Music Download Sales Skyrocket
Posted July 8, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Nielsen SoundScan, a company that tracks music sales across North America, released its latest numbers Friday and says album sales south of the border were down 4.2 percent in the first part of 2006, while the sales of digital tunes were up 77 percent.
The group measured album sales in different formats, including CDs, downloads, cassettes, and others.
Total sales in all formats were 270.6 million between Jan. 2 and July 2 – down about 12 million from the same period last year.
“Considering that you haven’t had a 50 Cent to be the Pied Piper during the first half of the year or a Norah Jones the year before that, being behind four percent in album sales is really not that bad,” said Geoff Mayfield, director of charts for music tracker Billboard.
The CD is still the most popular format for music fans, but consumers are increasingly downloading their favourite tracks and albums. About 281 million digital singles have been purchased so far this year – that’s up about 122 million from last year – while approximately 14 million full-length albums were bought online, which is more than double the amount bought in the same period last year.
The new trend in music buying is both a blessing and a problem for the music industry. Fans cherry-picking only a selected few songs online has resulted in a decrease in more profitable album sales.
“Digital distribution is an answer to the consumer who’s been throwing up that complaint,” Mayfield said. “It’s a changing dynamic that the industry still needs to get its arms around.”
