The following shipment figures are from the RIAA, dating back to 1973. The first shows album unit sales across four formats: 8-tracks, vinyl, CDs, and digital albums. The second shows singles across four formats: CD-singles, cassette singles (or 'cassingles'), vinyl singles, and digital singles. US specific.
I. Albums.
II. Singles.
Comments Closed
balbers Thursday, February 17, 2011
Units shipped does not necessarily mean units sold. Ask Axl Rose. Which means that the reality is probably a bit worse than that top graph depicts.
M-RES Friday, February 18, 2011
Actually, number of units shipped DOES mean number of units sold when you're talking about downloads. So the percentage of the numbers shipped that are verifiable sales is actually on the increase for albums, and for singles is going sky high.
What it shows is that the music industry is far from struggling and if anything is doing better than ever with reduced production/distribution overheads thanks to digital downloads.
Jonathan McMillan Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Completely disagree M-RES! Why does everyone forget about inflation! If you will sell me your home for what it cost in 1973 I'll won't be as upset having to sell you my product at the same cost as 1973. As a music maker with successful sales of 8 million units I can tell you that things are getting worse daily and it's harder to make a great recording now then it was 10 years ago. Yes my equipment has gotten better and cheaper but my rent way more expensive, my legal overhead and marketing costs have increased and I'm at a point where I can make more working at McDonald's full time and work less hours.
Also I will say the quality of product that people are willing to accept has gone way down. I think there needs to be a more fair system for everyone where the consumer demands quality and has a quantitive way to pay for it.
Read this reality check and prove me if I'm wrong:
http://jonomc.com/2011/02/death-of-the-recorded-music-industry/
chris Thursday, February 24, 2011
if you can make more working at mcdonalds and work fewer hours, what are you waiting for? quit making music and get a real job.
simon mas Friday, March 04, 2011
seconded!
i have enough of people crying out that THE MUSIC IS DYING!
the music is dying because big labels have called customers names for 10 years.
now finally there is some kind of rebirth for truly independent artists and agile business models. it's not 1992 anymore and you got to adapt. otherwise, there's no shame in flipping burgers!
Visitor Monday, March 21, 2011
I guess you would know unequivocably that you are correct e-res
Dan P Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Well I'm sure you don't need McDonalds after you shifted "8 million units!" I know people in music biz, and it all comes down to them not having lavish lifestyles today as they had in 1995.
It's crap - think before you spend mate.
@midwestmusic Friday, February 18, 2011
Midwest Music Found
Interesting
@phillipsmatt Friday, February 18, 2011
Matt Phillips
if music consumption/demand is flat; this shows the importance of control
Mathieu-Gilles Friday, February 18, 2011
Where does it compile the billions of views of Lady Gaga's videos on youtube and the revenues of Google and the Internet Access Providers?
JanonymousR Friday, February 18, 2011
In your imagination....
Awesome graph. Singles have taken over.
Lynn Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Perhaps singles have taken over due to the fact that most albums are available to download as individual tracks? Therefore the number of "singles" downloaded would be highly inflated by album tracks.
Goldfinger Friday, February 18, 2011
And what revenues would that be? The amount of money Lady Gaga makes off YouTube is laughable, and pretty much non-existent to the rest of the music artists out there.
Faza (TCM) Saturday, March 12, 2011
Aye. But the fact that Lady Gaga doesn't make any money doesn't mean Google makes nothing either. Which is the point.
@inkmusic Friday, February 18, 2011
ink music
Ein paar Grafiken zum Wochenende gefällig?
@iam_CM Friday, February 18, 2011
c.menez
L'historique des ventes de musique enregistrée aux USA, 1973-2010
Casual Observer Friday, February 18, 2011
As other s have pointed out, there 's always been a tortured difference between "shipped" and "sold" in physical media.
But now that we're digital, one might ask what the difference is between producing and shipping 1 album and 1,000,000 albums?
Music Business Reject Friday, February 18, 2011
The digital singles can be considered hard numbers, since one can't "ship" digital.
musicbusinessreject.wordpress.com
@buda_allmusic Friday, February 18, 2011
Sérgio Gonçalves
Incredable image of the Music Industry...
Gresehover Friday, February 18, 2011
I would love to see a chart showing video game, movie and dvd sales over the same time period. I would imagine a giant spike around 2000 as video games became big business and dvd sales really exploded as home theater became a mass-market phenomenon. Comparing these figures might show a more complete picture of how consumers spend their discretionary entertainment budget.
@hellomarko Friday, February 18, 2011
Mark Montgomery
can you say bubble kids?
Shachar Oren Friday, February 18, 2011
Fantastic graph and great comments from everyone. Would also be interesting to somehow quantify the changes in revenues from radio/broadcasting/streaming/web, publishing... then, lay all graphs on top one another to see broader trends.
There are of course many aspects to consider behind these trends. For example, consider the manufacturing, stock, logistics, and distribution costs that used to be involved w/ managing multiple physical formats, and where all those costs shift in the digital space (they don't go away, arguably they shift to other sectors such as web site design etc.).
GD Friday, February 18, 2011
And if we correlate this chat to the quality of music produced we find that some of the greatest music of all time was made in the 90's and new artists flocked to the industry leading to more great music in the early 2000's......right?
MisterSoftee Friday, February 18, 2011
hilarious comment. that needed to be said.
@Herr_Hartmann Friday, February 18, 2011
Sebastian Hartmann
Die letzten 40 Jahre der Tonträger Industrie in Verkaufszahlen
@IanGormely Saturday, February 19, 2011
Ian Gormely
Kind of amazed that despite every album being available free online, people still bought 400 million last year.
@fohdave Saturday, February 19, 2011
Dave Stagl
This is interesting stuff. Notice the numbers peaked at the height of Napster and fell when it was attacked.....
@meckimac Saturday, February 19, 2011
meckimac
Very interesting graph
Divisive Saturday, February 19, 2011
It's a bit misleading to view the spike in singles sales as something that offsets the dip in album sales... mostly because it takes an average of 10 single sales to equal one album sale. So, from a pure revenue standpoint, you need to divide that singles figure by ten to get a clear picture of what's being balanced out. What we're really talking about is the equivalent of around 120m album sales, which doesn't make up for a whole lot in terms of lost revenue.
@squishbelly Saturday, February 19, 2011
Squishelton Belly
every picture tells a story
@mfiebach Saturday, February 19, 2011
Michael Fiebach
cassettes were a powerful medium, CDs too, DL singles. What's Next....?
@ninenorthlp Saturday, February 19, 2011
Larry Pareigis
Interesting Infographic
@deckarudo Sunday, February 20, 2011
Guillaume
Excellents graphiques sur l'avènement de l'album dans les années 80 et le grand retour du single...
@Wingerson Sunday, February 20, 2011
Kirk
Downloads are now king, albums plummeting.
@kimberleymoyes Sunday, February 20, 2011
Kimberley Moyes
i like a good bar chart
@Chubyone Monday, February 21, 2011
Chubyone
Mais, qu'en penser?
@fredguih Monday, February 21, 2011
Tiere
historique des ventes: le vinyle n'est toujours pas mort, la cassette si...
@esoniq Monday, February 21, 2011
esoniq
interesanti...
@pegerteg Monday, February 21, 2011
Peter Walker
interesting, if not surprising
@aleafalls Monday, February 21, 2011
Erica Erwin
singles market anyone?
@HQofK Monday, February 21, 2011
kristina
hockey stick!
@Sam_Mitch Monday, February 21, 2011
Sam Mitchell
More joy of music stats...
Roger Monday, February 21, 2011
I'd like to see income received from licensing music to television, commercials, video games, streaming and advertising broken out. It seems to me that some percentage of lost sales has been made up by license income.
@djmarkkavanagh Monday, February 21, 2011
Mark Kavanagh
Fascinating US music sales figures
@mspiegelman Monday, February 21, 2011
Michael Spiegelman
A changing music industry, in graph form...
@FBien Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Frederic Bien
Digital downloads still have ways to go.
@thedowncast Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Downcast
Dramatic chart shows how album sales have crashed. All this despite the RIAA suing the shit out of file share-ers!
@gabefurtado Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Gabriel Furtado
A well done graph...
epony Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Quick back of the envelope math: if an album cost $10 on average and a single $1 on average, then in 2000 (record year for album sales), record companies grossed about $10 billion from both albums and singles. In 2010, they grossed about $5 billion.
Questions? ;-)
bassdood Thursday, March 03, 2011
Yes, interesting back-of-the-envelope math. But it isn't all about the top-line gross sales; the net margin amount after expenses is critical. Consider this as well: the incremental cost of a CD is totally different than the incremental cost of a digital download. I would love to see some real numbers on that.
Suppose, for sake of thinking about it, it is something like this: for a record company to make, ship, stock, and cut-in the retailer, possibly the incremental cost for one more CD is $6 out of that $10. In other words, to sell one more CD (after the initial upfront costs have already been sunk), of the $10 retail price, the record company sells it to the retailer for $5, and incurs $1 in materials cost (physical CD disk, printed color inserts, plastic case, shrink wrap) and shipping costs. For the digital download, the incremental cost for one more unit may be close to zero. Let's say it is $0.10 out of $1 (for extra bandwidth, servers, etc).
If this is anywhere close to being ballpark right, then the aggregate industry net margin dollars for the lower gross revenue present paid download situation is about the same as for the previous higher-volume CD revenues.
It seems to me that the music industry (I'm speaking here about the record companies, not the artists) has always missed the potential impact of two critical forces: low incremental cost, and price elasticity of demand (the lower the price on something, the more people will buy). For example, if prices were cut to fifty cents, and paid demand tripled as a result, then they would come out ahead.
@TheJeneralTwit Wednesday, February 23, 2011
JenniferB
the industry needs to rethink
@PushProduction Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Excellent music industry data resource
@talkiy Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Talk it
INFOGRAPHIC: Album Sales are going down the shitter...
@hnic1971 Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Gregory Amani Smith
Singles Rule!
But money is disappearing
Former DJ Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Right.
If you have 100 million LP, CD or Album equivalents sold in 1999 @ $13 for a CD in USD, and now that LP equivalent sells 1, or 2 singles as digital downloads for 99¢ each, then total revenue has dropped from 1.3 Billion to 198 Million. That's a catastrophic income stream change.
Just take the numbers from 1999-2000 peak.
Total Revenue Dollars Music Only No Video Or DVD: $13,909.7 Million
Total Unit Sales No Vid or DVD: 1065.4 Million
Avg. Revenue Per Unit: $13.06
NOW, Take those 1065.4 Million in sales, convert them ALL to single downloads per each unit at 99¢ each and you get this:
1065.4 X .99 = 1054.8 Million in Sales, NOT 13,909 Million.
You have lost $12854.95 Million, or -92.4% !!!!
92.4% loss! That's a massive collapse!...and that is just what is underway in the Music industry. Only DVD's and premium lossless bitrate downloads can even make up a small portion of the tens of billions lost.
Over time the revenue per unit will asymptotically approach the limit of 99¢. Look at what has happened to book prices in the past year. It's the same effect. New authors charge 99¢, not $30. Ka-Boom!
Even if they sell 10 billion downloads a year - a 5X-fold increase from this year's figures - that only brings revenue back to 1990. 21 years of growth gone!
@pmusic_Anhembi Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Produção Musical
Infográficos mostram vendas da indústria fonográfica norte americana de 1973 a 2010...
@Palmrocksongs Thursday, February 24, 2011
Chris de Palmer
What will the future of streaming services be?
Jay Thursday, February 24, 2011
Definitely the internet? Probably.
But what about MTV? MTV begins in 1981, finds its stride in the 1990s, and stops playing music in 2000.
@avongunten Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Andreas Von Gunten
interessanter vergleich zwischen singles und alben
Sergeant Tom Tuesday, March 01, 2011
The goal of any business is to accumulate large sales. Sales means numbers (of) - without sales, no business will survive except non-profits. The music business invests the money to create and expand sales. Without sales, a little label like mine would drown. Without sales Universal would start laying people off, etc; As you know sales are strictly in the jurisdiction of the consumers
miketyson986 Thursday, April 07, 2011
thanks for sharing..........
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