US album sales reach lowest weekly total yet, what next?

Billboard revealed yesterday that US album sales have hit a new low when it comes to units shifted in a given week. The 3.97 million total sales registered was the lowest number since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking sales in 1991.

Obviously taken as an individual data point this could be seen as a blip, but instead it is part of a pattern that has seen album sales slip over the past 12 months. The first eight weeks of Q3 sales have seen the weekly average decrease by half a million units when compared to Q1 of this year, signalling a pretty dramatic shift.

Another figure to keep in mind is that physical sales at retail chains have fallen by a quarter this year and although the decline of album sales generally won’t be as dramatic we’re certainly edging closer the so-called “death of the CD” than ever (but don’t worry, if you’re a fan of the plastic discs they have proven remarkably hard to kill and will probably still be around in 10 years’ time…).

What about streaming? Everything point to another year of strong growth, but there is still no consensus on whether those revenues are offsetting the revenue loss caused by the decline in both downloads and physical sales.

Independent labels especially, who may not be able to count on a steady revenue stream derived by a well-stocked back-catalogue, may find it harder to recoup their investment in new releases in the short term - a task historically left to album sales, which could render them unable to invest in new artists.

With YouTube’s Music Key service not yet in play and with Apple still working on how to integrate Beats Music into iTunes, 2014 is still a year of transition. It is likely that once Google and Apple make their moves the transition from ownership to access will be even faster.


(Andrea Leonelli)