The biggest hits are getting significantly bigger with 2009’s most popular singles having sold more than twice as many copies as their equivalents managed just three years ago.

 

Huge smashes this year by the likes of Polydor’s Lady GaGa and La Roux, Parlophone’s Lily Allen and Columbia’s Kings Of Leon have further raised the bar in terms of how many sales are needed to make the very top sellers, with the Top 10 singles of 2009 so far having sold at least 400,000 units each.

 

The trend further underlines the increasing difficulty of labels to sell albums as singles dominate. At this stage last year a more modest 265,447 sales were required to breach the year’s Top 10 sellers, while in 2006 the benchmark was 189,968 sales. That is 110% lower than the sales of Dizzee Rascal and Armand Van Helden’s Dirtee Skank-issued Bonkers, which in the year up until last week was 2009’s 10th top-selling single.

 

Conversely, the most popular albums of the year are selling notably fewer copies than their equivalents of previous years. Thus 2009’s 10th top seller, No Line On The Horizon by Mercury-handled U2, which had sold 329,969 copies by last week, is 24% below the sales of B Unique/Polydor’s Employment by Kaiser Chiefs when it stood as 2006’s 10th biggest album at this point in the year.

 

Polydor president Ferdy Unger-Hamilton, whose company has the year’s four biggest-selling singles through La Roux, Black Eyed Peas and two Lady GagGa hits, says a hit single these days no longer automatically guarantees album sales will follow.

 

“You need two or three hits to convince people to come out and buy an album,” he notes, a point emphasised by Lady GaGa whose Poker Face and Just Dance are the biggest two singles of the year and Paparazzi the 20th, helping to turn her album The Fame into 2009’s biggest new release.

 

“Her album is really starting to come through and the same is now true with the Black Eyed Peas,” says Unger-Hamilton. “We started off with Boom Boom Pow at number one and the album did okay and now we’ve got I Gotta Feeling.”

 

The rapid growth of the biggest sellers is reflected by the overall singles market where sales had grown year-on-year by 37.3% up to a week ago. At this point in the year in 2008 total sales had just surpassed the 60m mark, but in 2009 they have already comfortably surpassed 80m sales.

 

James Morrison’s manager Paul McDonald, whose act’s Broken Strings duet with Nelly Furtado has sold more than 400,000 units and is the year’s seventh biggest-selling single so far, welcomes rising singles sales. However, McDonald raises concerns about their effect on album numbers. “I noticed with Broken Strings we seemed to be having some old-school numbers,” he says. “It’s great if the singles numbers are high, but in a post-iTunes world people, unfortunately, don’t have to buy the album any more. If they like the track they can just pay 79p for it.”

 

Although Morrison’s Polydor-issued Songs For You Truths For Me is one of the year’s 10 top-selling albums with more than 345,000 units sold in 2009, McDonald concedes, “We haven’t seen the numbers we might have expected.”

 

Falling album sales are also further lowering the sales thresholds being penetrated by debut albums released in the year. At this point in 2008 only two debut albums issued during the year, Duffy’s A&M/Polydor-issued Rockferry and XL artist Adele’s 19, had surpassed the platinum benchmark of 300,000 sales. Five debut acts had reached the platinum mark by the same week in 2007, while nine were at this level in 2006.

 

However, so far in 2009 only one debut released in the year has hit the platinum mark: Lady GaGa’s album, which had sold 673,806 units by last week to rank as the year’s second biggest-selling album.

 

In addition, Bella Union act Fleet Foxes’ self-titled debut and Columbia-signed MGMT’s introductory Oracular Spectacular, both released in 2008, were recognised as platinum albums this year.

 

No 2009 debut album by a UK-signed artist has reached platinum status so far in the year, something that has not happened in any previous year this decade.

 

The closest to the mark currently is Island’s Florence + The Machine whose Lungs had sold 169,168 units to stand as the year’s 33rd top seller a week ago. Not far behind is Polydor act La Roux’s eponymous debut whose 155,673 sales made it the year’s 39th top seller by last week.

That's very interesting. I wish albums would sell huge again (along with singles) but i doubt they'd both sell well. Damn the cherry-picking on iTunes

I'm sure there'll be a way around this, it's not that the album market is dying, it's just that record companies need to be cleverer about it.

As they mentioned with Lady GaGa, you need a handful of popular tracks now if you want to shift an album, as opposed to just issuing one lead single and expecting people to flock.

 

So release more singles, or start making videos for "buzz" tracks as Natalie Imbruglia has recently done. Start leaking a couple of album tracks for free. Anything to ensure the public gets to hear thr majority of the album so that they'll go out and buy.

Conversely, the most popular albums of the year are selling notably fewer copies than their equivalents of previous years. Thus 2009’s 10th top seller, No Line On The Horizon by Mercury-handled U2, which had sold 329,969 copies by last week

 

New info! :yahoo:

 

Although Morrison’s Polydor-issued Songs For You Truths For Me is one of the year’s 10 top-selling albums with more than 345,000 units sold in 2009

I had just under.

 

However, so far in 2009 only one debut released in the year has hit the platinum mark: Lady GaGa’s album, which had sold 673,806 units by last week to rank as the year’s second biggest-selling album.

 

More new info. :)

 

I had about 600 lower - it's adjustment time...

 

The closest to the mark currently is Island’s Florence + The Machine whose Lungs had sold 169,168 units to stand as the year’s 33rd top seller a week ago. Not far behind is Polydor act La Roux’s eponymous debut whose 155,673 sales made it the year’s 39th top seller by last week.

 

And again... :w00t:

 

I think the reason why album sales are so low is probably because people are cherry picking tracks off albums to download instead of buying the whole album. Plus also the recession will probably be having an effect on album sales aswell!

I think the reason why album sales are so low is probably because people are cherry picking tracks off albums to download instead of buying the whole album. Plus also the recession will probably be having an effect on album sales aswell!

The recession certainly won't be helping album sales. The last three recessions we've had have each been accompanied by a steep decline in album sales. In 1974 to 1976 album shipments fell by 10 million, in 1979 to 1982 shipments fell by 18 million and in 1991 to 1993 shipments fell by 30 million. What will be interesting this time will be to see if album sales climb as we come out of recession. Cherry picking album tracks has caused a massive and seemingly irreversible decline in album sales in the US, even before the recession hit. In the UK the closure of Woolworth's is still affecting album sales as additional sales elsewhere have not compensated for the steep decline in sales caused by Woolies closure. And the closure of the likes of Music Zone and Fopp has seen a steep decline in album sales for back catalogue, those stores had helped buoy up sales at the lower end of the chart with their vast back catalogue of old albums selling for £5 or so. It doesn't look as if anyone is in a hurry to open up a chain of record stores to help replace all these lost sales.

 

The recession certainly won't be helping album sales. The last three recessions we've had have each been accompanied by a steep decline in album sales. In 1974 to 1976 album shipments fell by 10 million, in 1979 to 1982 shipments fell by 18 million and in 1991 to 1993 shipments fell by 30 million. What will be interesting this time will be to see if album sales climb as we come out of recession. Cherry picking album tracks has caused a massive and seemingly irreversible decline in album sales in the US, even before the recession hit. In the UK the closure of Woolworth's is still affecting album sales as additional sales elsewhere have not compensated for the steep decline in sales caused by Woolies closure. And the closure of the likes of Music Zone and Fopp has seen a steep decline in album sales for back catalogue, those stores had helped buoy up sales at the lower end of the chart with their vast back catalogue of old albums selling for £5 or so. It doesn't look as if anyone is in a hurry to open up a chain of record stores to help replace all these lost sales.

 

That's a good point. The closure of record stores hasn't helped, many small towns are now without record shops.

You have to go into the nearest large town to visit a music store now which would be HMV.

 

That's a good point. The closure of record stores hasn't helped, many small towns are now without record shops.

You have to go into the nearest large town to visit a music store now which would be HMV.

Indeed. I reckon I used to spend at least £50 a month, some months a lot more than that, at Music Zone in my local shopping centre. There's an Asda but I don't go in there with the intention of just looking through the CDs like I did at MZ. As a result the amount I spend on buying CDs has dropped considerably as I can't be bothered to have to travel to HMV etc just to look through the CDs to see if there's anything I fancy. As a result I now make very few impulse buys.

 

Indeed. I reckon I used to spend at least £50 a month, some months a lot more than that, at Music Zone in my local shopping centre. There's an Asda but I don't go in there with the intention of just looking through the CDs like I did at MZ. As a result the amount I spend on buying CDs has dropped considerably as I can't be bothered to have to travel to HMV etc just to look through the CDs to see if there's anything I fancy. As a result I now make very few impulse buys.

 

Interesting.

 

I find I'm *more* likely to make impulse buys now, given the ease of downloading music...

 

Indeed. I reckon I used to spend at least £50 a month, some months a lot more than that, at Music Zone in my local shopping centre. There's an Asda but I don't go in there with the intention of just looking through the CDs like I did at MZ. As a result the amount I spend on buying CDs has dropped considerably as I can't be bothered to have to travel to HMV etc just to look through the CDs to see if there's anything I fancy. As a result I now make very few impulse buys.

 

 

We don't have a HMV near us, I have to travel to Maidstone for my nearest record store now. Plus HMV is the only pure record store outlet left available, otherwise you have to buy music from supermarkets, and all supermarkets don't stock back catalogues, if HMV decides to call it a day, the back catalogues will sink without a trace.

 

I do wonder if CDWow and Play will branch out to retail stores, but I don't think that will happen, the record market needs new pure record outlets for the music industry to survive. You are not going to find a copy of Evanescence Fallen in a supermarket, unless you go online.

We have a record store at Exeter that sells back catalogue and second-hand stuff. I forgot that was called, but it's a local store. :unsure:

 

EDIT: I now remember, it's called Entertainment Exchange.

Edited August 20, 200915 yr by FM11

Most stores are out of town now. I have to go out of town to get most things, except what I can get in the supermarket. In terms of choice Clothes stores and Coffee Shops are all thats left in my city centre. Music stores I only have HMV and a small independent music store. Music stores havent been really affected by the recession here apart from Woolies. We used to have an Our Price aswell but that went years and years ago.

Interesting.

 

I find I'm *more* likely to make impulse buys now, given the ease of downloading music...

I'm not really interested in downloading albums. Tracks perhaps but not albums. But I would have thought nothing of buying 5 or so CD albums (usually back catalogue) in one go at one time when I may have just gone into the store with the intention of buying one specific CD (usually a new or recent release). I then may have done that twice or three times a month. Now I'll most likely just buy that one specific CD from Asda along with my other shopping but the outcome each time is potentially 4 or more lost sales to the industry. I'm sure there are many other people who had and still have similar buying habits as me and that will add up to a lot of lost sales over the year.

 

I'm not really interested in downloading albums. Tracks perhaps but not albums.

 

I meant tracks rather than albums anyway.

 

But I would have thought nothing of buying 5 or so CD albums in one go at one time

 

Funny - I don't think much of that idea, either. :P