So it’s no surprise that CD sales continue to decline – dropping 15% to 229.8 million from Jan. 1 to July 1 in the U.S. Meanwhile, the number of digital sales jumped 49% to 417.3 million.
There are obviously many reasons why CD sales suck – P2P continues to thrive despite the legal efforts of the RIAA, semi-legit services such as AllofMP3.com have attracted people looking to buy CDs for a fraction ($2) of what they sell in retail stores; CDs are pretty expensive (I was at a music store in Seattle recently where some of the hit CDs sold for $15 to $20); and streaming music via services such as Pandora and LastFM have become a great way to enjoy and discover music (assuming they don’t get killed by new copyright levies).
But perhaps a big reason CDs are tumbling is most CDs are terrible. You can one or two good songs, and the rest of it is mediocre filler. It’s like going out for dinner and just eating the main course because the bread, vegetables and dessert and awful. If you think about it, how many albums do you have in your collection that you enjoy from start to finish? I hazard to guess it’s only a small handful.
This may explain why digital sales of individual tracks are red-hot. For example, I purchased Justin Timberlake’s “What Goes Around…Comes Around” (great video, by the way) but didn’t bother buying the CD. Maybe if musicians and their labels spent more time putting together a CD, there would be more incentive to buy the album.
Update: Ars Technica has some solid thoughts about the rising of the digital single and the fall of the CD.
The last point you made about buying only the singles is spot on. That is what is really killing the CD. But not just the CD, remember back to cassette tapes? Kids were always rewinding and fast forwarding through the crap songs in between the songs they liked. CD made it easier to skip through that of course, but artists can’t be expected to put out solid albums where all songs are hits that everyone likes. Artists and record companies should just focus on giving their artists as many hit singles as possible and if they have a lot of them, put them in a greatest hits CD eventually.
I am surprised the music companies don’t get this simple thing.
In the days of cassettes the Radio charts were more popular. In the days of CD’s and DVD’s the hit lists are more popular than an album. Infact even for the same artist a compilation of hit songs sells more than an album with o1-2 hit items.
Why don’t they listen to this fundamental market feedback. Give the customer what they want. They want to have the choice of best songs. Give them that. Don’t try to sell crap with one good piece. It will not work out.
Good post. (though its not that much a surprise except for the folks in the music industry).
For big label pop albums I can completely agree with what you’re saying. I don’t have any lying around really because I’m almost never willing to pay $20 for one or two good songs when I can buy the single online.
I own several really good albums from smaller labels though (Arts and Crafts, Touch and Go, etc). A lot of great songs will never be hit singles. I think the difference between label size and overall album quality has to do with the fact the smaller indie band labels aren’t usually looking for one hit single and using filler for the rest. They probably wait until the band has enough material for an album and then go from there.