convenience. 

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