As we all know, Album sales are at an all time low because of the Digital Era, so what can be done?

 

I was thinking, to prevent Cherrypicking, why dont album songs become 'Album Only', so you cant buy an individual single forcing the albums to be bought as a whole.

 

What are your views?

Making album tracks 'album only' would just plunge us back into the days where EVERYTHING debuts at its peak and plummets again and no one wants that. Something should be done but not that.

I just don't think that there have been very many good albums out this year to be honest. I'd say the acts that we expected to sell well have (Foo Fighters, Adele, Arctic Monkeys to name a few) I think also people have had to tighten up on luxuries, which has played it's part. In the next few weeks or so we should see some big sellers from the likes of Coldplay, JLS and of course Noel Gallagher this week.

I won't say that the majority of albums are rubbish, but it could partly come down to quality? Adele has proved that album sales can still be BIG, so it's not like it's impossible.

 

Not keen on the album only idea and I'm not convinced it would work. If someone has checked an album out online and know they only like one track, having it album only won't make them buy the album, it's just a lost sale for the track. If someone likes a fair few tracks then they might buy the album anyway rather than cherry-picking the individual tracks they like.

 

Money could potentially play a part too, with the economy as it is?

i think it would help if albums were cheaper. say £7.99 not just the first week but permanently after that.

 

in a dream world downloading illegally could be banned. i have never downloaded an album that way and it scares me to think too many do it and dont care about the financial backing of an artist they like

Well making tracks album only would only lead to a rise in illegal downloading. I thought about that before but I don't think it's a good idea. Also yeah I think once the economy improves sales could rebound a bit. One thing I thought of was that dance is a genre that tends not to sell that many albums. Most of the acts that have had big hits have sold barely any albums. If a more album selling artist had a hit as big as Party Rock Anthem they would have sold more. So once dance stops being the dominant genre it will be interesting to see how albums fare.

People making their tracks album only is a BAD thing for so many reasons.

 

Making the songs downloadable individually means that only the albums with a lot of good tracks sell a lot. All those albums with just one or two good songs won't sell as much with cherry-picking possible, and will be forced to be made cheaper, and that's the way it should be.

 

Also, if all album tracks will be made album-only, we'll get EVERY song in the chart debuting at its peak again. At least at the moment we get a nice mix of the two with post-album singles like Sexy and I Know It, Last Friday Night, Right There, The Lazy Song, etc. having to climb their way up.

 

Albums are too expensive, especially for younger people. I hardly ever buy albums.

Edited October 19, 201113 yr by Eric_Blob

Albums are as cheap as they've ever been, so I don't see making the price lower is a convincing argument. They're already considerably lower than they were 5 years ago when album sales were much higher.

I think that after the first two singles, artists should focus on promoting their album. If they get a TV performance, promote an album track. I think that would help especially if you're someone like The Saturdays who go on every TV show going to promote one single. I think artists should do more signings as well, and possibly include more songs. Albums are too short, imo. 11 tracks is quite poor for £7.99 (sometimes more).

Albums are not too expensive. In HMV today there weren't any chart albums selling more than a tenner. Permanantly reducing the price of albums will put artists off making them as they won't make enough money off them. It's going that way anyway though.

I think that after the first two singles, artists should focus on promoting their album. If they get a TV performance, promote an album track. I think that would help especially if you're someone like The Saturdays who go on every TV show going to promote one single. I think artists should do more signings as well, and possibly include more songs. Albums are too short, imo. 11 tracks is quite poor for £7.99 (sometimes more).

 

Exactly, if there's 11 tracks on a £7.99 album, and only 5 of them are good, then the album won't sell much (and rightly so). So those people either need to make better albums, or make the album cheaper (e.g. £3.99), so that buying the album is cheaper than everybody buying the songs they like.

 

I agree about focusing on promoting the album aswell. I think a lot of people only buy songs they hear and like, and since most people only hear some of the singles, they'll just buy the singles. If people heard more of the album, they might opt to buy the entire album rather than just a couple of songs. I think making more music videos for album tracks would help. Also, radio stations playing more album tracks. I only hear an album track on Radio 1 or Capital from time to time, and whenever you do, it's always one of the really famous ones like Turn Me On, Man Down, Hair, Look At Me Now, etc. Some radio stations, such as Choice FM Radio 1Xtra are great for album tracks though, but not as many people listen to thoes.

Exactly, if there's 11 tracks on a £7.99 album, and only 5 of them are good, then the album won't sell much (and rightly so). So those people either need to make better albums, or make the album cheaper (e.g. £3.99), so that buying the album is cheaper than everybody buying the songs they like.

 

But why? Albums weren't longer, cheaper or better in 2005-7 than they are now yet sold tonnes more. £3.99 is completely unrealistic and unsustainable. Albums are as cheap as they have EVER been, price should not be an issue.

I don't think albums are expensive at all.

 

Noels album is being sold at the top range of 9.99 and can be dowloaded for 3.99 at amazon.

 

 

Edited October 19, 201113 yr by Jez

Start releasing good albums again?

I will not buy an album (I download) if they are more than £5. I don't get how the likes of HMV sell their downloads for £7.99 and CD's for £8.99? It makes no sense!

But if downloads are significantly cheaper less people will buy the physical album which will put another nail into the coffin of an already dying product.

Woolworths going was the start of it - they stocked/sold ALOT of albums, then we have had the Credit Crunch/Recession which means there is less disposable income about. The result is more people cherrypick for the songs they really like and download illegally.

There needs to be a huge marketing shift towards digital albums imo. The physical album is dying out, and while it still has legs, I can't honestly see it lasting that much longer. The recession has hit the physical album hard. People can use Adele as an example of an album still selling loads - these rarities don't happen so much. She's that type of artist that hits just about every age range - teenagers can buy her records, while her songs aren't considered too cool for hier parents. Often with these sorts of albums aswell, I attain a lot of the sales to sheepism. People want to fit in and be cool, so they buy the record.

 

Albums don't need to be cheaper, but I don't think a lot of them are promoted well enough these days. Record labels don't use social networking enough imo, and when they do they're like robots. Nobody wants to see that. More needs to be offered with the digital album. Not necessarily conent like the videos, artwork etc. but making the record more personalised towards the consumer, or random concert tickets with certain packages. People pay £0.99 for a song, so why not £4.99 for ten/twelve? Something can be done. Someone just needs to take that innovative first step.

 

I'm not a fan anymore of artists launching their album off just one single. Ok it works for some, but releasing two/three singles before the album drops is the best way to maximise sales at the moment. Overall sales might not be that high, but I would bet any money they'd be higher than if artists just released one single.

Albums are as cheap as they've ever been, so I don't see making the price lower is a convincing argument. They're already considerably lower than they were 5 years ago when album sales were much higher.

 

 

Albums are not too expensive. In HMV today there weren't any chart albums selling more than a tenner. Permanantly reducing the price of albums will put artists off making them as they won't make enough money off them. It's going that way anyway though.

Precisely. When CDs were first introduced, a typical price was around 12 - 13 quid. That was over 25 years ago. So how can people complain when the same thing is available now for just over half that price? When I started buying albums in the mid 70s (on vinyl) they were around four quid. The prices of most things are far more than double what they were then.

So many factors play a part on the slow demise of albums sales. I don't think it's a case of what new methods need to be used, it's what they have that can be utilized better. Like mentioned above, social media, promotional and marketing techniques. Just slight tweaks to get more people spending again.