Not that this should come as a surprise, shock, or heck even news flash but CD sales are down this holiday season. Black Friday has come and gone and retailers are collectively scratching their heads wondering why they have cases of new releases that are not selling. CD sales for this year are down a whopping 14 percent from last year.
At Blog of Sound we’ve noted time and time again that CD sales will continue to slide. It’s not a reflection of illegal music downloads or the availability of streaming audio on the Internet. As consumers, we’re begging the record industry to give us something worthy of our dollars and we will show you the money.
Let’s take a look at the newest releases that are gracing the Billboard’s top chart, shall we. Hmmm…Jordin Sparks. Josh Groban. Alicia Keys. Garth Brooks. Celine Dion. Yes. These are certainly artists that we want to run out and buy CDs from. Or wait a minute. Here’s a pencil. We could just as easily shove it in our ear to save ourselves from this terrible array of offerings. Yes, shoving a pencil in our ear would be much less painful than actually listening to, let alone purchasing one of these releases.
And therein lies the problem. The wonderful pencil makers of the world are probably seeing record sales this holiday season while the recording industry is singing the blues.
There are no exciting new releases slated for the remainder of this year. A slew of rappers will release their own expletive laced drivel, metal band Godsmack will release a greatest hits album encompassing the last 10 years, and king of the emo-kids Rivers Cuomo of Weezer fame will release a disc of home recordings. We’re so excited over here that our pencils are starting to look awfully friendly.
Even heading into 2008, January holds little to look forward to. Radiohead will release “In Rainbows” and Ringo Starr will release “Liverpool 8.” Record executives expect releases from Aerosmith, Anti-Flag, The Cure, Def Leppard, Disturbed, Coldplay, Dr. Dre, Janet Jackson and Michael Jackson, Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, No Doubt, U2, and Green Day throughout the new year but those releases may be so scattered (or put off) that they certainly won’t be enough to lift weak CD sales. Judging from the list of future releases we speculate that 2008 might even be weaker than 2007. Frightening.
No amount of special packaging, limited editions, or box-sets could save this year’s CD sales. They’re slumping and from the list of upcoming releases, that slump might be more than just another bump in the road.
This was always going to happen. Speaking from a UK perspective, CD s have always been exorbitantly priced, and the lack of investment in truly talented artists means the well is running dry. As you so rightly say, where is the stuff that will make us run out to the record shop? I still prefer to hold a good quality ACD with booklet in my sweaty little mit, than have some soulless download, where I only know I have a track because my computer tells me so. So, record majors, stop licking the arse of all this X fACTOR aMERICAN iDOL crap, and look to the real music makers, not just the hordes of pneumatic peroxide wannabes. You might see dollars now, but they are solunding your death knell.
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce