Comments on: CD Sales Plummet 15%; Digital Sales Gain 45%

By: Jeremiah

Jeremiah — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:40:36 +0000

I feel compelled to point this out: Sales are down only in the catalogs that Soundscan tracks…across the board, more people are buying digital downloads, it’s just they’re buying them in the Long Tail, where Neilson doesn’t track yet.

To the best of my knowledge, artists like Josh Woodward (http://joshwoodward.com) do not report their sales to Soundscan.

Second tangent: There are some half-million titles that are in “grey” circulation on the web. If the actual catalog owners (read: major labels) got off their ass and made these titles legally available, I’d bet these numbers would increase greatly.

My prediction from inside the biz: more people than ever in 2008 (despite the economy) will buy digital versions of their existing libraries (it’s cheaper than ripping on your own).

By: specter

specter — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 18:15:29 +0000

Paul’s Boutique? No way. It’s not even the best of their work. Innovative yes. Peak, not hardly. Rap had only begun it’s ascent at that point.

If I had to call the peak, I’d say it was around The D.O.C’s The Formula. The Formula is possibly the perfect combination of both East and West coast styles. After that the entire genre succumbed to the gangstas, ‘hos, and bling of the the West coast in a race to the cultural bottom.

By: fatbear

fatbear — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 18:07:55 +0000

What part of this is Tower Records? How many CD sales were lost by that one chain closing? It did have a major impact on Classical (lots of Classical sales in the Tower markets [NY, LA, SF, etc]), driving mucho biz to Arkiv: ArkivMusic, an online retailer of classical music CDs that counts over 82,000 titles, including many formerly out-of-print albums, announced on Wednesday that it bucked the music industry's overall downward trend, reporting record revenues and 30% year-over-year growth in 2007. By contrast, U.S. album sales were down 15% last year, according to SoundScan. Interesting, n'est pas? Especially as The company added that 10% of sales in the fourth quarter came from its ArkivCD program, which offers on-demand printing of nearly 5,000 out-of-print titles. Let's hear a shout-out for on-demand! For more info from Arkiv here

By: Trader Mike

Trader Mike — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 15:19:57 +0000

Rap peaked with the Beasties? Hell-to-the-no! That album doesn’t even crack my top 20.

IMHO, rap/hip-hop peaked creatively in the late 80’s and early 90’s with many of the artists already mentioned above plus the Native Tongues crew.

By: L'Emmerdeur

L'Emmerdeur — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 14:41:29 +0000

BTW, sorta OT, didn’t I tell ya Apple would end up starting its own music labels a couple of years back?

By: steven

steven — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:19:54 +0000

i agree with the last two comments.
also, don’t sleep on notorious big.
biggie smalls picked dudes like the beastie boys out of his stool.

and man, people of all shades, class and race shouldn’t sleep on the roots. game theory, released in 2006 (that’s right) is an unbelievable funky and smart record.

By: A.Kane

A.Kane — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:03:18 +0000

beastie boys are rap in the same way motley cru is rock.
humanface is spot-on with his analysis.

By: bc

bc — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:56:37 +0000

C’mon, guys. Beastie Boys? Wu?

How about the Roots? Talib Kweli? Game Rebellion? Look to the underground…

I know the intersection of BP readers and hip-hop heads is vanishingly small, but still…

Barry, your main point is well taken. The *business* of hip-hop is dead, killed by the same forces of mediocrity and label myopia that threaten the industry as a whole.

The artform will never die.

By: randy

randy — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 05:28:43 +0000

i trust humanface. wu tang is probably the pinnacle of rap. it is certainly not beastie boys. that is not rap. campbein is right, rap now means “gangsta rap” barry. get with the times.

By: humanface

humanface — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 04:39:21 +0000

new CW: rap sales are a leading indicator of consumer spending.

btw, hip-hop peaked in late ‘95 beginning its final run with ol’ dirty bastard’s return to the 36 chambers in march and then peaking with the release of raekwon’s only built 4 cuban linx in august and gza’s liquid swords marking the double top 3 months later.