CD Sales Take Another Dive
CDs are now sliding precipitously, especially in the United States, and that has intensified media diversification efforts at major retailers. At the halfway point, year-over-year disc sales in the United States dropped 15.1 percent, according to Nielsen Soundscan. That gap has since broadened to 18.4 percent.
For retailers like Trans World, Hastings, and Virgin Megastores, diversification has now become an accelerated survival tactic. During the recent quarter, music-specific sales at Trans World dropped 19 percent on a comparable store basis. That is more severe than dips of 16 percent recorded during the same quarter last year, and represents a worsening trend. "Trans World has 950 stores and we would expect them to continue to deemphasize music over the next 12-24 months," said Richard Greenfield of Pali Research during a recent investor note. Greenfield noted that Trans World has already lowered its music-specific selection to 43 percent of total inventory, down from 47 percent last year.
The decreased selection means less consumer matches, and lowered sales volumes. "As floor space continues to contract at physical retail, we are increasingly concerned that the rate of decline in CD sales will materially accelerate in 2008," Greenfield asserted.
CDs are dead. Nobody wants to carry around a bulky portable CD player, especially now that the iPod has taken over portable music. People that care to have music in CD format can buy digital and burn their own CDs.
I’m surprised the drop in sales isn’t significantly larger.
I still love CDs, only I refuse to pay more than $10 for a CD, so the ones I end up buying are usually at least a few years old or are used… The industry has overpriced its product and shot itself in the foot! Sad that they can’t adapt to consumers’ needs! Meanwhile, support encrypted file sharing: http://www.gigatribe.com
The web is saturated with articles and blogs about the death of the music industry & what Madonna, Radiohead and the like in collusion with web 2.0 digital models and P2P sites are doing to the industry … “killing it”?
But this IS the new industry … a place where the majority of content is created and consumed for free, where the creativity embodied on your musical content IS the value attributed to it.
True creativity will become a form of money; so you may download my music for free, but that creativity still has value – value enough for me to extract a service from you or your peers in exchange. A system where money becomes less important than trade.
A place where the merit in music conquers all. Or at least in the years to come it will.
It is my absolute belief that “where music leads all else will follow” .. that is the breakdown of the commercial music industry to elements of trade, file sharing, swapping & purchase will one day encompass our whole online commercial structure.
Merit and creative truth will rule, meaningless content (read “pop”) will simply become ignored meaninglessness, and it will struggle for any traction.
The sharing and spread across digital platforms of all online services and products will occur, with value being judged by merit. This will occur whether we are talking about a music track, a new product or a simple day to day service.
Advertisers will no longer be able to saturate our TV screens with useless products and thinly veiled lies about necessity – purchase value & immediacy will be decided by the purchaser.
ok, …. deeper : the human mind is a spark of the almighty consciousness of the creator, imagination and creativity are the doors from which this consciousness emerges.
As human minds develop further and become more fully tuned to the nature of spirit, by stopping thought, abandoning knowledge & trusting intuition, creativity also becomes more fully tuned to this truth. That is, music / knowledge / content / product is freed from the shackles of blind commercialism, prejudice or banality will simply cut through and gain traction by the simple fact of its creative merit.
The deeper the self realization of a person and his/her creativity, the more he/she influences the whole universe by subtle creative vibrations.
Silence is the potent carrier of the present tense. Every sound or action comes from silence & dies back into the ocean of silence.
You choose by your actions how you may disrupt this silence – choose wisely.
Death to the music industry, long live the industry of creativity.