Physical media is dying (for years now). PJ is the only band in the last few years I've bought a physical copy of their album. I have always been a huge Metallica fan. Didn't buy their last album and got the previous one for free from this forum because they were being packaged with tickets and someone didn't want theirs. Almost nobody has CD players anymore under 30 and they aren't even a feature in most new cars. I would wager most of the Swifties buying the LP or CD aren't even playing them. It's the weird collecting phase. Soon to be a lot of college aged women with excess Swift merchandise to pawn.
As to the other person's comment about not knowing anyone buying physical music, add me to that mix. I work at a College with all ages and demographics, no one is buying much of anything unless it's a streaming subscription and everyone has Airpods for their smartphone. Same goes for movies; theatre or streaming. I think we'll continue to see more artists trying to cash in on theatre showings to balance the lost revenues in physical sales. Taylor is just ahead of the curve like in most things merchandise related.
The average age of cars on the road in the U.S. is 12 years old, which means that most cars still have CD players even though very few new cars have them. Bear in mind also that tens of millions of Americans have very spotty internet access and streaming is not a great option for them. I was in far northern New York to see the eclipse last week. There was no wifi in any business I entered. This is also one of the reasons why, even though a lot of people will say "no one listens to the radio anymore," the radio audience is still actually quite large. The aggregate radio audience actually dwarfs the streaming audience. Why? Because radio is free and it is everywhere. People listen to it in their cars, their homes, their offices. And there are a lot of wide-open spaces out in the country where radio reaches but broadband doesn't.
I was at Barnes & Noble today and the only people in the music section were teenagers. They were buying records (and not Taylor Swift-- they didn't seem to have that on display). Records are definitely coveted items among a segment of Gen Z. It's fascinating to me because they are otherwise content to experience everything in life through their phones, but this ancient technology appeals to them.
The resurgence of vinyl, as bizarre as the phenomenon is on a number of levels, is a reminder that we shouldn't be so quick to write off things as gone forever. CD players may be vanishing, but it was not so long ago that turntables were hard to find. Who knows what might happen in the future that could change consumers' habits and desires? Seriously, in 2005, who had "vinyl records will rise from obsolescence to become the top-selling format again" on their Bingo card? Maybe the next generation (Generation Alpha?) will decide that CDs are their retro fetish.
Does the Stern appearance move an extra 500 copies?
I doubt it, but one thing that I don't know whether was factored into that HDD estimate is Record Store Day. Between the RSD variant and the fact that some number of people who were unaware Pearl Jam has a new album out might make an impulse buy when they see it at their local record store, maybe the number goes up.
Does the Stern appearance move an extra 500 copies?
I doubt it, but one thing that I don't know whether was factored into that HDD estimate is Record Store Day. Between the RSD variant and the fact that some number of people who were unaware Pearl Jam has a new album out might make an impulse buy when they see it at their local record store, maybe the number goes up.
If they see it. It's mostly Taylor on full display
Physical media is dying (for years now). PJ is the only band in the last few years I've bought a physical copy of their album. I have always been a huge Metallica fan. Didn't buy their last album and got the previous one for free from this forum because they were being packaged with tickets and someone didn't want theirs. Almost nobody has CD players anymore under 30 and they aren't even a feature in most new cars. I would wager most of the Swifties buying the LP or CD aren't even playing them. It's the weird collecting phase. Soon to be a lot of college aged women with excess Swift merchandise to pawn.
As to the other person's comment about not knowing anyone buying physical music, add me to that mix. I work at a College with all ages and demographics, no one is buying much of anything unless it's a streaming subscription and everyone has Airpods for their smartphone. Same goes for movies; theatre or streaming. I think we'll continue to see more artists trying to cash in on theatre showings to balance the lost revenues in physical sales. Taylor is just ahead of the curve like in most things merchandise related.
Physical media is dying? Tell Taylor Swift that.
I died. I died and you just stood there. I died and you watched. I died and you walked by and said no. I'm dead.
As a fan who's 53 years old, I just really value having physical copies of the albums I love most. I'm guessing that people who are about 45 or older know what I mean, because they experienced it several decades ago. I mean, there's an artistic aspect to the album sleeves and inserts that doesn't really exist with digital versions. I honestly feel more connected to the band(s) by owning their albums on CD and/or vinyl. That's just me though.
I’m the same.
I died. I died and you just stood there. I died and you watched. I died and you walked by and said no. I'm dead.
Physical media is dying (for years now). PJ is the only band in the last few years I've bought a physical copy of their album. I have always been a huge Metallica fan. Didn't buy their last album and got the previous one for free from this forum because they were being packaged with tickets and someone didn't want theirs. Almost nobody has CD players anymore under 30 and they aren't even a feature in most new cars. I would wager most of the Swifties buying the LP or CD aren't even playing them. It's the weird collecting phase. Soon to be a lot of college aged women with excess Swift merchandise to pawn.
As to the other person's comment about not knowing anyone buying physical music, add me to that mix. I work at a College with all ages and demographics, no one is buying much of anything unless it's a streaming subscription and everyone has Airpods for their smartphone. Same goes for movies; theatre or streaming. I think we'll continue to see more artists trying to cash in on theatre showings to balance the lost revenues in physical sales. Taylor is just ahead of the curve like in most things merchandise related.
Physical media is dying? Tell Taylor Swift that.
Exactly, I referenced her. She's the outlier and as I mentioned, it's just a craze that she feeds with her stupid cash grabs by having variants with 1 different song for fans to choose or buy all. Yes, she's a smart business woman, but also greedy as fuck. She's becoming just another arrogant billionaire who will do anything to increase her sales. Maybe her fans will figure it out or maybe they don't care.
Sure, PJ has many colored vinyl variants, but the content is the same so it's on the consumer to control buying the exact same thing in different colors for no real reasons besides want.
All my friends just stream everything now. I literally don't know anyone who has bought a new album by any artist in years.
This is almost certainly not true. There were over 100 million albums sold in the U.S. in 2023, 87 million of them physical albums. You may think you don't know anyone who has bought a new album in years, but you almost certainly do. And don't fall for the fallacy of making presumptions about the population at large based on the people you know. We tend to associate with those who are similarly situated to us, but it's a big country full of all different kinds of people. Several years ago, I asked as many people as I could whether they watched NCIS. No one said they did. And yet it was the most-watched show on television for several years running. If I had tried to draw a conclusion based on the people whom I asked, I would have been very wrong about the extent of the show's audience. I encounter things like this all the time. People will tell me "no one does" this thing or that thing, completely unaware that I do whatever the thing is. "No one listens to the radio anymore." I do. "No one reads a newspaper anymore." I do. "No one has cable or satellite TV anymore." I do (and so do 60 million other U.S. households). "Everyone has a smartphone." I don't. Neither does Christopher Nolan, so look for me to win Best Picture soon.
By the same token, there were more than 850 million movie tickets sold in the U.S. last year in an industry that made over $9 billion. It's an industry that has challenges, but it is far from dying.
I have a group of friends who try to go to PJ every time they are in town. Talking 10-12. Not a single one of them have bought Dark Matter. Some have spotify, some apple or amazon. Just saying. Of course this is circumstantial evidence. But that was my whole point. I don't know anyone who bought any albums recently, let alone this one.
What I'm saying is that you probably do know people who have bought albums recently, but they may not be the people you talk about music with. 87 million physical albums sold last year is one for every four people in the U.S. Of course, it's a smaller group of people buying multiple albums, but it's still probably at least 30 million people buying at least one album.
yeah, thats fair....but to a similar point....
My dad buys 3 newspapers every day. Newspapers are still dying.
I think physical media will be with us for quite some time, but like you said, I think its single people buying multiple version of their albums. Vinyl probably saved the physical media industry, because streaming is catching up with CD quality. Vinyl is pretty specific. I also think its somewhat of a fad at the moment, and I say this knowing that I have been collecting vinyl since the early 90s. I am happy it has made a comeback. I just wish more vinyl was quality instead of colored pressings of digital music.
once streaming really catches up with CD/BluRay/Vinyl, I expect physical media to fall off further.
Annual music album sales in the United States dropped by roughly three percent between 2019 and 2021, amounting to just 109 million in the most recent year. This number decreased further to just 100 million in the U.S. in 2022. In 2013, sales amounted to 289.4 million units, a number which had already noticeably decreased from the 331 million units sold in 2011.
Annual music album sales - additional information
The past decade has brought along many changes, both technological and societal, which have forever changed the face of the global music industry. Today, music superstars, such as Beyonce, who was the highest paid musician in the United States in 2016, have money, coverage in all possible mediums, and power like never before. However, as of 2015, the worldwide revenue generated by the music business stood at 16.1 billion U.S. dollars, some nine billion less than in 2002.
It seems that the internet, the magical tool that is responsible for the creation of so many music celebrities, might also be responsible for the dismal statistics surrounding the sale of music albums in the United States, once the main revenue stream in the business. As the data shows, annual music album sales in the United States have plummeted from 500 million units sold in 2007 to under 170 million units sold in 2017. At the same time, digital music revenues, especially from album and single downloads, as well as subscription and streaming services, have been steadily growing in the past years. The fall in record sales is attributed to the rise of illegal music downloading, but also to legal services, which provide music products without the additional costs of production and shipping.
Despite changes in the way Americans acquire music, U.S. consumers still enjoy and value music industry products. Recent studies show that more consumers are choosing to use a legal alternative to file sharing, mainly digital music streaming services, such as online radio services like Pandora and Spotify. Additionally, musicians reorient themselves from album sales towards live performances and business deals to boost their incomes. As of 2017, the sales revenue from concert tickets in North America was at an all-time high, with revenue hit eight billion U.S. dollars for the first time.
Newspapers are dying. I didn't dispute that. But books are not. The ways in which the internet killed newspapers don't apply to books. All physical media are not equal. CDs have declined since they peaked at the turn of the century-- believe me, I'm intimately familiar with the numbers-- but they're not dead (and they're still a much bigger deal in some other countries, like Japan). LPs have enjoyed a resurgence in the last fifteen years. It adds up to a smaller but still significant market. And it's not a straight decline. CD sales actually increased in the U.S. from 2022 to 2023.
Anyway, my point wasn't to suggest that there hasn't been a decline in physical media. I was just saying that, when you make a broad statement like "I don't know anyone who has bought an album in years," that's almost certainly overstating things. Because there are still plenty of people out there buying these things, and you surely know some of them without realizing it, even though your core group of friends (who are probably similar to you in terms of demographics and taste-- this is true for most people; we congregate with like-minded people) are not buying them. I have literally had the experience on more than one occasion of being in a public place reading a newspaper and having someone say to me, "Nobody reads newspapers anymore." Do they think I'm an apparition? And the bigger point is that I'm not special, so if I'm sitting here in front of you reading a newspaper, there are probably millions of other people reading newspapers out there in the country. Are there hundreds of millions of people reading newspapers like there used to be? No, of course not. But there are still a lot of dinosaurs out there like me. Not to mention billions of actual dinosaurs that we call birds!
Newspapers are dying. I didn't dispute that. But books are not. The ways in which the internet killed newspapers don't apply to books. All physical media are not equal. CDs have declined since they peaked at the turn of the century-- believe me, I'm intimately familiar with the numbers-- but they're not dead (and they're still a much bigger deal in some other countries, like Japan). LPs have enjoyed a resurgence in the last fifteen years. It adds up to a smaller but still significant market. And it's not a straight decline. CD sales actually increased in the U.S. from 2022 to 2023.
Anyway, my point wasn't to suggest that there hasn't been a decline in physical media. I was just saying that, when you make a broad statement like "I don't know anyone who has bought an album in years," that's almost certainly overstating things. Because there are still plenty of people out there buying these things, and you surely know some of them without realizing it, even though your core group of friends (who are probably similar to you in terms of demographics and taste-- this is true for most people; we congregate with like-minded people) are not buying them. I have literally had the experience on more than one occasion of being in a public place reading a newspaper and having someone say to me, "Nobody reads newspapers anymore." Do they think I'm an apparition? And the bigger point is that I'm not special, so if I'm sitting here in front of you reading a newspaper, there are probably millions of other people reading newspapers out there in the country. Are there hundreds of millions of people reading newspapers like there used to be? No, of course not. But there are still a lot of dinosaurs out there like me. Not to mention billions of actual dinosaurs that we call birds!
Newspapers are dying. I didn't dispute that. But books are not. The ways in which the internet killed newspapers don't apply to books. All physical media are not equal. CDs have declined since they peaked at the turn of the century-- believe me, I'm intimately familiar with the numbers-- but they're not dead (and they're still a much bigger deal in some other countries, like Japan). LPs have enjoyed a resurgence in the last fifteen years. It adds up to a smaller but still significant market. And it's not a straight decline. CD sales actually increased in the U.S. from 2022 to 2023.
Anyway, my point wasn't to suggest that there hasn't been a decline in physical media. I was just saying that, when you make a broad statement like "I don't know anyone who has bought an album in years," that's almost certainly overstating things. Because there are still plenty of people out there buying these things, and you surely know some of them without realizing it, even though your core group of friends (who are probably similar to you in terms of demographics and taste-- this is true for most people; we congregate with like-minded people) are not buying them. I have literally had the experience on more than one occasion of being in a public place reading a newspaper and having someone say to me, "Nobody reads newspapers anymore." Do they think I'm an apparition? And the bigger point is that I'm not special, so if I'm sitting here in front of you reading a newspaper, there are probably millions of other people reading newspapers out there in the country. Are there hundreds of millions of people reading newspapers like there used to be? No, of course not. But there are still a lot of dinosaurs out there like me. Not to mention billions of actual dinosaurs that we call birds!
Great post 😁
Thanks. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while.
Newspapers are dying. I didn't dispute that. But books are not. The ways in which the internet killed newspapers don't apply to books. All physical media are not equal. CDs have declined since they peaked at the turn of the century-- believe me, I'm intimately familiar with the numbers-- but they're not dead (and they're still a much bigger deal in some other countries, like Japan). LPs have enjoyed a resurgence in the last fifteen years. It adds up to a smaller but still significant market. And it's not a straight decline. CD sales actually increased in the U.S. from 2022 to 2023.
Anyway, my point wasn't to suggest that there hasn't been a decline in physical media. I was just saying that, when you make a broad statement like "I don't know anyone who has bought an album in years," that's almost certainly overstating things. Because there are still plenty of people out there buying these things, and you surely know some of them without realizing it, even though your core group of friends (who are probably similar to you in terms of demographics and taste-- this is true for most people; we congregate with like-minded people) are not buying them. I have literally had the experience on more than one occasion of being in a public place reading a newspaper and having someone say to me, "Nobody reads newspapers anymore." Do they think I'm an apparition? And the bigger point is that I'm not special, so if I'm sitting here in front of you reading a newspaper, there are probably millions of other people reading newspapers out there in the country. Are there hundreds of millions of people reading newspapers like there used to be? No, of course not. But there are still a lot of dinosaurs out there like me. Not to mention billions of actual dinosaurs that we call birds!
All of that is fair. Just to my point, though about the bolded...The only people I know who buy albums still are my siblings. I have been sharing clips of PJ with friends and family, even in the case of my siblings, they only buy their favorite artist. (Their PJ equivalent to me).
But I make a point of asking people about these things, cause it would be fun to share vinyls, etc. Nobody I know is doing it. Are there fringe people I know who buy the odd country album? Probably, I guess. But take the same group of people I knew in High School and college, and back then thats all you did was buy albums...that same group, its nobody that I know. Obviously its totally circumstantial, and to your point, sure there are probably people that buy the odd album here or there. But its like dramatically reduced from whatever it was. I guess, my point here is that I am not overstating things...I literally dont know anyone in my larger circle who has bought a physical copy of an album other than me and my sibs. Im sure they exist. But I just dont know of them.
Those millions reading papers are all over 60
Youre right, books aren't dying, in fact, they seem to be increasing. But bookstores are have been decreasing aside from a few in really populated areas and then the mom & pops that are likely combined with antique stores. Maybe there will be a renaissance of sorts for bookstores just like record stores. I know the pandemic killed off a bunch, too, although they were declining before that, but I think they have had an uptick in recent years.
It is amazing that they know by Saturday how many will sell that first week?
Pre-orders make up a huge percentage of the sales, and then the Luminate tracking is instantaneous upon scanning of the bar code, so they get real-time information.
It is amazing that they know by Saturday how many will sell that first week?
Pre-orders make up a huge percentage of the sales, and then the Luminate tracking is instantaneous upon scanning of the bar code, so they get real-time information.
Yes I know. But how do they know someone won't order a million copies on Amazon today last Friday?
All of that is fair. Just to my point, though about the bolded...The only people I know who buy albums still are my siblings. I have been sharing clips of PJ with friends and family, even in the case of my siblings, they only buy their favorite artist. (Their PJ equivalent to me).
A-ha! So you do know people who buy albums. I rest my case!
But I make a point of asking people about these things, cause it would be fun to share vinyls, etc. Nobody I know is doing it. Are there fringe people I know who buy the odd country album? Probably, I guess. But take the same group of people I knew in High School and college, and back then thats all you did was buy albums...that same group, its nobody that I know. Obviously its totally circumstantial, and to your point, sure there are probably people that buy the odd album here or there. But its like dramatically reduced from whatever it was. I guess, my point here is that I am not overstating things...I literally dont know anyone in my larger circle who has bought a physical copy of an album other than me and my sibs. Im sure they exist. But I just dont know of them.
This was kind of my point-- the difference between "knowing" and "knowing of." I don't think I know anyone who's into weird sex stuff, but I probably do. I just don't ask them about it (although I bet I know who they are, but I'm not naming any names (*cough* Christopher)). Not that buying albums is like weird sex stuff but, then again, the way some people talk about vinyl, there might be some overlap.
Those millions reading papers are all over 60
All of them except me but, yes, and that's why that medium is dying. But records are really popular among Gen Z. It could be a fad that fizzles out in the coming years, but who knows? It honestly makes more sense for 20-year-olds to be into records than it does for 50-year-olds. The 20-year-olds have no idea what a CD is, and the LP has some cachet as a cool tangible totem they can hold onto in a world that, for them, is mostly intangible. The 50-year-olds, by and large, previously abandoned the LP when the CD came out. In 1990, today's 50-year-olds embraced the CD because it was more portable, more durable and sounded better. It also didn't require getting up to turn it over halfway through, and made it easier to bounce around between tracks, and could be used in the car. If many of the people who now claim to be "vinyl or nothing" had been so passionate in 1990, the format wouldn't have virtually died out. Now many of the same people who abandoned the LP and got rid of their turntables swear by the format, insist that it's the only real way to listen to music, and are convinced it's the purest, best-sounding format. (No doubt there are some true believers who never abandoned the format and always maintained that it was better than CDs, but that's a minority of today's middle-aged record buyers. Otherwise, again, the format would not have been phased out with the advent of the CD.)
Youre right, books aren't dying, in fact, they seem to be increasing. But bookstores are have been decreasing aside from a few in really populated areas and then the mom & pops that are likely combined with antique stores. Maybe there will be a renaissance of sorts for bookstores just like record stores. I know the pandemic killed off a bunch, too, although they were declining before that, but I think they have had an uptick in recent years.
Barnes & Noble has gone from being the chain that killed the mom-and-pops to the chain that has kept booksellers alive in the face of Amazon. Look at B&N's numbers the past few years; they're killing it. One of the reasons is that the new management, which previously ran Waterstone's in the U.K., has allowed stores to tailor their stock to local preferences instead of having their inventory and displays dictated by corporate. B&N is kind of like a mom-and-pop corporate chain now.
I think there's just something about a book that can't be easily replaced.E-books obviously have a market, but people still like holding the thing in their hands, and many readers are just averse to reading anything longform digitally. Books are also great gifts. Giving someone an online subscription to a magazine or an e-book just doesn't have quite the same impact as giving them a book. And books are easily shareable, as libraries demonstrate.
Dark Matter is tracking to open at No. 2 in Top Album Sales, with 55,000 units sold (behind The Tortured Poets Department with 1,800,000 and ahead of No. 3 Lover with 15,000). It is tracking to debut at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 with 63,000 equivalent units (55,000 sales plus 8,000 streaming-equivalents). (TTPD is tracking for 2,400,000. Nos. 2 through 4 project to be Future & Metro Boomin (73,000 units, of which 900 are sales), Beyonce (66,000/12,000) and Morgan Wallen (64,000/1,600)). (Don't even get me started on the stupidity of the Billboard 200 formula that gives these results.)
This is almost exactly the same first-week performance as Gigaton (also 63,000 total units, of which 57,000 were traditional sales, and also a No. 5 debut on the Billboard 200), which is kind of amazing and likely due to the variants offsetting the natural downward trend for all artists like Pearl Jam. This is a bigger sales number than Green Day's most recent album, which sold 39,000 in its first week and was credited with 49,000 total units.
Dark Matter is tracking to open at No. 2 in Top Album Sales, with 55,000 units sold (behind The Tortured Poets Department with 1,800,000 and ahead of No. 3 Lover with 15,000). It is tracking to debut at No. 5 on the Billboard 200 with 63,000 equivalent units (55,000 sales plus 8,000 streaming-equivalents). (TTPD is tracking for 2,400,000. Nos. 2 through 4 project to be Future & Metro Boomin (73,000 units, of which 900 are sales), Beyonce (66,000/12,000) and Morgan Wallen (64,000/1,600). (Don't even get me started on the stupidity of the Billboard 200 formula that gives these results.)
This is almost exactly the same first-week performance as Gigaton (also 63,000 total units, of which 57,000 were traditional sales, and also a No. 5 debut on the Billboard 200), which is kind of amazing and likely due to the variants offsetting the natural downward trend for all artists like Pearl Jam. This is a bigger sales number than Green Day's most recent album, which sold 39,000 in its first week and was credited with 49,000 total units.
Makes you wonder how The Rolling Stones sold 100k their first week. Just glad they didn't count TTPD the Anthology as a separate release
Hey, that'll work. I was hoping for a top-five standing yet again, which will mean all 12 Pearl Jam studio albums will have placed in the top five of the Billboard 200. Sweet!
Vedd Hedd, all I know is if you needed a ride in my vehicle, but I only had room for my CDs, DVDs, vinyl records, and books, then you'd be walking buddy.
Hey, that'll work. I was hoping for a top-five standing yet again, which will mean all 12 Pearl Jam studio albums will have placed in top five of the Billboard 200. Sweet!
And if they only counted sales (as they should, and as they did until 2014), every Pearl Jam album except Riot Act would have hit either number one or number two:
Ten (2) Vs. (1) Vitalogy (1) No Code (1) Yield (2) Binaural (2) Riot Act (5) Pearl Jam (2) Backspacer (1) Lightning Bolt (1) Gigaton (2) Dark Matter (2)
Hey, that'll work. I was hoping for a top-five standing yet again, which will mean all 12 Pearl Jam studio albums will have placed in top five of the Billboard 200. Sweet!
And if they only counted sales (as they should, and as they did until 2014), every Pearl Jam album except Riot Act would have hit either number one or number two:
Ten (2) Vs. (1) Vitalogy (1) No Code (1) Yield (2) Binaural (2) Riot Act (5) Pearl Jam (2) Backspacer (1) Lightning Bolt (1) Gigaton (2) Dark Matter (2)
Yea it will be hard for a rock/metal act get higher on the charts with streams.
Comments
I was at Barnes & Noble today and the only people in the music section were teenagers. They were buying records (and not Taylor Swift-- they didn't seem to have that on display). Records are definitely coveted items among a segment of Gen Z. It's fascinating to me because they are otherwise content to experience everything in life through their phones, but this ancient technology appeals to them.
The resurgence of vinyl, as bizarre as the phenomenon is on a number of levels, is a reminder that we shouldn't be so quick to write off things as gone forever. CD players may be vanishing, but it was not so long ago that turntables were hard to find. Who knows what might happen in the future that could change consumers' habits and desires? Seriously, in 2005, who had "vinyl records will rise from obsolescence to become the top-selling format again" on their Bingo card? Maybe the next generation (Generation Alpha?) will decide that CDs are their retro fetish.
Sure, PJ has many colored vinyl variants, but the content is the same so it's on the consumer to control buying the exact same thing in different colors for no real reasons besides want.
My dad buys 3 newspapers every day. Newspapers are still dying.
I think physical media will be with us for quite some time, but like you said, I think its single people buying multiple version of their albums. Vinyl probably saved the physical media industry, because streaming is catching up with CD quality. Vinyl is pretty specific. I also think its somewhat of a fad at the moment, and I say this knowing that I have been collecting vinyl since the early 90s. I am happy it has made a comeback. I just wish more vinyl was quality instead of colored pressings of digital music.
once streaming really catches up with CD/BluRay/Vinyl, I expect physical media to fall off further.
Here are some stats since 2007.
Music album sales in the U.S. 2007-2022
Annual music album sales - additional information
The past decade has brought along many changes, both technological and societal, which have forever changed the face of the global music industry. Today, music superstars, such as Beyonce, who was the highest paid musician in the United States in 2016, have money, coverage in all possible mediums, and power like never before. However, as of 2015, the worldwide revenue generated by the music business stood at 16.1 billion U.S. dollars, some nine billion less than in 2002.It seems that the internet, the magical tool that is responsible for the creation of so many music celebrities, might also be responsible for the dismal statistics surrounding the sale of music albums in the United States, once the main revenue stream in the business. As the data shows, annual music album sales in the United States have plummeted from 500 million units sold in 2007 to under 170 million units sold in 2017. At the same time, digital music revenues, especially from album and single downloads, as well as subscription and streaming services, have been steadily growing in the past years. The fall in record sales is attributed to the rise of illegal music downloading, but also to legal services, which provide music products without the additional costs of production and shipping.
Despite changes in the way Americans acquire music, U.S. consumers still enjoy and value music industry products. Recent studies show that more consumers are choosing to use a legal alternative to file sharing, mainly digital music streaming services, such as online radio services like Pandora and Spotify. Additionally, musicians reorient themselves from album sales towards live performances and business deals to boost their incomes. As of 2017, the sales revenue from concert tickets in North America was at an all-time high, with revenue hit eight billion U.S. dollars for the first time.
Nuclear fission
Anyway, my point wasn't to suggest that there hasn't been a decline in physical media. I was just saying that, when you make a broad statement like "I don't know anyone who has bought an album in years," that's almost certainly overstating things. Because there are still plenty of people out there buying these things, and you surely know some of them without realizing it, even though your core group of friends (who are probably similar to you in terms of demographics and taste-- this is true for most people; we congregate with like-minded people) are not buying them. I have literally had the experience on more than one occasion of being in a public place reading a newspaper and having someone say to me, "Nobody reads newspapers anymore." Do they think I'm an apparition? And the bigger point is that I'm not special, so if I'm sitting here in front of you reading a newspaper, there are probably millions of other people reading newspapers out there in the country. Are there hundreds of millions of people reading newspapers like there used to be? No, of course not. But there are still a lot of dinosaurs out there like me. Not to mention billions of actual dinosaurs that we call birds!
https://hitsdailydouble.com/mediabase_adds_details&fmt=R2
https://hitsdailydouble.com/mediabase_adds_details&fmt=R3
https://hitsdailydouble.com/mediabase_adds_details&fmt=R1
But I make a point of asking people about these things, cause it would be fun to share vinyls, etc. Nobody I know is doing it. Are there fringe people I know who buy the odd country album? Probably, I guess. But take the same group of people I knew in High School and college, and back then thats all you did was buy albums...that same group, its nobody that I know. Obviously its totally circumstantial, and to your point, sure there are probably people that buy the odd album here or there. But its like dramatically reduced from whatever it was. I guess, my point here is that I am not overstating things...I literally dont know anyone in my larger circle who has bought a physical copy of an album other than me and my sibs. Im sure they exist. But I just dont know of them.
Those millions reading papers are all over 60
Youre right, books aren't dying, in fact, they seem to be increasing. But bookstores are have been decreasing aside from a few in really populated areas and then the mom & pops that are likely combined with antique stores. Maybe there will be a renaissance of sorts for bookstores just like record stores. I know the pandemic killed off a bunch, too, although they were declining before that, but I think they have had an uptick in recent years.
Nuclear fission
This is almost exactly the same first-week performance as Gigaton (also 63,000 total units, of which 57,000 were traditional sales, and also a No. 5 debut on the Billboard 200), which is kind of amazing and likely due to the variants offsetting the natural downward trend for all artists like Pearl Jam. This is a bigger sales number than Green Day's most recent album, which sold 39,000 in its first week and was credited with 49,000 total units.
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