Music CD Sales Down, Download Sales Up

If its Tuesday, we are looking at Tunes. Here’s some interesting Music and Film data.  According to the highly recommended THE online REPORTER:

"Sales of music CDs in the States are down almost 7% from last year to the end of the first half of this year, declining from 303 million a year ago to 282.6 million this year, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

However, paid downloads sales are up by 104 million units, 54.7% to 158.7 million. Lets see, the math is that 20 million fewer CDs were sold at, say, an average of $16. That’s a $320 million decline. That’s offset by 104 million more downloads sold at, say, a dollar each, which is $104 million. Hmm. Looks like the US music sales declined about $220 million at retail."

So far this year, only seven CDs released in 2005 have become million sellers.

Market Share Leaders for the First Half

Universal Music Group…………..35.7%
Sony BMG……………………….28.3%
Warner Music Group…………….14.7%
EMI………………………………9.2%

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  1. rajesh commented on Jul 12

    Is there an over/under on how many days before MPAA blames P2P networks for fall in dvd sales?

  2. mancide commented on Jul 12

    But the RIAA doesn’t get the $16 for the retail sale of the CD, they only get the wholesale price, correct? Also, don’t they typically list their units SHIPPED for the year, not what actually has sold. Or have they quit using the fuzzy numbers and math that equals P2P stealing their money, not video games, DVD and other entertainment that competes with CD sales?

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