According to a new study, of the 13m songs available for sale on the internet last year, more than 10m failed to find a single buyer.

 

The research, conducted by the MCPS-PRS's Will Page and Andrew Bud, brings us that much closer to proving Sturgeon's Law – that 90% of everything is c**p. It also provides evidence for the famous old rock critic adage – your favourite band sucks.

More importantly, these findings challenge the "long tail" theory that diverse, specialised items – though individually less popular - will together outsell mainstream "hits".

 

Page is the chief economist at the MCPS-PRS Alliance, a not-for-profit royalty collection agency. According to his and Bud's research, 80% of all revenue came from about 52,000 tracks – the "hits" that powered the music industry. Broken down by album, only 173,000 of the 1.23m available albums were ever purchased – leaving 85% without a single copy sold.

 

"I think people believed in a fat, fertile long tail because they wanted it to be true," Mr Bud told the Times. "The statistical theories used to justify that theory were intelligent and plausible. But they turned out to be wrong."

 

"The relative size of the dormant 'zero sellers' tail was truly jaw-dropping," Page emphasised.

 

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/dec/23/music-sell-sales

 

Are you surprised that 85% of all music doesn't sell a single copy?

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/dec/23/music-sell-sales

 

Are you surprised that 85% of all music doesn't sell a single copy?

 

I more surprised at some of the utter c**p that sells thousands... :w00t:

 

is that a record breaking?

Not really surprised at all, if you consider all the albums that have ever been released, of course they'll be alot that won't sell 1 copy in 2008

Hardly surprising when you consider that there are well over 50 years worth of albums. I agree with Knight, its not that strange that the majority dont sell any .

 

Where did the 13 million come from? Itunes has about 6 or 7 million tracks. Its no surprise really. There are about 500 top 40 hits a year. Anyway thats about 1 song per 100 people with internet access worldwide :lol: . That article is ridiculous imo.