Q4 Album Sales Slumped Despite Hit Releases
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The story line is familiar by now: Following a 12-month growth spurt for album sales that began in September 2003, the fourth quarter turned out to be a nail biter for music stores and record companies.
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After painfully slow sales last month, the music industry finally has a hit: âSleep Through the Staticâ (Brushfire), by Jack Johnson, above, sold 375,000 copies last week â more than six times the sales of the top album the week before â to reach No. 1 on the Billboard chart. It set a record for the most digital sales in a single week, with 139,000 copies, or 37 percent of its total, according to Nielsen SoundScan. In a week busy with high-profile releases, Sheryl Crowâs âDetoursâ (A&M) opened at No. 2 with 92,000 sales; Lenny Kravitz moved 73,000 copies of âIt Is Time for a Love Revolutionâ (Virgin) to bow at No. 4; and K. D. Lang is No. 8 with her new âWatershedâ (Nonesuch), selling 41,000. Last weekâs No. 1, Alicia Keysâs âAs I Amâ (J), dropped two spots with 80,000. Any sales bumps after last Sundayâs Grammy Awards would be reflected in next weekâs chart.
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Despite having been released on Friday, Eminem's new album "Encore" went straight to the top of the U.K. charts Sunday.
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Sales flagged as the company struggled with operational and accounting issues in the fourth quarter.
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Variable pricing has a big impact on music sales at Apple.
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The avalanche of upcoming  releases from stars like Justin Timberlake, Beyonce and Janet  Jackson could make for one of the biggest fourth quarters in  quite some time. But is it an embarrassment of poorly  strategized riches, as some retailers claim?
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NEW YORK (Billboard) - The first few months of the year are an ideal time for rising acts to grab their share of attention and, they hope, sales. That's true for upcoming releases and new promotional boosts for sets already on hand.
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Warner Music Group Corp  on Friday posted a fourth-quarter profit, but revenue sagged in line with broader weakness in the recorded music and music publishing businesses.
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A spiffed up version of Usher's "Confessions" and new releases by country mainstay George Strait and rock acts Good Charlotte and Korn took over the top four slots on the U.S. pop albums chart, according to sales data issued Wednesday.
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LONDON -- Record companies' revenue from digital music sales rose 40 percent to $2.9 billion over the past year, but the growth is still failing to cover losses from collapse of international CD sales, the music industry's global trade body said Thursday.
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Numbers from the first two days of the tracking period had chart watchers cautiously predicting that Eminem's "Encore" would reap sales of 750,000-800,000. Throw caution to the wind, as the album clocks a whopping 871,000 units.
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A rash of new British acts like The Streets and Keane propelled UK album sales to a record 237 million units in the year to the end of September, confounding predictions that music downloads would finish off the humble compact disc.
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Album sales in the U.S. plunged 9.5 percent last year from 2006, as the recording industry had another weak year despite a 45 percent surge in the sale of digital tracks.
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So far 2008 has not been a good year for music sales. This week Alicia Keys, below, stays atop the Billboard chart with âAs I Amâ (J), but the number of copies that CD sold is barely above the historic low for a No. 1 album. Nielsen SoundScan reported that 61,000 copies of the album sold last week; the least number of weekly sales for No. 1 is 60,000, set by the âDreamgirlsâ soundtrack a year ago. (The numbers are rounded.) This week the âJunoâ soundtrack (Rhino) is at No. 2 with 58,000, Mary J. Bligeâs âGrowing Painsâ (Geffen) is No. 3 with 52,000, and Radioheadâs âIn Rainbowsâ (ATO) is next with 46,000. The R&B singer Raheem DeVaughn opens at No. 5 with 45,000 sales of âLove Behind the Melodyâ (J) and John Legendâs new âLive From Philadelphia,â available only through Target, reached No. 7 with 33,000.
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U.S. sales of digital music albums  grew by 60 percent in the first six months of 2007 but failed  to offset the rapid sales decline of compact discs, according  to data from Nielsen SoundScan.
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Global sales of recorded music fell for a fourth consecutive year in 2003, according to figures released Monday by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.
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Last week was another miserable one for music sales, but with one modest highlight: The indie-heavy âJunoâ movie soundtrack rose one spot to the top of the Billboard chart, becoming the first album in Rhino Recordsâ three-decade history to reach No. 1. After the announcement of four Oscar nominations for âJuno,â including best picture, the soundtrack sold 65,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, bumping Alicia Keysâs âAs I Amâ (J), which moved 60,000, to No. 2. In the fourth straight week of very low sales, Natasha Bedingfield opened at No. 3 with 50,000 copies of âPocketful of Sunshineâ (Epic), Mary J. Bligeâs âGrowing Painsâ (Geffen) sold 45,000 to reach No. 4, and Radiohead dropped one spot to No. 5 with âIn Rainbowsâ (ATO), moving 35,000. Cat Powerâs new âJukeboxâ (Matador) reached No. 12 with 29,000 copies sold.