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# 98.9% Of All Tracks Sell Less Than 1000 Copies and Other Music Industry Fun Facts
- URL: https://www.hypebot.com/989-of-all-tracks-sell-less-than-1000-copies-and-other-music-industry-fun-facts/
- Published: 2013-10-25T14:48:00.000Z
- Updated: 2013-10-25T14:48:00.000Z
- Description: (UPDATED) 98.9% of all digital music tracks in existence in 2011 have sold fewer than 1000 copies. That's 7,931,408 out of 8,020,660 songs. This and other "fun" music industry facts from a. Continue reading [https://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2013/10/989-of-all-tracks-sell-less-than-1000-copies-and-ot
- Author: Bruce Houghton
- Tags: DIY Advice & Tips, Music Business, Vinyl, Cassettes & Retail, album, Anita Elberse, Big Business of Entertainment, Blockbusters, Harvard Business School, music industry, Risk, Spotify, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-01-21 10:43

[![scared](http://hypebot.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b36c69e2019b004e2bb4970c-150wi "scared")](http://hypebot.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451b36c69e2019b004e2bb4970c-popup?ref=hypebot.com)

(UPDATED) 98.9% of all digital music tracks in existence in 2011 have sold fewer than 1000 copies. That's 7,931,408 out of 8,020,660 songs. This and other "fun" music industry facts from a new book by Harvard Business School Professor Anita Elberse's new book [Blockbusters: Hit-making, Risk-taking, and the Big Business of Entertainment](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805094334/ref=as%5Fli%5Fss%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0805094334&linkCode=as2&tag=hypebot-20&ref=hypebot.com)

![](http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=hypebot-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0805094334)

  
. Here are more (Aspiring artists, brace yourself…) :

- 73.9% of all digital music tracks sold fewer than 10 copies in 2011
- 97.1% of all albums available sold fewer than 1,000 copies in 2011  
58.4% of all albums in existence sold fewer than 100 copies in 2011 – 513,146 out of 878,369
- 400 albums released in 2011 accounted for 35% of all music sales
- 514 songs out of 8,020,660 available in 2011 accounted for 40% of sales

And all of [this was](http://www.businessinsider.com/the-percentage-of-music-online-that-goes-unpurchased-2013-10?ref=hypebot.com) before Spotify and streaming music took off.

**Forget the 80/20 Rule. Music Is 80/1**

According to Eleberse's reading of the stats:

> "For music albums, it is close to an 80/1 rule – if we can speak about a rule at all. Even if we take a conservative estimate of what would be on offer in a bricks-and-mortar store at any given point in time, \[predictions\] that long-tail sales will rival those in the head are far off  
>  
> **Read more in: [Blockbusters: Hit-making, Risk-taking, and the Big Business of Entertainment](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805094334/ref=as%5Fli%5Fss%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0805094334&linkCode=as2&tag=hypebot-20&ref=hypebot.com)**

![](http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=hypebot-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0805094334)

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