The record industry was thrown a reality check at the NARM conference this week. 2 percent of releases made up 91 percent of sales from the 98000 releases of 2009.
What is even more of a concern, only 2.1% of releases managed to sell more than 5000 units.The NARM conference also showed that people still buy the physical disc when it comes to purchasing an album. In the USA last year, 75% of albums sold were on CD.
The study also found that the older the purchasers, the more likely they were to buy a CD. Susan Boyle’s ‘I Dreamed A Dream’ album sold 90.5% on CD.
It also points out that the industry may also be spending too much time focused on the wrong demographic. Purchasing power for music is in the wallets of the older generation. Susan Boyle sold more records last year in the USA than Lady Gaga.
Vinyl is making a comeback. 2.8 million albums sold as vinyl releases last year and 75% of those sales came from independent retailers.
The study found that “fresh artists are staring at a near-zero chance of selling even modest amounts”.
