Physical Album Sales Actually Increased Last Year

After years of decline, physical album sales actually increased 1.1% in the U.S. in 2015, according to Nielsen.

There's a caveat there though. 3.6% of that came from Adele, and her 25 album was only available for 6 weeks. That album has sold over 7.4 million copies in the U.S. last year alone and is still going strong.

Digital album download sales fell by 1.1% last year, and according to BuzzAngle, song streams on audio platforms were up 99.2% to 137.5 billion. Song streams on video platforms like YouTube and Vevo were up almost as much at 97.9% to 168.6 billion.

And as we all expected, vinyl sales were up 56% to around $6 million in sales.

That's a pretty good year for music overall, and expect 2016 to be even better.

---

Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this blog at no cost to you (just click here).

Adele Foregoes Streaming In A Last Dash For Cash

Adele’s new album 25 was released last week and, as many predicted, it won’t be on any streaming services, as she and her record label make what might be the last attempt at some serious money from physical product before the format disappears.

That Adele should even be in this position speaks well of her music and her generally older fanbase, as the music deeply motivates fans to acquire her music at any cost (just like Taylor Swift and her last album 1989).

Although the songs from 25 won’t be on any of the major streaming services at least initially, you can be sure that by latter today it will be spread all over YouTube by zealous fans posting audio-only and lyric videos. Of course, these will be joined by official Adele videos, so at least some of her music will still be available on the largest streaming network currently available, especially now that YouTube Red and Music have launched.

While it’s easy to see why Adele (or her management or label) chose to forego streaming, the decision only postpones the inevitable. It might take 90 days or more before 25 appears on Spotify or Apple Music, but rest-assured it will be there eventually. 

The real question is how much sales might have been hurt had the decision been made to go the streaming route the day of the release of the physical album. In fact, it’s likely that the songs from 25 would have racked up some massive numbers on the various streaming services and might have even caused some new fans to register, which would have been a win for entire music business. Read more on Forbes.

---

Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this blog at no cost to you (just click here).

Streaming Music Up, Everything Else Down According To The RIAA

The RIAA mid-year report is out and it's filled with good news and bad news. The good news is that digital revenues grew 6.3 percent to $2.32 billion as streaming revenues grew 23.2 percent to $1.03 billion.

That said, digital downloads dropped 9.4 percent, although digital album sales rose by a surprising 4.2 percent (this category had been declining rapidly).

As expected, physical sales declined 17.3 percent to $748 million, with CD sales dropping by 31.5 percent to $494.8 million.

The one bright spot in physical sales continues to be vinyl sales, which grew 51.3 percent to $226 million.

The major takeaway continues to be the growth of paid subscriptions from services like Spotify, as the category was up almost 25% over the same time last year. The RIAA estimates that there was a slight growth of subscribers, up to 8.1 million in the United States.

What this shows is that physical product (except for vinyl) is falling fast, and digital revenue is just barely keeping up.

Although more and more people are signing up for streaming, not enough are convinced that it's worth it to spend 10 bucks a month on yet.

Pricing seems to be a big issue here, but until the labels and publishers come to grips with this issue, we won't see the dramatic growth in streaming subscriptions that everyone has been expecting.

---

Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this blog at no cost to you (just click here).

Big Changes In Music Sales This Year So Far

Nielsen's mid-year music sales report is out and a lot has changed in a mere 6 months. Here are some of the highlights.

• On-demand streaming from services like Spotify is up 92.4% over last year! Over 135 billion songs have been streamed so far this year. Yes, this streaming thing is definitely catching on. 

• Vinyl sales continue to rise at an ever greater rate, up 38% over last year. Vinyl albums now comprise almost 9% of all album sales.

• Digital track download sales are down 10.4% from last year. The bloom is off the rose.

• Digital album sales are virtually flat though, which is good news considering that last year they were down 10%.

• If you add in the new ways of looking at albums in the digital domain (track equivalent albums = 10 and stream equivalent albums = 1500), total album sales are actually up 14% over last year at this time.

• CD sales are down 10%, which is decreasing at a much slower rate that anticipated and slower than we've seen in previous years.

• Physical album sales are down at traditional big-box retail, but up 0.6% at indie music stores, and up a giant 18% at non-traditional vendors like online, at the venue, and direct-to-consumer.

What do these numbers prove? Music is still not only alive and well, but demand and consumption is growing. What we don't see in the Nielsen report is the revenue numbers, and that's where the actual tale is told. We have to wait for the end of the year for that.

---

Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this blog at no cost to you (just click here).

Digital Music And Physical Sales Now At Equal Strength

The IFPI, the organization that represents record companies across the globe, just released its annual Global Digital Music Report showing that worldwide digital music sales equaled physical sales for the first time. Digital revenues grew 6.9% last year to $6.9 billion USD, which represents 46% of total revenue, exactly the same as physical sales of CDs and vinyl.

Overall, the global revenue for music stayed roughly the same in 2014 as the previous year, coming in at $15.03 billion, which was down just 0.4%. Still, some might consider that a victory considering that digital music sales continue to increase at a level that offsets the decline of physical sales.

A data point that jumps out of the report is that the number of paying streaming subscribers now tops 41 million, which represents an estimated 46% increase. This brought in around $1.6 billion in revenue, or about 26% of the digital market.

What's interesting about the subscriber number is that many feel that it's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to tapping the potential streaming market, since the report sites another 100 million users now subscribe to a free music streaming tier as well.

According to the IFPI report, a commissioned study undertaken by Ipsos across the top 13 music markets found that only 35% of Internet users accessed a free streaming service in the last six months. That leaves a lot of room for growth. Read more on Forbes.

---

You should follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business, Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.