Posted December 23, 20222 yr Slipped disc: The decline of CD sales and the Christmas No.1 album by Andre Paine Taylor Swift’s Midnights is this year’s Christmas No.1 album, following a chart contest with Cliff Richard and Michael Buble. At one point, it looked as if Midnights’ streaming total in the past week might be higher than its physical performance, something that has never happened for a Christmas No.1 album. In the event, physical made up 53.9% of Midnight’s weekly total, which is still by far the lowest ever share for a Christmas No.1. Wth CD sales diving in 2022, based on Music Week research, the longstanding tradition of physical music in the festive period is now looking uncertain. The Christmas No.1 single is still a mainstream media story even with the dominance of LadBaby in recent years. But the chart-topping album has become less of an event in the streaming era. In years gone by, securing the top spot in the albums chart with big numbers in the week of Christmas was a sign of a surefire hit, either from a chart mainstay of that year or a strategic Q4 release in the run-up to Christmas. Last year, despite becoming her first LP available on DSPs from release, Adele’s 30 still registered 62,083 physical sales in chart week 51 (out of a total of 70,813 - Official Charts Company) to retain the No.1 position for Christmas. During the final week of 2021’s gifting season, its physical sales increased from the prior week. The final weeks of Q4 have traditionally been a time when physical music could make its mark on the albums chart, even amid the ongoing switch to DSP consumption. But 2022 shows signs of being the year that streaming - already dominant in terms of consumption throughout the year - finally ends that end-of-year boost for physical. With no album managing to top 20,000 chart sales in the past week, Taylor Swift was able to cruise back to the summit for a third non-consecutive week at No.1 with Midnights. The album became this year’s Christmas chart-topper by registering a further 17,109 sales, including 9,216 physical copies, 7,690 from streams and 203 downloads. Its total stands at 404,600 after just two months. While that caps off a triumphant year for Taylor Swift, it does raise questions about the physical music market at Christmas and the long-term future of CD amid an accelerating decline for the format. Only one album (Cliff Richard’s Christmas With Cliff at No.2 - 15,837 sales) sold in excess of 10,000 physical copies in the past week. According to Official Charts Company data for the year up to week 50 (ending December 15), CD sales were down 18.9% year-on-year. That compares to a year-on-year decline of 10.5% (to 14 million) for the format during the whole of 2021. Physical represented 29% of the albums market in the past week compared to 28.2% in the prior week. A year ago, physical was at 37.2% of the albums market in the week leading up to Christmas. Back in 2016, almost 50 million CDs were sold, and Christmas was the period when sales peaked. Michael Buble’s Christmas reached No.1 with 317,114 copies sold in seven days in the run-up to December 25 in 2011. In 2015, Adele’s 25 (then not available to stream) sold a staggering 449,970 copies in a week. Of course, the market has since shifted to a consumption model, but weekly sales in the run-up to Christmas were still topping 100,000 as recently as 2017 (Eminem’s Revival at No.1 and Ed Sheeran’s Divide at No.2 both made six figures). In the last five years, physical has been on the wane but the Christmas No.1 album was still above 50,000 physical copies for that key week in 2018 (The Greatest Showman), 2019 (Rod Stewart’s You’re In My Heart) and 2021 (Adele). There was a credible challenge this year from three festive releases, new and old, by Cliff Richard, Michael Buble and Andrea, Matteo & Virginia Bocelli. But without the usual retail boost, the two 2022 releases - Christmas With Cliff and the Bocellis’ A Family Christmas - were unable to make up the ground. As the week progressed, Swift’s main threat appeared to be from Buble’s 11-year-old Christmas album, which was powered by streams (84.3%) and ultimately made No.3. SZA’s SOS, which finished at No.4, does not even have a physical edition. While fewer big albums dropping late in the year could explain the slower market performance in the past week, the difference was not just at the top of the chart. In Christmas week 2021 and 2020, four of the Top 5 albums topped 10,000 physical sales, while in 2019 each of the Top 5 albums surpassed 20,000 weekly physical sales. It’s also notable that big festive releases of recent years, such as LPs from Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow, have not returned to the chart in 2022. The chart-topping Together At Christmas from 2020 by Michael Ball & Alfie Boe did manage to stage a revival this year, but only as high as No.51. The duo are in the Christmas week Top 20 with new release Together In Vegas. Part of the problem is the lack of availability of CD, a remarkably good value gifting option at this time of year. But record stores now give over much more floor space to vinyl, while many supermarkets have stopped selling music completely or limited it to select titles. Warner Music ingeniously got around this problem by packaging Cliff Richard’s Christmas With Cliff in a magazine format that could be stocked in supermarkets. Vinyl has made a big impact in Q4 with key releases from Taylor Swift, Harry Styles and Arctic Monkeys. But with prices increasing - £30 is common for an LP - the format is not likely to be an impulse buy for the Christmas shopper looking for the right gift. In the latest issue of Music Week, ERA’s Kim Bayley noted the rise in prices for vinyl. “Great products which deliver high perceived value will always sell,” she said. “During the Christmas gifting season, we can expect more demand. But value and price need to be aligned. “We recognise that costs are rising for all parts of the industry, but there is a risk that if vinyl costs rise too much it may inevitably affect demand, in particular from younger, less affluent audiences.” In the latest issue, we crunch the Q4 numbers for the first eight weeks of the quarter that shows vinyl unit sales up by 7.4% year-on-year. But, as this Christmas week has shown, it’s been a bumpy quarter and vinyl is not set to grow at the same rate as last year, when sales soared by 10.6% for the 12 months. In terms of value, however, there has been a significant increase, which is good news for retailers and labels. According to Official Charts Company data up to week 50 in 2022, vinyl retail value is up 10.5% year-on-year. As well as consumers’ ability to absorb rising prices, there have been concerns about production capacity and supply issues. But if that has held back growth of vinyl at retail, there are hopes the situation could be improving. “The production of vinyl remains an issue, but there has been a massive improvement on the situation in the last 12 months,” HMV and Fopp MD Phil Halliday told Music Week. “There’s certainly an opportunity for growth in 2023, most notably on catalogue, where some segments have been significantly impacted over the last 18 months.” Subscribers can read the full story on vinyl and Q4 here. Christmas No.1 album weekly sales 2022 Taylor Swift - Midnights (17,109 - 9,216 physical copies) 2021 Adele - 30 (70,813 - 62,083 physical copies) 2020 Paul McCartney - McCartney III (33,079 - 30,557 physical copies) 2019 Rod Stewart - You’re In My Heart (71,330 - 68,015 physical copies) 2018 The Greatest showman (68,606 - 55,025 physical copies) from musicweek.com Edited December 23, 20222 yr by Robbie
December 23, 20222 yr The Christmas No.1 single is still a mainstream media story even with the dominance of LadBaby in recent years. But the chart-topping album has become less of an event in the streaming era. Was it ever really considered an 'event' in the first place though? Ofc the article is relevant to the general decrease in Q4 sales but I don't recall the Christmas #1 album ever being a thing that anyone really cared about even when it was a time of sky high sales. Maybe it was more of a thing back in the day idk.
December 23, 20222 yr Author Was it ever really considered an 'event' in the first place though? Ofc the article is relevant to the general decrease in Q4 sales but I don't recall the Christmas #1 album ever being a thing that anyone really cared about even when it was a time of sky high sales. Maybe it was more of a thing back in the day idk.It wasn't in the same way that the singles number 1 was but it was something much bigger than it has been in recent years. For one thing, sales used to be massive. Plus people used to talk about how many albums had sold over over 100,000 copies in Christmas week. It used to be close to 20 albums.
December 24, 20222 yr yes, no one cared who was #1 in album only interesting thing was how big sales were the #1 album was mostly something released in late November or early Dec that continued at #1
December 24, 20222 yr There was a period when Christmas album sales were huge, but they haven't always been, so it's a bit misleading to refer to only that specific period as a norm..
December 24, 20222 yr Not sure what you mean, until a few years ago, sales were huge in Xmas, not an exception, that was the rule
December 24, 20222 yr But they have been in decline for over a decade so it's hardly surprising. The sales are still higher than usual and artists like Bruce Springsteen, George Ezra and Taylor Swift are good physical sellers.
December 24, 20222 yr The years of reading the weekly chart sales in December use to be so great, so many big sellers.
December 24, 20222 yr But they have been in decline for over a decade so it's hardly surprising. The sales are still higher than usual and artists like Bruce Springsteen, George Ezra and Taylor Swift are good physical sellers. But you didn't write that, yo usaid they had only been high for a short period, which is not true of course the decline happened with the collapse of CD sales
December 24, 20222 yr compiled from Gezza's thread on the Sales Vault, album sales during Dec/Xmas since 90 the early 90s were not the highest but from '95 on sales really pick up well up til 2012 with the big drop from 2016 on 1990 15-Dec The Immaculate Collection Madonna 183,000 22-Dec The Immaculate Collection Madonna 233,000 29-Dec The Immaculate Collection Madonna 340,000 05-Jan The Immaculate Collection Madonna 198,000 1991 30-Nov Dangerous Michael Jackson 201,000 07-Dec Greatest Hits II Queen 146,000 14-Dec Greatest Hits II Queen 202,000 21-Dec Greatest Hits II Queen 184,000 28-Dec Greatest Hits II Queen 179,000 1992 26-Dec Cher's Greatest Hits 1965-1992 Cher 193,000 02-Jan Cher's Greatest Hits 1965- 1992 Cher 143,000 1993 18-Dec Bat Out Of Hell II- Back Into Hell Meat Loaf 164,000 25-Dec Bat Out Of Hell II- Back Into Hell Meat Loaf 189,000 01-Jan One Woman- Ultimate Collection Diana Ross 241,000 1994 24-Dec Carry On Up The Charts- The Best Of The Beautiful South 193,000 31-Dec Carry On Up The Charts- The Best Of The Beautiful South 176,914 1995 25-Nov Robson & Jerome Robson & Jerome 270,000 02-Dec Robson & Jerome Robson & Jerome 213,000 09-Dec Robson & Jerome Robson & Jerome 273,000 16-Dec Robson & Jerome Robson & Jerome 279,000 23-Dec Robson & Jerome Robson & Jerome 316,000 30-Dec Robson & Jerome Robson & Jerome 378,897 06-Jan Robson & Jerome Robson & Jerome 216,000 1996 07-Dec Spice The Spice Girls 170,000 14-Dec Spice The Spice Girls 217,000 21-Dec Spice The Spice Girls 271,000 28-Dec Spice The Spice Girls 364,676 04-Jan Spice The Spice Girls 375,000 1997 20-Dec Let's Talk About Love Celine Dion 142,000 27-Dec Let's Talk About Love Celine Dion 219,918 03-Jan Urban Hymns The Verve 230,000 1998 19-Dec Ladies & Gentlemen- The Best of... George Michael 239,000 26-Dec Ladies & Gentlemen- The Best of... George Michael 308,714 02-Jan Ladies & Gentlemen- The Best Of... George Michael 350,000 1999 25-Dec Come On Over Shania Twain 239,559 01-Jan Come On Over Shania Twain 277,984 2000 25-Nov 1 The Beatles 319,126 02-Dec 1 The Beatles 253,552 09-Dec 1 The Beatles 232,051 16-Dec 1 The Beatles 251,289 23-Dec 1 The Beatles 283,302 30-Dec 1 The Beatles 422,042 2001 01-Dec Swing When You're Winning Robbie Williams 295,024 08-Dec Swing When You're Winning Robbie Williams 194,254 15-Dec Swing When You're Winning Robbie Williams 212,386 22-Dec Swing When You're Winning Robbie Williams 245,255 29-Dec Swing When You're Winning Robbie Williams 365,208 05-Jan Swing When You're Winning Robbie Williams 179,625 2002 30-Nov Escapology Robbie Williams 264,104 07-Dec Escapology Robbie Williams 186,768 14-Dec Escapology Robbie Williams 195,297 21-Dec Escapology Robbie Williams 229,126 28-Dec Escapology Robbie Williams 310,237 04-Jan Escapology Robbie Williams 225,399 2003 13-Dec Friday's Child Will Young 201,900 20-Dec Life For Rent Dido 216,900 27-Dec Life For Rent Dido 270,652 03-Jan Life For Rent Dido 233,629 2004 04-Dec How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb U2 200,863 11-Dec How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb U2 127,982 18-Dec How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb U2 178,539 25-Dec Greatest Hits Robbie Williams 183,871 01-Jan Greatest Hits Robbie Williams 183,706 2005 10-Dec Curtain Call- The Hits Eminem 112,915 17-Dec Curtain Call- The Hits Eminem 241,382 24-Dec Curtain Call- The Hits Eminem 198,793 31-Dec Curtain Call- The Hits Eminem 314,553 2006 02-Dec The Love Album Westlife 219,662 09-Dec Beautiful World Take That 168,954 16-Dec Beautiful World Take That 199,185 23-Dec Beautiful World Take That 229,001 30-Dec Beautiful World Take That 443,070 2007 24-Nov Spirit Leona Lewis 375,872 01-Dec Spirit Leona Lewis 196,997 08-Dec Spirit Leona Lewis 164,433 15-Dec Spirit Leona Lewis 180,944 22-Dec Spirit Leona Lewis 228,504 29-Dec Spirit Leona Lewis 286,437 2008 06-Dec Day & Age The Killers 200,299 13-Dec The Circus Take That 432,490 20-Dec The Circus Take That 319,265 27-Dec The Circus Take That 381,650 03-Jan The Circus Take That 312,709 2009 05-Dec I Dreamed A Dream Susan Boyle 411,820 12-Dec I Dreamed A Dream Susan Boyle 303,708 19-Dec I Dreamed A Dream Susan Boyle 274,148 26-Dec I Dreamed A Dream Susan Boyle 352,612 02-Jan Crazy Love Michael Buble 243,226 2010 27-Nov Progress Take That 518,601 04-Dec Progress Take That 208,219 11-Dec Progress Take That 176,881 18-Dec Progress Take That 203,210 25-Dec Progress Take That 330,251 01-Jan Progress Take That 350,328 2011 17-Dec Lioness: Hidden Treasures Amy Winehouse 194,966 24-Dec Christmas Michael Buble 269,655 31-Dec Christmas Michael Buble 317,114 2012 22-Dec Unorthodox Jukebox Bruno Mars 136,391 29-Dec Our Version Of Events Emeli Sande 177,696 2013 07-Dec Midnight Memories One Direction 237,388 14-Dec Midnight Memories One Direction 124,535 21-Dec Swings Both Ways Robbie Williams 126,168 28-Dec Swings Both Ways Robbie Williams 126,330 2014 13-Dec III Take That 144,538 20-Dec X Ed Sheeran 152,262 27-Dec X Ed Sheeran 214,451 03-Jan X Ed Sheeran 211,168 2015 03-Dec - 800,307 - 25: Adele 10-Dec - 439,337 - 25: Adele 17-Dec - 353,765 - 25: Adele 24-Dec - 376,716 - 25: Adele 31-Dec - 449,870 - 25: Adele 2016 22-Dec - 96,529 Michael Ball & Alfie Boe: Together 29-Dec - 109,594Michael Ball & Alfie Boe: Together 2017 28-Dec Revival Eminem 131,622 2018 20-Dec The Greatest Showman Motion Picture Cast Recording 56,694 27-Dec The Greatest Showman Motion Picture Cast Recording 68,606 03-Jan The Greatest Showman Motion Picture Cast Recording 61,328 2019 26-Dec You're In My Heart Rod Stewart 71,330 2020 31-Dec III Paul McCartney 33,079 2021 02-Dec 30 Adele 261,856 09-Dec 30 Adele 102,261 16-Dec 30 Adele 73,212 23-Dec 30 Adele 68,139 30-Dec 30 Adele 70,813 2022 Taylor Swift - Midnights 17,109 Edited December 25, 20222 yr by Bjork
December 24, 20222 yr Some of the old sales figures like Robson and Jerome and Robbie's are just phenomenal. Not one week but several high weeks. Edited December 26, 20222 yr by creepy chris
December 25, 20222 yr I miss them big days when albums could go double platinum in a month, I remember take that's beautiful world and circus had multiple weeks of high sales.
December 25, 20222 yr These are the totals during the Xmas period (from late Nov til end Dec) and some figures are crazy, Adele did almost 2.5 million in 5 weeks and many albums have done well over 1 million and some even close to 2 million: Adele-30: 2,417,000 Robson & Jerome: 1,945,000 Take That-Progress: 1,785,000 Beatles-1: 1,760,000 Robbie Williams-Swing when: 1,490,000 Take That-The Circus: 1,444,000 Robbie Williams-Escapology: 1,439,000 Leona-Spirit: 1,429,000 Spice Girls-Spice: 1,397,000 Subo: 1,340,000 Take That-Beautiful World: 1,039,000
December 25, 20222 yr I miss album sales being that healthy :( I was always interested to see which albums were doing well at Christmas time. Here's some retro Top 20s from 2009 and 2010, randomly! 20th December 2009 01 352,612 I DREAMED A DREAM SUSAN BOYLE 02 251,842 CRAZY LOVE MICHAEL BUBLE 03 143,804 THE END BLACK EYED PEAS 04 136,480 THE FAME LADY GAGA 05 131,161 JLS JLS 06 111,599 REALITY KILLED THE VIDEO STAR ROBBIE WILLIAMS 07 109,730 UP TO NOW SNOW PATROL 08 102,750 WHERE WE ARE WESTLIFE 09 100,994 ECHO LEONA LEWIS 10 100,355 THE GREATEST DAY - THE CIRCUS LIVE TAKE THAT 11 97,177 THE HITS WILL YOUNG 12 92,114 ABSOLUTE GREATEST QUEEN 13 85,938 SOULBOOK ROD STEWART 14 85,059 3 WORDS CHERYL COLE 15 74,450 SUNNY SIDE UP PAOLO NUTINI 16 74,009 THIS IS IT MICHAEL JACKSON 17 69,076 THE ELEMENT OF FREEDOM ALICIA KEYS 18 63,492 COMING HOME SOLDIERS 19 49,896 OVERCOME ALEXANDRA BURKE 20 47,660 RATED R RIHANNA 27th December 2009 01 243,226 CRAZY LOVE MICHAEL BUBLE 02 234,651 I DREAMED A DREAM SUSAN BOYLE 03 148,676 THE END BLACK EYED PEAS 04 143,252 THE FAME LADY GAGA 05 108,999 JLS JLS 06 102,283 REALITY KILLED THE VIDEO STAR ROBBIE WILLIAMS 07 102,083 THE GREATEST DAY - THE CIRCUS LIVE TAKE THAT 08 93,946 UP TO NOW SNOW PATROL 09 84,831 THE HITS WILL YOUNG 10 84,754 3 WORDS CHERYL COLE 11 81,016 WHERE WE ARE WESTLIFE 12 76,724 ECHO LEONA LEWIS 13 75,988 SOULBOOK ROD STEWART 14 75,874 ABSOLUTE GREATEST QUEEN 15 72,047 SUNNY SIDE UP PAOLO NUTINI 16 56,858 THIS IS IT MICHAEL JACKSON 17 52,703 THE ELEMENT OF FREEDOM ALICIA KEYS 18 48,649 RATED R RIHANNA 19 47,292 AGAINST ALL ODDS N-DUBZ 20 46,709 COMING HOME SOLDIERS ---- 19th December 2010 01 330,252 PROGRESS TAKE THAT 02 193,548 LOUD RIHANNA 03 138,912 CRAZY LOVE MICHAEL BUBLE 04 113,146 MICHAEL MICHAEL JACKSON 05 101,342 OLLY MURS OLLY MURS 06 88,539 THE GIFT SUSAN BOYLE 07 81,418 IN AND OUT OF CONSCIOUSNESS - GREATEST ROBBIE WILLIAMS 08 79,783 OUTTA THIS WORLD JLS 09 73,325 GREATEST HITS BON JOVI 10 68,529 THE BEGINNING BLACK EYED PEAS 11 68,067 COME AROUND SUNDOWN KINGS OF LEON 12 60,666 MOONLIGHT SERENADE ANDRE RIEU & JOHANN STRAUSS OR 13 60,042 GREATEST HITS - SO FAR PINK 14 58,798 TEENAGE DREAM KATY PERRY 15 58,266 GRAVITY WESTLIFE 16 48,264 SCIENCE & FAITH SCRIPT 17 46,950 MESSY LITTLE RAINDROPS CHERYL COLE 18 44,970 A CHRISTMAS CORNUCOPIA ANNIE LENNOX 19 42,334 SEASONS OF MY SOUL RUMER 20 40,448 LOVE LIVE LIFE N-DUBZ 26th December 2010 01 350,328 PROGRESS TAKE THAT 02 248,934 LOUD RIHANNA 03 165,031 CRAZY LOVE MICHAEL BUBLE 04 105,496 OLLY MURS OLLY MURS 05 84,200 MICHAEL MICHAEL JACKSON 06 83,661 OUTTA THIS WORLD JLS 07 81,269 THE GIFT SUSAN BOYLE 08 77,096 THE BEGINNING BLACK EYED PEAS 09 77,036 GREATEST HITS BON JOVI 10 72,394 COME AROUND SUNDOWN KINGS OF LEON 11 68,367 IN AND OUT OF CONSCIOUSNESS - GREATEST ROBBIE WILLIAMS 12 61,091 GREATEST HITS - SO FAR PINK 13 58,231 GRAVITY WESTLIFE 14 57,837 SCIENCE & FAITH SCRIPT 15 57,144 TEENAGE DREAM KATY PERRY 16 56,776 A CHRISTMAS CORNUCOPIA ANNIE LENNOX 17 53,170 LOVE LIVE LIFE N-DUBZ 18 48,019 MOONLIGHT SERENADE ANDRE RIEU & JOHANN STRAUSS OR 19 47,830 MESSY LITTLE RAINDROPS CHERYL COLE 20 37,925 SEASONS OF MY SOUL RUMER
December 25, 20222 yr Such a sad thing, I used to love seeing high Christmas sales. It felt like albums were so special back then. Streaming has changed consumption habits and albums are just not appreciated anymore. I know there are still big sales when Adele or Ed release but it’s such a shame that it isn’t the norm anymore.
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