Dear Artist, how many copies of your album were sold?

On 2007-07-31 18:27, Nik wrote:
SOME INTERESTING FACTS AND FIGURES-
http://www.themusic.com.au/im_m/display.php?s=phil&id=175

"In 2000, U.S. consumers bought 785.1 million albums; last year, they bought 588.2 million (a figure that includes both CDs and downloaded albums), according to Nielsen SoundScan.

In 2000, the ten top-selling albums in the U.S. sold a combined 60 million copies; in 2006, the top ten sold just 25 million.

The U.S. music industry issued 75,774 album titles in 2006, or 15,000 more than the 60,331 albums that came out in 2005. Major labels-counting physical and digital titles-issued 11,230 new albums in 2006, which was only slightly more than the 11,070 issued in 2005.

New releases were up 25.6% last year compared with 2005, with most of that figure coming from digital-only album releases. Last year, digital-only album releases jumped to 24,720 from the 16,580 released in 2005,

But despite that jump, new-release sales dropped 9.4% last year to 220.3 million from the 243.1 million units scanned in the prior year. That decline in sales is nearly double the overall album market's 5% drop between the two years.

Independent digital-only releases exploded last year, with 21,763 titles being issued, versus the 13,645 issued in the prior year. On the other hand, major label digital-only releases held steady, with 2,957 released in 2006 versus the 2,935 in 2005. Whether from a major or independent, digital-only new-album releases still remain microscopic, accounting for 1.22 million units in sales, or 0.6% of all sales generated by new releases.

Looking at physical only, last year the independent sector issued 42,781 titles-up 20% from the 35,616 titles issued in 2005. But these only sold 51.1 million units as opposed to 2005's 57.2 million units of one million + sellers.

In 2006 only 33 albums hit 1 million sales. Up one from 2005

In 2006, 364 albums sold 100,000 units or more same as 2005.

In 2006 only 1000 new albums sold more than 5000 copies. Only 5000 titles sold more than 1000 copies.

In 2006 55,516, or 73.3% of all new releases last year, failed to sell even 100 units. Of these, 4,364 came from the majors, and a whopping 51,152 from indies.

Excluding those titles that sold less than 100 units each, major-label new releases last year averaged sales of 26,895 units per title, while independent titles averaged 2,603 units.

R&B recorded the biggest percentage drop according to Nielsen SoundScan. The genre is down 22.4% on the same period last year. Rap has dropped 15.8% and Alternative is down 14.9%. On the upside, Country music sales have increased 17.7% so far in 2006 while Christian sales are up 11.6%, Classical is up 7.9% and Latin is up 7.8%.

Digital sales are growing-fans bought 582 million digital singles last year, up sixty-five percent from 2005,

The touring business is thriving over $500 million in the US last year.

More than $600 million in ringtones, ringbacks and other mobile music content sold in the US last year. In Australia, we're looking at$ 40 million.

But it's not just about unit sales.

More than 5,000 record-company employees have been laid off since 2000.

About 2,700 record stores have closed across the US since 2003, according to the research group Almighty Institute of Music Retail. Last year the eighty-nine-store Tower Records chain, which represented 2.5 percent of overall retail sales, went out of business, and Musicland, which operated more than 800 stores under the Sam Goody brand, among others, filed for bankruptcy.

Around sixty-five percent of all music sales now take place in big-box stores such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy, which carry fewer titles than specialty stores and put less effort behind promoting new artists. According to NPD Group research, Apple's iTunes is now the third largest music retailer in the country among all digital or physical outlets. Based on Q1 figures, Wal-Mart remains the biggest single music retailer with 15.8% of the market, Best Buy second at 13.8% and iTunes third at 9.8%. Overall, digital a la carte music sales now make up almost 14% of all music sales. That does not include other digital revenues such as subscription services or ad-supported services.

Consumers bought more than 100 million iPods since 2001. They represent about 75% of the digital player market.

Since 2003, the RIAA have sued more than 20,000 music fans yet file sharing has risen.

There was a 4.4 percent increase in the number of peer-to-peer users in 2006, with about a billion tracks downloaded illegally per month. Nearly half of all Americans -- 45 percent-downloaded music from pay sites or peer to peer sources, up from 31 percent. And those who paid for a song increased dramatically-from 8 percent in 2005 to 23 percent in 2006.

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As an artist dear SMS you DESERVE to get not only some money but some respectable money for your work,when a label wants to sign a track then this means that the label likes the track and is willing to pay for it because it awaits for it to bring more sales into the compilation and satisfy the music taste of the people who support the label.

Sometimes ofcourse an artist might want to give a track away for free in order to be part of a nice concept compilation or just to manage to release something on his favorite label.For example if i was a new artist and Twisted Records asked me to release my music for free then i would have no hesitation to give it away for free because releasing at Twisted would give me much more exposure and respect than money can buy.Also i would happilly give away one of my tracks if a friend of mine operated a new label and i wanted to help him in the beggining or if someone would compile a charity cd where all profits will go to the less fortunate of this world.

All the above situations are fine but giving away a track for free in a copy paste neo full on israeli label just because noone else is willing to release my music and pay for it then this action not only brings back nothing to the artist but even destroys the scene by helping bad labels to survive and even make money out of this sick situation because they give them a reason to release even more cds in the future stealing a small percentage of the market from labels that are working professionaly and really need those sales.

No label that is delivering a good product out there can survive on 2000 copies per release.Just printing 2000 copies will cost a label 2000 euros plus graphics design and a good mastering this goes up to 2600 euros easily.And if just half the artists featured on the compilation (lets say 5 out of 10) are registered to music rights companies like Acum or Sagem then for two thousand copies you need another 1000 euros in order to print your cd and receive it from the factory.Without paying any taxes and artists you need 3600 euros just for manufacturing expenses.

If you sign 10 tracks for 500 euros each then automatically you got another 5000 euros expense plus the 3600 euros manufacturing we are already on 8600 euros.And keep in mind that first class names will no way settle for less than 700-800 euros and the few super duper names that we got in our scene will ask you 1000 euros for a track.

So we are already on 8600 euros with no promotion at all,operating a website,sending away 60-70 promos and buying half a page on two music magazines and a small banner on psyshop or saikosounds then you can easily reach up the magic number 10.000 euros for a serious release that can stand out in the market and sell quiet good.

What quiet good means in our days?

1500-1700 copies maximum with a good distribution and someone promoting the label every day for at least the first 2-3 months of the release all around the physical and internet world.

10.000 euros for the production of a music cd in the real music world is absolutely nothing,some music labels pay these money just for mastering their releases or even to have their graphics design made up from a well known artist or to buy a promotion page on a known magazine.

In the tiny psy trance world though where a distributor buys 6 euros maximum a cd from the label and comes back with a statement of 1700 copies sold maximum this means that the label just breaks even after a sales period of one year.

What exactly is the point of releasing a cd and expecting just to get your money back after a year?

If you are a dj or an artist and want to promote yourself then there is a point yes but for people like me who are no artists or no dj's (even though funny enough i got more dj offers to play on big festivals than people who are actually dj'ing but thats another story) then there is no point in being involved in the psy trance market.

I am speaking with some very well respected labels who are informing me that the market is so bad that they just keep running their labels in order to make money from the bookings.

Every year things get even worst and if you ask me its a matter of very short time before everything collapses and the only labels that will survive are the very small ones that are happy releasing their label owners and friends music and satisfied with 400-500 sold copies which covers their manufacturing expenses.

Ofcourse when one or two from the major distributions collapse first (like it has happened many times in the past) then even these small labels will dissapear over a night....