Surprise! Legal Downloads Killing CD Sales
Even legal single download sales hurt CD’s sales. If you can buy a favorite track; why buy the whole CD? Just ask Daniel Powter whose single "Dad Day" went #1 at radio and is the top digital download so far this year. But the CD has yet to go Gold and languishes at #94 on the Billboard Top 2200 after 14 weeks.
Record labels can not survive on 99 cents vs. $18.98.
What can labels do? Make CD purchases more attractive with lower prices and bonus content. Bundle downloads in three song $3 packages or add additional content. Concentrate more on promoting artists rather than just songs.
Most of all: EXPERIMENT. Take risks. Fail. Somewhere out there are solutions.
Additional reading on Daniel Powter @ New York Daily News.
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I’m not sure his single sales are hurting his CD sales. This is a case where CD sales wouldn’t have been great ten years ago (pre digital downloading). A hit single does not guarantee a hit album. Never has.
This is a radio-ready single that doesn’t hint to any ability to create nine or ten more good songs. To me he sounds like a singles artist.
The article could have pointed out all the artists that *have* sold a lot of albums in spite of digital download hits. I mean, how did a reporter write an article about digital music and not mention Gnarls Barkley? That’s a first! Gnarls is selling records on the strength of a hit single. So what is Downtown/Warner Music doing so differently? Maybe they’re marketing an artist and not a song. Big difference.
Agreed with Glenn…..here’s a novel idea…..if you want people to shell out 20 bucks….make an album that is worth it. The difference in the modern music economy is that it is harder to fool people. It has been shown over and over that people will pay for good content…but won’t be suckered by a bunch of pap propped up by a half ass marketing plan. The ease by which we can listen to music facilitates the fact that great artists on small labels can thrive (Arcade Fire/Merge) and one-hit hacks with major backing will fail (see above). It’s a magnificent model for everyone except “the industry” The whole major-label thing will survive in some odd Frankenstein form…the “media company”…but it is already only tangentally related to music as an artform. The real chips…especially those that will be cashed in in future years… have long since been pushed across the table towards the artists and the labels that treat them equitably. Majors can squabble among themselves and their shareholders for the Ashley Simpsons of the world. I’ll be smirking as I listen to Silversun Pickups, Skybox, and Birdmonster….a generation that the majors lost by their own greed.
I am trying to imagine how the big label will ends.
1. They certainly has deep back catalog. That alone will last them forever if they play it smart.
2. CD is pretty much dead within 3-4 years. The minute Walmart reduces their CD shelves, it’s over for CD. I see less and less exciting album on walmart shelves.
3. Upcomng MSFT vs. Apple battle. It maybe all sizzle and no steak, but still a big sizzle.
The big label hit artists are definitely not generating sale as they used to. (noticeably so this year)