U.S Music Album sales down 7%

[CM1847]

Re: U.S Music Album sales down 7%

I buy maybe 5 albums a year. If CD's were all under $10 then I'd buy a ton more, but the prices at most stores are idiotic.

And I don't feel bad for not buying albums since artists make hardly an money off them. Eff the labels.

CDs cost about $9 for retail stores to buy from record companies, and the bands/artists only make cents off of that $9. So if CDs were all under $10, bands/artists would make even less of a profit because no store is going to pay $9 for a CD and sell it full-time for $10.

Wal-Mart is trying to bully record companies into lowering their cost per cd so Wal-Mart can sell them for $10 each. Too much money is being put into making crappy albums, production costs need to be lowered in order for CD prices to get any lower. The physical CD packaging and writing process isn't going to get much cheaper, so the cuts are going to have to come from the production side of things.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: U.S Music Album sales down 7%

Time to go back to analog boys.

[kuruption]

Re: U.S Music Album sales down 7%

I buy maybe 5 albums a year. If CD's were all under $10 then I'd buy a ton more, but the prices at most stores are idiotic.

And I don't feel bad for not buying albums since artists make hardly an money off them. Eff the labels.

i buy albums but its true . unless artist are pushing millions they arent making much off their albums ...i only buy what i consider near classic or classic albums. albums that are just decent/ok arent worth the money imo.... i would say i buy 15- 20 albums a year .

it has more to do with d/l then quality ...i honestly dont know anyone who still buys cds that arent blank.

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: U.S Music Album sales down 7%

i would say i buy 15- 20 albums a year .

Are those just new releases?

[MSUSPartanPride]

Re: U.S Music Album sales down 7%

I bought 6 albums in the last two days, however that was somewhat due to Christmas money.

[kuruption]

Re: U.S Music Album sales down 7%

Are those just new releases?

no. a combination of new and old.

[Ger]

Re: U.S Music Album sales down 7%

CDs cost about $9 for retail stores to buy from record companies, and the bands/artists only make cents off of that $9. So if CDs were all under $10, bands/artists would make even less of a profit because no store is going to pay $9 for a CD and sell it full-time for $10..

bands make their money off of tours. if they dont tour then they're s.o.l. and j.w.f.

[SPTO]

Re: U.S Music Album sales down 7%

Well this isn't surprising. I haven't bought a CD since last spring and it wasn't a new release either.

The same kind of thing is happening with movies now. The entertainment industry is stagnating creatively and you add that with overpricing then it's obvious people won't put up with it.

The entertainment industry as we know it is at a crossroads. Either they make adjustments and start making money through downloadable content or they're SOL. If I were running a film studio I would make the bold decision of putting all future film releases on the DVD medium with lots of special features and commentaries. People don't like to go to movie theatres because of the overpricing and the distractions of people in the theatre.

Sorry for going slightly off the topic but it goes hand in hand. This isn't just a recording industry problem it's an entertainment world problem.

[CM1847]

Re: U.S Music Album sales down 7%

bands make their money off of tours. if they dont tour then they're s.o.l. and j.w.f.

Yeah, definitely, tours(more specifically the merchandise sold during tours) is where bands make(or don't make) all of their money. The cents per album sold they get isn't much, but I promise that any band/artist in the world is going to be upset if they drop their earnings by say 5 cents an album. The album sales already rip off the performer enough, lowering CD prices will only make it worse, I don't think it is the best idea to continue to pay bands less and less, just doesn't seem like good business practice to me.

[Graphik]

Re: U.S Music Album sales down 7%

Well this isn't surprising. I haven't bought a CD since last spring and it wasn't a new release either.

The same kind of thing is happening with movies now. The entertainment industry is stagnating creatively and you add that with overpricing then it's obvious people won't put up with it.

The entertainment industry as we know it is at a crossroads. Either they make adjustments and start making money through downloadable content or they're SOL. If I were running a film studio I would make the bold decision of putting all future film releases on the DVD medium with lots of special features and commentaries. People don't like to go to movie theatres because of the overpricing and the distractions of people in the theatre.

Sorry for going slightly off the topic but it goes hand in hand. This isn't just a recording industry problem it's an entertainment world problem.

Good post Sports, this is my thinking as well. The entire entertaiment industry is falling because everything flat out sucks and is'nt worth the money.

[jmood88]

Re: U.S Music Album sales down 7%

If you know where to look, finding good music isn't that hard.

How do you find out where to look?

[jmood88]

Re: U.S Music Album sales down 7%

And I don't feel bad for not buying albums since artists make hardly an money off them. Eff the labels.

Yup. They make their real money off of tours.

[bgeno]

Re: U.S Music Album sales down 7%

If you know where to look, finding good music isn't that hard.

That's my point... I shouldn't have to look anywhere. The good music should be playing on the radio... and usually it is not.

[cbgatorade0202]

Re: U.S Music Album sales down 7%

I havent bought a cd since Nelly- Country grammar and i prob have bout 100 cd's i bought before then...Since i started burning cd's on the computer why would i wanna pay for cd's with af ew good songs when i can burn what ever i'd like?

[BGarrett7]

Re: U.S Music Album sales down 7%

And when the labels start losing money, they start cutting artists from the label, which is decided by CD, ticket, and merchandise sales.

Exactly right.

While artists don't make a living off of record sales, it has a lot to do with how the record label deals with them. The labels will pump money into a debut release, push a song to radio, make sure the band is attached to a decent nationwide tour, and then let the sales determine where they go from there. Most of the time, a single market can make or break an artist.

There's an artist I am a huge fan of named Mike Garrigan. If you listened to modern rock radio in 2000, you may have heard a song he had out at the time with his band Collapsis, called "Automatic," from their album Dirty Wake. Here are his words on what happened to his band -- posted just a couple weeks ago on his message board in a thread about downloading music.

I experienced this "sales dependent marketing" first hand in 2000 with my band Collapsis. Universal was watching the market of Houston very closely for about six weeks. "Automatic" was the most requested song in June on all of the local radio stations in that area. Our future came down to one measureable criterion. If we sold 400 units in the next week of Dirty Wake, Universal was prepared to spend close to a million dollars in new marketing, including a video and more tour support. That week, we sold 320 units. After that disappointment, the decision was made to let the current marketing plan cycle out. The album was over two months later. That month, when we were being measured by legitimate album sales, we were also one of the most shared songs on Napster's peer-to-peer network. If the song hadn't been downloaded illegally, it is safe to assume that we would have reached the next marketing step. And, if that happened, we would have definately made a second album.

That being said, is Mike totally against the downloading of music? No way. He offers about thirty unreleased songs, demos, and live recordings on his website for anyone to download. And while he wasn't directly hurt financially by one of his songs with Collapsis being traded on Napster back in the day, it did hurt the furthering of his band, and as a result his now solo career. If Collapsis had made it to another marketing level, got to shoot a video, and gotten more exposure as a result of it, he certainly wouldn't still have to put out all of his work independently and have his fans suffer through waiting for him to be able to finance those projects.

What was his final stance on illegal downloading, as an artist who had been effected by it?

I guess illegal downloading is up to the personal conscience of the fan. Sure, the artist doesn't get that money. But, a new and emerging artist may have a marketing plan that is based on in-store sales and legal downloading. In that way, an illegal download hurts the band you want to see succeed.

Can't say that I, someone who regularly "acquires" music via the internet, disagrees with what he has to say. If there is an artist I will support until the end -- Butch Walker, Suburban Love Junkies, et al -- especially if they are just trying to make a name for themselves, there is no way I would rip off their stuff. I sincerly hope that everyone who is like he at least holds the same feelings towards those artists they enjoy who are still trying to further themselves and get their sound out to the public.