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.

It used to be the norm to release the album around the time of the second single.

To be quite honest, people like me aren't the target audience of the people trying to sell albums, so what I say probably doesn't mean much here, but I do think simply making better albums would help a lot.

 

The mainstream artists are releasing too many albums with just a few good songs on. Nobody is going to pay even £5 for an album with just three good songs on, when they could pay £3 for three good songs.

 

So I think the best solution to increase album sales is to make albums more expensive.

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

 

Err... have Adele release 10 albums at once? :P

 

Seriously though, I would not pin the blame on digital downloads, as ISTM the economic downturn is the main reason - people simply have less disposable income.

 

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.

 

That won't work, it'll just encourage piracy even more.

Edited October 20, 201113 yr by vidcapper

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.

 

Let's see -

 

1. The dominant type of music in singles ATM is urban.

2. Urban music tends to appeal more to the younger, singles-buying market, not the older album-buying segemnt.

3. Younger people have less disposable income, so can't afford to buy mnay albums.

4. Urban, and especially hip-hop albums, almost invariably under-perform in the UK. This encourages artists to release too many singles before the parent album, leaving even less incentive to buy the longer format.

 

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.

 

I think it would be a big mistake to downplay the physical format for albums. CD's etc are still very popular with older music buyers - and they are the biggest segment of the albums market.

 

Besides, have you ever tried putting a download in an Xmas stocking? :w00t:

 

^ :lol: @ vidcapper and urban

I do agree with him about physical albums though.

 

Anyway, things go in cycles (I've said this thousand times) regarding albums vs. singles and one genre vs. another. During the end of the 90s singles sales were huge but album sales were even lower than today. In the 60s the market was very singles driven as the only huge smash albums from those days were the ones by The Beatles.

Edited October 20, 201113 yr by SKOB

Precisely. When CDs were first introduced, a typical price was around 12 - 13 quid. That was over 35 years ago.

 

Surely you mean 25 years ago?!

 

Surely you mean 25 years ago?!

Yes.

I think it would be a big mistake to downplay the physical format for albums. CD's etc are still very popular with older music buyers - and they are the biggest segment of the albums market.

 

Besides, have you ever tried putting a download in an Xmas stocking? :w00t:

 

I'm not downplaying them, I know they're still very important and contribute to the majority of sales. But this isn't sustainable. Not once HMV goes. I am right in thinking albums from Play and Amazon don't count towards the chart still? There's a lot of sales lost there.

 

Digital albums are the future, and although attempts have been made to market/promote the digital format, none of them have quite worked yet. The USB stick is the best idea, but it's not economically beneficial to have albums on USB sticks. In my opinion, the larger record companies need to look at all the artists on their roster and not see them as indiviudals, but as a collective group. They might have to make a loss on one artist to make a profit on another. It's the same with big brands making a loss in one store, but making a huge profit in another. I'm interested in seeing what can be done, as the market needs to be shifted towards the digital album download.

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.

 

listen to albums outside the mainstream charts and you will find a lot of quality, think I've bought 20-25 physical/digital albums this year easily and it's not been a case of having to "cherrypick" them because the majority of albums don't have filler on them

^ :lol: @ vidcapper and urban

I do agree with him about physical albums though.

 

Anyway, things go in cycles (I've said this thousand times) regarding albums vs. singles and one genre vs. another. During the end of the 90s singles sales were huge but album sales were even lower than today. In the 60s the market was very singles driven as the only huge smash albums from those days were the ones by The Beatles.

 

To be fair this isn't just my rap 'thing' - you can see by comparing singles & albums YTD's what is what. :)

 

I'm not downplaying them, I know they're still very important and contribute to the majority of sales. But this isn't sustainable. Not once HMV goes. I am right in thinking albums from Play and Amazon don't count towards the chart still? There's a lot of sales lost there.

 

Of course they count towards the charts - why would they not?

 

Digital albums are the future, and although attempts have been made to market/promote the digital format, none of them have quite worked yet. The USB stick is the best idea, but it's not economically beneficial to have albums on USB sticks. In my opinion, the larger record companies need to look at all the artists on their roster and not see them as indiviudals, but as a collective group. They might have to make a loss on one artist to make a profit on another. It's the same with big brands making a loss in one store, but making a huge profit in another. I'm interested in seeing what can be done, as the market needs to be shifted towards the digital album download.

 

Download albums will certainly increase their share of the market, but IMO will never become as dominant as they are in singles.

 

The economic downturn has I think exaggerated the decline of sales that would have been apparent anyway due to singles becoming so much less expensive. You used to have to pay £2-3 for a single and you got maybe one or two b-sides and a remix with it if you were lucky. For the time that album sales declined so much (because it is actually slowing up now, sales aren't that much below 2010 which weren't that much below 2009) you could buy the song you liked for 79p completely anonymously rather than committing three times that on a CD you may only like one song of.

To be fair this isn't just my rap 'thing' - you can see by comparing singles & albums YTD's what is what. :)

 

Your definition of it is ridiculously wide and vague though, everything is bound to have some kind of influences because pure pop doesn't sell in vast quantities anymore and rock is underperforming in the singles chart. That leaves you with hip-hop/R'n'B and dance...

Some genres are more singles-driven but most of all it's all about artists. If the artist is worth investing in, people will buy the album. For example, Rihanna has been categorized as a singles artist in the US but yet sold millions of albums in the UK.

Edited October 20, 201113 yr by SKOB

Your definition of it is ridiculously wide and vague though, everything is bound to have some kind of influences because pure pop doesn't sell in vast quantities anymore and rock is underperforming in the singles chart. That leaves you with hip-hop/R'n'B and dance...

 

Wide perhaps, but I wouldn't say vague - my criteria is very clear : that if the lead and/or featured artist(s) are from R&B or hip-hip, then it at very least counts as urban-influenced.

 

In any case, I don't hate *all* urban music - I like Rihanna, Beyonce, Kelis & Anastacia, to name four.

 

Looking down the current YTD T20's, I see 11 (not counting L-Lo or Aloe Blacc) on singles & just 7 in albums.

Edited October 20, 201113 yr by vidcapper

'Give Me Everything' is the only song in the YTD top 20 I'd describe as predominantly rap/hip-hop. Price Tag, Party Rock Anthem, On The Floor, Changed The Way You Kiss Me, Sweat, Do It Like A Dude (that's greatly stretching 'rapping') and Yeah 3X all have rapping in them but I'd describe them as predominantly either pop (PT, OTF, DILAD) or dance (PRA, CTWYKM, Sweat, Y3X). I'd go so far as to say 'I Need A Dollar' and the two Adele entries are the closest thing to urban in the top 20 aside from GME, because they're at least true to an 'urban' genre (namely soul) without much crossover. Even GME has dance/pop crossover.

 

So I count 11 there stretching the term 'urban' as far as I possibly can. Assuming you don't have Adele as urban and since you've already said you've excluded JLo and Aloe, I don't see how you've got up to 11...

 

And I only see 3 'urban' albums in the albums top 20 and that's being incredibly tenuous with Cee Lo Green :huh: (Tinie and Beyoncé being the other 2 - again I can be even more tenuous and include the two Adele albums to make it up to 5 but 7?!)

Edited October 20, 201113 yr by Bré

Wide perhaps, but I wouldn't say vague - my criteria is very clear : that if the lead and/or featured artist(s) are from R&B or hip-hip, then it at very least counts as urban-influenced.

 

In any case, I don't hate *all* urban music - I like Rihanna, Beyonce, Kelis & Anastacia, to name four.

 

Looking down the current YTD T20's, I see 11 (not counting L-Lo or Aloe Blacc) on singles & just 7 in albums.

 

Anastacia?

'Give Me Everything' is the only song in the YTD top 20 I'd describe as predominantly rap/hip-hop. Price Tag, Party Rock Anthem, On The Floor, Changed The Way You Kiss Me, Sweat, Do It Like A Dude (that's greatly stretching 'rapping') and Yeah 3X all have rapping in them but I'd describe them as predominantly either pop (PT, OTF, DILAD) or dance (PRA, CTWYKM, Sweat, Y3X). I'd go so far as to say 'I Need A Dollar' and the two Adele entries are the closest thing to urban in the top 20 aside from GME, because they're at least true to an 'urban' genre (namely soul) without much crossover. Even GME has dance/pop crossover.

 

So I count 11 there stretching the term 'urban' as far as I possibly can. Assuming you don't have Adele as urban and since you've already said you've excluded JLo and Aloe, I don't see how you've got up to 11...

 

And I only see 2 'urban' albums in the albums top 20 and that's being incredibly tenuous with Cee Lo Green :huh:

 

At a guess I'd say the seven were:

 

Bruno Mars (admittedly has R&B influences but he's pure pop really)

Rihanna (likewise)

Cee-Lo (because he looks like a traditional soul singer? Hmmm...)

Chase & Status (dance)

Plan B (arguable)

Beyoncé (R&B singer yes, urban is pushing it)

Tinie Tempah (the only real certain)

 

I'm guessing you're identfying Chase & Status as urban on the grounds of their featured artists. One of said featured artists on an album track whose name escapes me is that famous urban act White Lies. Would you also call Kaiser Chiefs urban, given one of the songs on their third album had a featured rapper?

Of course they count towards the charts - why would they not?

 

I'm sure they're not. It's to because they're shipped through Jersey. It may have changed but 2-3 years ago this was definitely the case, and they did not count towards the chart.

"Albums just aren't good anymore" is such a lazy argument. You only have to look beyond the charts to find countless of incredible albums (this year alone).

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!

 

A dowload is like computerfiles etc. With a CD you get a lovely case, the booklet which often has nice words in it, and pretty pictures :o (or ugly if the artist is an ugo but you know, who lets ugly people produce music....) So for that extra quid or 2, you get so much more. Also if you're computer goes bye bye if you accidently step on it or spill something on it, you actualy still have it...

 

Anyway.... CD Albums rule!