U.S. Album Sales Hit Historic Lows

[moxham123]

U.S. Album Sales Hit Historic Lows

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/ ... toric-lows

[RobTheDrummer]

Perhaps is has something to do with the shitty music these days?

[KeithReynolds]

Perhaps is has something to do with the shitty music these days?

YES

[Craven Sound]

It amazes me that artists still try to make full albums. They didn't see this coming 10 years ago?

[Colton]

Made me think of this


Money, Compliments, & Publicity - Todd Snider
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBFy4i83DKY

[moxham123]

The sad part locally is that there are now only a few places selling CDs and Best Buy cut back their selection even more. As far as new music on CD, much of it is not worth buying and the ones I want I can't find around here.

Talk about what comes around goes around.

Back in the 50s and 60s, many acts only produced singles in 45 format and there were numerous independent record labels and acts were also producing their own recordings on their own labels. I even did it in the 70s. The full length album format in vinyl (and then 8-track, cassette, and CD format) came along and most acts then had to produce more material.

Fast forward to today and we are right back to acts only producing singles but in a different digital format now.

[tornandfrayed]

Lots of good music coming out but when you can steal it the sales go way down. Just a sign of where our society is. Never had the internet before, now that we do the playing field is level, just a shame that it is so low.

There has always been music that you gon't like but now everyone can steal the music that they do like and say that music sucks. There goes the fucking neigborhood...

[kayla]

ya its the digital age. so really what did they expect? people can still buy "albums", but my guess would be if they are its by streaming them to their cell phones/electronic devices. and for the most part, people are probably stealing music. it's just too easy to do.

i remember having to wait by the radio with a cassette tape to record a song i wanted. i'd set there for hours waiting ha.

- kayla.

[Don Hughes]

One thing that may be interesting isn't so much as the rise of iPods and illegal downloading, but that with the rise of electronic devices playing music, the listener now doesn't have to sit down at their couch or stereo and listen to an album. The intimacy of listening to your favorite music is being lost. Music is becoming just background noise. Many listeners anymore either don't want to, or don't have the time to just sit down and enjoy the musical experience.

[moxham123]

To echo Don's comments. People now have so many entertainment options that did not exist in the 50, 60s, and 70s to take up their time. I, and my friends, used to sit for hours listening to 45s and full length albums. It was always enjoyable to listen to an album from beginning to end while reading the album cover and looking at the gatefold artwork and it was a real treat if the lyrics were printed on the record jacket or sleeve.

Also, people now have easy Internet or App download access to listen or buy only the songs they want without hearing or buying an entire album. Downloads provide instant reception of music without going to a store to buy it or wait to have it delivered if ordered. They also don't need a stationary device such as a record or CD player to listen.

[f.sciarrillo]

Not to mention with services like Pandora and Spotify. Who needs to buy cd's anymore?

[StumbleFingers]

Another contributing factor that they mention in the article is that back catalog sales are down. As formats changed from vinyl to 8-track to cassette to CD, a good portion of the sales were from people buying their old favorites in the new format - literally selling the same album to the same person over and over again.

It's a digital world now and we can copy our music to all our new devices as we please. It's highly unlikely that I'll ever buy another copy of Sgt. Pepper or Master of Puppets. The industry has tried to slow the bleeding by offering remasters and bonus tracks and discounts, but that can only go so far.

[slackin@dabass]

Don hughs said it best: background noise. What really clued me into people not listening to music like they used to is when I would say something like "listen to the bass line there, or the piano part here" and my friends would say things like "you hear so much more in the music than I do." And I'd respond well what do you listen to when you listen to music? Guess people are just too busy to actually listen to music. That ties in with what rob said about music being crappy. Record labels could give a shit less about talent. It's all sex appeal. Write songs about partying and get a skank to sing em and you'll make it big. The bigger the skank, the farther you'll go. But only on mp3 sales and tour dates... If your skank isn't too coked up to pass out on stage every night. Fuck, I hate the music industry. I'm glad record sales are at all time low.

[songsmith]

I was just thinking about the changes technology has meant, even in our listening habits in regard to albums vs. single songs. When listening to an 8-track, if you didn't like a certain song, you mostly had to change tracks completely, missing the rest of the music on that "track," or just wait until what you didn't like was over. Changing songs on a cassette player meant fast-forwarding, hoping to hit the end of the song without going over. LP's were a little easier, but you had to get up and pick up the tone arm and set it down in the right place.
Now, if you don't like the song for any reason..."click." Gone. We have instant editing... Even if we just don't feel like listening to it right now, gone. When I go on a music-surfing jag on YouTube or something, the number of songs I'll listen to is far more, because I'm not spending any time getting out a CD, feeding it into the player, hitting play, letting the machine recognize the CD, etc.
It's instant gratification, and it seems like tech has affected a lot of other parts of our lives the same way. Remember when you used to HAVE to go to the library?

[Don Hughes]

Another trend I've seen is using youtube to listen to music. How many songs are on there? Hell, I've seen WHOLE ALBUMS on one "video"

[moxham123]

Another trend I've seen is using youtube to listen to music. How many songs are on there? Hell, I've seen WHOLE ALBUMS on one "video"

I recently had some conversations regarding You Tube. They expanded the file sizes which meant entire albums and concerts could be uploaded. I have even listened to entire brand new albums the same day they are released because somebody uploaded them to You Tube. That is a way many people check out new albums and decide if they want to buy the whole recording or only certain songs. Also, many people copy recordings from You Tube.

A very positive thing about You Tube though is that it seems that I can come up with the most obscure songs or bands and somebody posted them on there.

[Don Hughes]

I'm not so sure it's a total positive. I know people who will refuse to buy the albums if they can listen to them "legally" on youtube.

[Lowender]

I agree with some of the youtube comments. While its easy to pop on and get your free music there, portable, easy listening its not. Ive used it quite a bit to decide whether ill but a son or entire album. Bought the entire Megadeth, Shinedown, and various other full albums that way. Others it ,made it simple to decide that the band had 1 decent song in them and the rest was shit taco. Thats where the .99 cent song is wonderful.