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| From | Stewart Mason <flamingo@theworld.com> |
| Subject | Re: CD sales in 2003 |
| Date | Thu, 19 Feb 2004 15:24:41 -0500 |
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At 07:27 PM 2/19/2004 +0000, Chris Morrison wrote:
>I apologize if this old news for you, but...
>
>Did you know that 45% of all the new full-length CDs released
>in 2003 sold less than 1,000 units? The majority of those
>titles were released on a major label.
I would be surprised to find out that that was a particularly high
percentage in comparison to prior years.
Also, despite the industry's continued poor-mouthing, last week set a sales
record, according to a story I read on E! Online: "Fueled by the Norah
Factor, the post-Grammy album rush and Valentine's Day, more than 8 million
albums were sold last week, the biggest selling five-day period (not
counting the November-December Yuletide season) registered since Nielsen
SoundScan began tracking in 1991."
So much for those "downloaders are killing us all" stories. Personally, I
helped out to the tune of about $40 at Newbury Comics last week, which got
me the Norah Jones (bite me, I like her), the new Coral, the new Nellie
McKay, and the previously-discussed Fefe Dobson. Norah's record cost
$11.88. The Coral and Nellie McKay -- which are both double CDs -- cost
$9.99 each. The Fefe Dobson was $7.99. I was pinching pennies in advance
of a weekend getaway or I also would have picked up some of all of the new
Echo and the Bunnymen reissues at $8.99 each, but still, 6 full-length CDs
for $40 is more than reasonable. Perhaps the major labels are finally
beginning to see the light that lowering their wholesale prices --
especially on new and unfamiliar artists like the Coral, Nellie McKay and
Fefe Dobson -- is good for their own bottom lines, good for the stores, and
good for the artists.
And Nellie McKay looks like Nancy Drew and sounds like Laura Nyro fronting
the Magnetic Fields. Highly recommended, although the re-recordings of
songs from her self-titled indie debut (thanks again, Deb!) are uniformly
weaker than the originals; "Inner Peace" was flat-out ruined.
S
NP: The Rosehips
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