Since 1976 there have been thousands of record that went platinum (1,000,000 or more units sold) in the US. For the first time since then there were none.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I find it surprising it didn't happen sooner.
It's probably well beyond time for a new system of measurement for this sort of thing to be created, one that makes a priority of including non-physical purchases.
Granted, music companies worldwide seem to be overwhelmingly antagonistic toward anything of that sort....
What do you mean? In the U.S., certification has recognized digital download puchases since 2004. Granted, the ability to download individual songs at a reasonable price has undoubtedly cut down the number of whole albums sold, but what can the music industry do about that?
There's probably nothing they can do about. Individual song downloading and piracy have contributed greatly to the loss in whole album sales.
Huh. I wasn't aware of that, I was figuring they were still tracking only physical sales like they were back when I was in high school in the early 2000s.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
What has changed is that people want to listen to the exact songs they want, when they want them, without spending a s+~+load of money, and without the hassle of DRM and handling physical products. With streaming services, they can have it - to the point where it is now what is expected. Not providing this would at this point be marketing suicide and the companies know it. Cue cries of BUT PIRACY!!!11one, but the fact of the matter is the business changed due to people's expectations. It is possible this change came about because of piracy, but it's not something that can be undone today.
In practice, it means that the old model of sponsoring a few big artists and bands, through very lucrative contracts, aiming for few but mega-selling albums and thus less money spent on marketing... is dead. Given the opportunity, people are far more eclectic and nuanced in listening habits. I don't see this changing.
|
That's what has been so great about vinyl sales. I get the great sounding physical copy for my table. I also get the MP3 files for on the go with my devices. Win/Win. I have been buying albums again because I prefer to take my music that way. YMMV. With internet radio and the age of the single upon us, its no surprise album sales are down.
I own nearly 600 vinyl albums, though I quit purchasing them after CDs became the popular medium. I'll stumble across an old record from time to time that I really have to have in my collection, though. The advent of vinyl again has kinda made me sad, because I can't afford things like I used to..
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
600 wow good job!. I only have about 200. A number of them are from my old man and step father. Its pretty funny the Steppenwolf, led zeppelin, lynryd skynrd albums are my fathers. The KISS, Dokken, Motley crew albums were my step fathers. They were about 6 years apart in age :)
In practice, it means that the old model of sponsoring a few big artists and bands, through very lucrative contracts, aiming for few but mega-selling albums and thus less money spent on marketing... is dead.
"...whose passing shall not be mourned. 'Shall not be mourned,' that's exactly what it says. Very formal. Very official."
Indeed. Oh, indeedy me.
I own nearly 600 vinyl albums, though I quit purchasing them after CDs became the popular medium. I'll stumble across an old record from time to time that I really have to have in my collection, though. The advent of vinyl again has kinda made me sad, because I can't afford things like I used to..
Used record shops are your friend!
I was a late-comer to the internet and I am constantly amazed at all the crazy good music that I spent two decades looking in dusty, poorly-lit, rudely staffed used record shops (okay, maybe they're not your friend exactly) for and now can just hear with the click of a mouse.
It's great, but it makes the elitist record-collecting snob in me that I try to keep hidden very sad, as if he spent his whole life on something that doesn't even matter anymore. And, no, I don't mean communism...
Same thing with movies, actually. What's the point in tracking down VHS bootlegs of unfinished Orson Welles flicks and Alejandro Jodorowsky movies when I can just watch them for free on youtube?
F%!~ing technology.
Yup.
I don't know if it was D.A.'s last post on this thread that gave me this whim. I don't know what it was. But somehow, my mind went back to some old vinyl records made in the 1960s, to which I had listened to death in the 1980s... but never since then (and which probably got thrown away long ago).
So on a whim, I just listened to 3 of those albums, in their entirety... on YouTube.
This is one of the reasons I'm such a cheapskate when it comes to entertainment. You never know what might go on sale. You never know what graphic novels / trade paperbacks might appear in the public library. You never know what future technology might make something cheaper... or even free.
|
|
Yeah youtube and MP3s are nice but there something about the sound that's not preferable. They have made things very convenient and definitely allow people to listen/view for free. That's got to be taking a bite out of the market.
Though after a long day I like to kick off my shoes pour a bourbon and shut off all my devices. Turn on my 70's receiver and play a record. I even recently bought one for the cabin despite all the phones and gadgets people have. Sometimes I just need to unplug.
Yeah youtube and MP3s are nice but there something about the sound that's not preferable...
Maybe, but now I don't have to hear the record skip... the record skip... the record skip... the record skip... and put down what I'm doing to go put my finger on the needle.
I have sometimes ranted on and on about my gripes with the MP3 format, and there are some issues with YouTube, but now and then, I remind myself about the gripes I no longer have.
|
|
Yeah not really an issue for me. In fact I cant remember the last time I had a record that skipped. Though if it happened I admit it would be annoying. There is also flipping the record and the limitation of record length. Though devices need power and often internet to rock out. There is limitations to any source. Though I stand by it that MP3s do not sound as great.
They actually did a study a number of years ago and found that younger people preferred the audio quality of mp3s while older people found the audio quality poor and prefered albums. Apparently it has a lot to do with what a person's ears have grown accustomed to.
For me there seems to always be this compressed electronic buzz with MP3s. I'm not saying MP3 is god awful don't ever listen to them however, I often listen to MP3 myself. I just prefer vinyl if I can have it. By extension the newest receivers are plastic aluminum junk as well.
And a lot of younger people find that music without that buzz is like food without salt. Your brain picks up on things it is used to.
I'm not saying one is better than the other btw. Just pointing out that the brain is weird.
That buzz is generally inescapable... and it does exist on vinyl as well, though it is far less noticeable. But only until the record has been played a few times with a needle. Then you get a bigger worsening of audio quality than the MP3 buzz.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Though I have to say I've always considered flipping the record a feature, not a bug.
You know, my last post on this thread is incredibly ironic.
I was a late-comer to the internet and I am constantly amazed at all the crazy good music that I spent two decades looking in dusty, poorly-lit, rudely staffed used record shops (okay, maybe they're not your friend exactly) for and now can just hear with the click of a mouse.
Yup.
I don't know if it was D.A.'s last post on this thread that gave me this whim. I don't know what it was. But somehow, my mind went back to some old vinyl records made in the 1960s, to which I had listened to death in the 1980s... but never since then (and which probably got thrown away long ago).
So on a whim, I just listened to 3 of those albums, in their entirety... on YouTube.
This is one of the reasons I'm such a cheapskate when it comes to entertainment. You never know what might go on sale. You never know what graphic novels / trade paperbacks might appear in the public library. You never know what future technology might make something cheaper... or even free.
It started innocently that way, with my listening to just 3 albums by that artist. Ah, why withhold the name? I'm talking about Herb Alpert.
But the next day, I listened to many more Herb Alpert recordings on YouTube. The next week, I listened to MANY, MANY more. After a couple of weeks of this, there could be no denying it. I was hooked all over again. I had to HAVE this stuff.
In the last week or two, I bought 12 Herb Alpert albums on MP3.
I haven't bought so much music - nor spent so much money on frivolous things - in such a short period of time since the 1990s.
In fact, I've never bought MP3s from anyone but Amazon before, but this past weekend, I downloaded iTunes, and took the trouble of searching the web for an m4a-to-mp3 conversion, because that was the only way I could get my greedy virtual hands on "Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass, Volume 2".
The incredible irony is that I told you all about the wonderful free music available at our fingertips thanks to YouTube. This free music is now costing me an arm and a leg (or at least a few fingers and toes).
Oh, but it's not over yet. Before I started buying this stuff, I sampled all of Alpert's albums on YouTube, and one of those albums, "Bullish", was really good. I mean REALLY good. But it's out of print on CD, and was never available on MP3 (legally, anyway). The CD is so rare, I'd have to pay $25 to a third-party seller for a copy! Ha ha! In what universe would I would pay such a price for one album?!?
And yet...
And yet...
That album is REALLY cool. And most of the YouTube videos are of the playing of the LP, with the needle jumping a groove quite a few times.
Well, after all, if it gives me years of pleasure, what's $25?
I think I've gone insane.
Then Taylor Swift moved a million+ units in week one. Guess it won't be this year that it dies.
Personally, I'm not weeping for the record industry. While piracy no doubt hurt sales a bit, the truth is most studies have shown that pirates actually buy more than most consumers. I think, as others observed, that a lot of this has to do with the market opening up a lot and allowing lots of small players to get a piece of the pie. Combined with streaming services and the hassle of DRM with most purchases, and you have a formula for the decline of the industry.
That and the fact that I find most 'mainstream' artists to be pathetic.
|
Then Taylor Swift moved a million+ units in week one. Guess it won't be this year that it dies.
Yeah, throwing that story out while 2.5 months still remained kinda seems like it was destined to be crying wolf. And with a Taylor Swift album due before the end of the year? Like her or not, you have to admit she generates HUGE sales.
Then Taylor Swift moved a million+ units in week one. Guess it won't be this year that it dies.Yeah, throwing that story out while 2.5 months still remained kinda seems like it was destined to be crying wolf. And with a Taylor Swift album due before the end of the year? Like her or not, you have to admit she generates HUGE sales.
The fact that all of her music was removed from streaming services around the time of the album release probably helped.
Not saying it wasn't, just saying that it certainly wouldn't hurt sales if the only way to get it (legally of course) is to actually buy it.
As far as I have seen in reports, Taylor only denied Spotify her music. I think it is still available on other sites and for download from iTunes, of course. Plus, I think I read that she set a record for the Soundscan tracking era, which started tracking sales in 1991, for being the first artist ever to have first week sales of a million+ for three straight albums. But since that tracking only started in the 90's, I wonder if any artists from before then had also done this? There were a lot of big sellers in the 50's, 60's, 70's, and 80's and little or no digital piracy, depending on the decade.
Yeah, it's still on iTunes, but iTunes album sales (and other digital format sales services where you actually purchase the album rather than just streaming it) count towards platinum status as far as I know.
Could be that she's still on the other streaming services, I couldn't say one way or another.