July 6th, 2007
CD Sales Continue To Fall…..
New figures on U.S. music sales from Nielsen SoundScan show the music industry is still facing declining revenue, as sales of traditional music CDs declined 19.3 percent during the first half of 2007 to 205.7 million units. Digital music sales, however, continue to see strong growth, with digital music sales increasing 50 percent during the first half of 2007, compared to the first half of 2006. However, the revenue from growing digital sales isn’t enough to offset the losses from declining CD sales.
This is a trend that is not going to stop. So expect labels to become very strict with the internet, blogs get ready to meet the RIAA. Labels need to figure out how to maximize digital sales.
Suggestion Box
July 6th, 2007 at 10:06 am
They need to adjust or suffer the consequences… because internet downloading isnt going anywhere. This goes for music,movies,applications, books…whatever…people have access to damn near everything these days.
July 6th, 2007 at 10:08 am
2nd
July 6th, 2007 at 10:15 am
What the “INDUSTRY” needs to do… is give the consumer a reason to go out and buy their shit… why should I go spend $15 – $20 on a cd that has all but 2 good songs (if that)?? Why should i go buy a cd that sounds like every thing else on the radio? Why should i go out and purchase an album that sounds like it was done in a week??
the industry needs to stop BLAMING the internet and step their fucking product up… you can buy shit from almost anyone these days, but if you differentiate yourself and come with a legit product, people cant help but come get it from you…
you dont hear apple complaining about all the new mp3 players that keep poppin up.. you know why.. apple has branded themselves and established their product as the top of the line premier device… and people want that so they are willing to go out and pay for it.. why else would someone pay $150 + for some shit they could easily get for $50 or less…
so my message to the industry..
STOP BLAMING THE INTERNET AND STEP YOUR GAME UP!!
the internet is finally giving the consumer the upper hand.. you cant keep feeding us shit and expect us to believe its gold.. at some point, u gonna have to come with the GOLD!!!
July 6th, 2007 at 10:17 am
Think labels should get a certain percent of blank cd sales, and zshare and all that, somethin. The last album I actually bought was The Re Up.
July 6th, 2007 at 10:18 am
I always thought the blog thing was interesting. There is alot of downloading through blogs and now labels are getting antsy (case in point: the 50 post). Even with streaming, which I didn’t think was illegal…given that you’re not giving the song away.
Labels are getting current with the times (MySpace, using blogs,for instance, for publicity) but then they expect buyers to still have an old school mentality when it comes to buying albums. That’s stupid. I get all my music from a legal downloading source (Napster) and so does millions of other people. Labels know that but then they expect someone to walk down to a store and buy something, its unrealistic. The internet has made it easier for people to not have to leave their homes to get what they want, and that goes for music.
And if labels want to slow the whole downloading craze, they need to stop signing dudes with popular singles in the street knowing damn well that they aren’t going to sell an album…
July 6th, 2007 at 10:41 am
I AGREE, downloading & file sharing isn’t goin ne where.
July 6th, 2007 at 10:46 am
Downloading and file sharing isnt going anywhere, but its pretty obvious, neither are sales of singles digitally on the web.
As far as us bloggers, I think we all need to come up with a secure way to share this music with the world. We do it at HoodHype, but nothing is hack safe.
ZShare sucks for artists because youre basically offering the track up for download. But if the labels offer usbloggers a simple way to stream these songs there would be no worry.
Yo RealTalk, holla at us if you’re interested in getting in on our next show on this subject, we will definitely be touching on it.
1x.
July 6th, 2007 at 10:49 am
Plain and simple, you just have to give consumers a reason to spend their money on the whole cd. With the internet, and itunes, consumers are previewing the album, and only buyin tha one or two, (3 if your lucky) songs off of most of these rappers albums. So when you combine that with people bootleggin cd’s, if you aint a primetime artist, you not gonnna sell a million anymore…
to # 4) The labels don’t need a percent on blank cd’s, it’s people like you who continually obtain bootleg copies of cd’s and don’t support artists (even if it’s a few).
July 6th, 2007 at 10:57 am
i think congress needs to get involved and shut down sites like limewire and others. and be very strict and the labels should put out better albums cuz there hasnt been a good rap album in over a year and that goes for other genres too
July 6th, 2007 at 11:21 am
who really cares..
July 6th, 2007 at 11:35 am
WTF you people are talking bout there was a couple of good CLASSIC rap albums that came out last year
Snoop Dogg – The BLue Carpet Treatment
Busta Rhymes – The Big Bang
Lupe Fiasco – Food & Liquor
The Game – Doctor’s Advocate
Nas – Hip Hop IS Dead
These Albums should of been triple platinum plus but people rather download the shit knowing these albums was worth buying.
July 6th, 2007 at 11:38 am
I think that people are just lazy these days and have no lives so they sit their asses at their pcs and download instead of walking their lazy ass two blocks to the record store to buy good classic albums.
July 6th, 2007 at 11:40 am
Classic Albums that came out this year
Young Buck – Buck The World
Rich Boy
Fabolous – From Nuthin to Sumthin
July 6th, 2007 at 11:44 am
we already spend enough in our life to miss an opportunity when theres something free to do not grab it so give me a break plz..
July 6th, 2007 at 11:45 am
HipHopHead…be easy…
None of the albums you mentioned are classic, and you lose even more points because you didn’t even mention “Red Gone Wild”. Not that mentioning Rich Boy and classic in the same post spells the downfall of black society…
July 6th, 2007 at 11:46 am
…well come to think of it, yes it does…
July 6th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
can everyone answer this one question….
wat made you buy the last cd you got?
if you want please send me ur answer to
esaintfort86@yahoo.com
i’m an communication major and i plan on gettin an intern at a record label sometime soon…and this info could possibly help me out
July 6th, 2007 at 12:03 pm
There have been no cds released THIS YEAR really worth buying in hip hop! NAME 1 Classic rap cd that came out in 2007!
July 6th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
here’s what i think….
some use “the album needs to be a classic before I buy it” mentality. maybe even as an excuse NOT to buy a cd in the store. so, you convince yourself that the product isn’t worth $15-$20, BUT it is worth a 5 minutes and downloading bandwidth. While waiting for the ‘classic album’, you’re missing out on a lot of good quality albums that would fill the gaps in the past but now we’re in the internet era so you may as well just download ‘em instead.
another factor is, we’re not connecting with the artist as much as we did in the past. I blame the media mostly for this because artists are overexposed. we know everything we want to know and then some about these artists that there is no mystery or new story to be told with their album. We’re going to get the same ol same with a video to go along with it and that’s just not good enough anymore.
one more factor is that everyone and their mother has a home studio these days. real talk, how many of ya’ll know at least 3-4 different rap groups in your hood alone?? it’s called over saturation. watered down product. lack of creativity and originality. too many voices from the same corner trying to get heard but, what makes them different? not too much anymore.
July 6th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
I agree wit u Rich but why does it have to be a classic before it gets copped?
like, i enjoyed a lot of albums this year but i dont put any in the ‘classic’ category. still bought the lloyd banks cuz i mess wit him. bought the Fab cuz i wanted the cd in my collection. bought the rich boy cuz i thought he’d have a decent album. i dont regret copping any of these albums because i wanted to support.
how can i expect my favorite artist to produce that classic for me if I dont support the growth? that’s what i want to see from album to album. cant expect the rookies in the game to be like Nas and release a classic the first go’round, can I?
July 6th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
aight, we can blame the industry and the artists all we want but when it comes down to it, technology is our downfall. why should i carry 10 cds in my back pockets and backpack, when i could put 60gigs worth of music on my Ipod? ya know? i dont agree with it. i most definitely went out and bought that Nas, Lupe, The Roots, Kweli and Pharoahe Monch, but technology made intricate artists simple to download. CD burners dont do any justice either, cause u can download all the music you want, but it cant get out of your computer until u burn it or load it onto your MP3 player.
Technology is ultimately where we went wrong. it lead to us downloading and burning mixtapes rather than connecting with the DJs straight up. we can watch full concerts without ever leaving our cribs. the shit is wack. we dont even have vinyls around that much anymore. you cant scratch a record but u can damn sure skip a cd now. the shit is wack. TI is Bi-Polar. i wish i could whoop some ass and blame it on my alter ego. what the fuck is music coming to? what the fuck are we coming to? people we are becoming wack individuals. dont be afraid to speak up and participate rather than stand back and watch.
July 6th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Where people be comin up with the $15-20 rate from. I can get a CD for $10 at Best Buy. The reason people ain’t buyin CDs is because there are no longer artists in the rap game, and think about it, Jay-Z put out what many considered to be a mediocre album. If Jigga can’t even drop a dope album, it just makes fans say, “Fuck it”. I support any artist that puts effort into their album and tries to drop something worth buying. I don’t think people don’t buy albums because they’re waiting for a classic, because when you think about it, a true classic only drops every few years. I can’t think of a classic album since “The Blueprint” and that’s even up for debate as to whether it really is a classic. GRODT might be a debated classic also.
I disagree about the connecting with the artists. With so many avenues I think it makes an artist more accessible to people and more intriguing. I think it helps when you know more about artists and listen to the actual artists because you can connect the two.
I don’t really think it’s no more saturated now than it was in the early 2000’s. Oversaturation of “artists” has been there, I don’t think it has anything to do with the selling of albums. The niggaz on the corner who are ass ain’t gonna stop me from getting an upcoming artist’s album who I might like.
It’s really artist development (or lackthereof). Labels don’t want to work with an artist, they want the artist to be the complete package when they sign them. It’s not happening like that. The hustle overshadows the rapper now. If someone grinds hard enough they’ll have a deal before someone who can spit their ass off and might not have the same hustle/business acumen.
July 6th, 2007 at 12:38 pm
i feel you 19 and 20. All of Jay-z’s albums haven’t been “Classics”, but you still support him because he’s a good artist. same with whomever it is you support. I think that if you are expecting every hip hop artist to drop a classic album everytime they come out, hip hop is doomed to disappear (in mainstreams eyes that is). Allow artists to grow into their respective places in Hip Hop, and stop expecting nothing classics on they first album. Better yet, stop expecting classics period. It’s cool to expect good hip hop, and good music, but to expect a classic from everyone just aint possible.
July 6th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
only one Classic Album that came out this year is
Young Buck – Buck The World
July 6th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
ill be copping that pharoahe monch, that common,that lupe, and possibly kanye’s album… other than that… im not really checking for any albums like that…mainly because the ones i mentioned wont dissapoint…. you already know that shit is gonna be quality music..
take outkast for example..no matter what… im gonna support..cuz they come with dope,innovative music that i can relate to everytime..the same cant be said about alot of these newer artists coming out these days who might have a decent single but the rest of the album is ASS.. you aint gettin my money that easy
July 6th, 2007 at 12:42 pm
you can’t stop technology, that makes no sense. If we go by your ideals, we’d still be on cassettes. We evolve, that is natural. and just like anything else, you have to adapt an reform, or get rolled over, plain and simple.
July 6th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
aint nuthin to it man, labels need to stop leakin their artist music. who wants to buy when they can download?
July 6th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
aint no stoppin technology, no doubt. but as stated before, it hurt us where it didnt help us.
July 6th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Stop signing garbage artists; thats a step toward the solution
July 6th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
how come this does not afect movies that much. music industry needs to see what dem movie cats are doin and maybe learn a thing or two on how to keep their music away from downloading
July 6th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
record labels dont care bout the artist and music they rush music get the first week sales and move on to the next album i call that the “snatch and run effect” why u think promotion is so weak. they dont wanna invest and lose they money. so they put out a “Fab” make him hot ass hell in 2weekz and that weekend b4 the album comes out and get the 160K and dat fast he cold again promotion is gone radio is quiet follow up single is gone be like half the strength as the first. the labels are sum wicked niggaz. save they money and make the most off the next person
also the market is too weak for all these albumz every 2 weekz there albumz comin out who goin buy all them ablumz? lil white kids are on a fixed income and have computers so what u think they goin do
July 6th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Lol @ #13
Gar-Baj..
Only albums worth buying in hiphop in the last year were:
NAS
GAME
JIGGA
LUPE
GHOST FACE
SNOOP
DJ QUIK
End of discussion..
July 6th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
[Video]50 cent brings Jessica Alba out on stage at his concert in Amsterdam.
Part1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtBCvx85STg
Part2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEWft3lh7bg
July 6th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
DON’T LET ARTICLES CONCERNING THE MUSIC BUSINESS AND ITS FINANCIAL SITUATION FOOL YOU!!!! Executives at labels are still getting paid millions every year, as they cut back on staff to increase profits.
Concerning the RIAA they report a SALE as “a unit SHIPPED to record stores, not necessarily one that is actually sold to a customer.” (Avalon Moses, Confessions of a Record Producer).
Due to the digital age that we are in, labels are manufacturing and distributing less physical units/CD’s, thus the reason for a decrease in “Sales”.
PLUS, “There is no way for the public to investigate the claim of “lower profits,” since record companies do not publish their profit/loss statements in a public forum, much less to the RIAA.” (Avalon Moses, Confessions of a Record Producer).
The MUSIC INDUSTRY has always gone through technological cycles, so there is nothing to worry about. You may see the sales of Physical recordings become obsolete, but major and independent labels are still seeing millions from publishing, concerts, licensing, merchandising, sponsorships, etc.
July 6th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
CO-SIGN CRUEL SUMMER. I DON’T BELIEVE ANY OF YOU WOULD SUPPORT THE RIAA FOR A SECOND. FUCK THOSE GREEDY WEALTHY ASS BASTARDS. THEY ARE RICH AS HELL YET THEY FIND TIME TO SUE GRANDMOTHERS, KIDS, AND EVEN PEOPLE THAT HAVE PASSED AWAY BECAUSE THEIR IP TRACKING IS FULL OF SHIT.
WITH FAST AND EASY ACCESS TO INDIVIDUAL SONGS PEOPLE WILL HARDLY BUY ALBUMS. IF YOU NOTICE MOST ALBUMS HAVE LIKE 5 GOOD SONGS, AND THEN THE REST ARE FILLERS, OR UNLIKEABLE. SO WHY SPEND $10 OR $13 FOR A WHOLE ALBUM WITH ONLY 5 SONGS YOU LIKE, WHEN YOU CAN SPEND $5 ON ITUNES TO GET THOSE 5 SPECIFIC SONGS??
THE MUSIC INDUSTRY NEEDS TO ADAPT, THEY NEED TO GET FAMILIAR WITH THE INTERNET AGE. I HAVENT BOUGHT A CD SINCE 03. THEY NEED TO OFFER MORE FREE SINGLES AS PROMOTION. LAST AND NOT LEAST THEY NEED TO STOP TRYING TO SHUT DOWN BLOGS WHO GIVE THEIR ARTISTS FREE PROMOTION.
BESIDES LIMEWIRE SHOULDNT BE SHUT DOWN, WHY THE FUCK SHOULD IT BE SHUT DOWN? SOMEONE ABOVE ASKED THAT CONGRESS FOCUS ON SHUTTING DOWN A MUSIC DOWNLOAD SERVICE. WTF? THERES WAY MORE IMPORTANT SHIT CONGRESS NEEDS TO DEAL WITH.
PLUS LIMEWIRE HAS REMIXS AND MIXTAPE TRACKS YOU CAN’T FIND ANYWHERE ON ITUNES OR NAPSTER. NAPSTER DOESNT HAVE ANY MIXTAPE TRACKS FOR THE MOST PART, HOW ABOUT FREESTYLES? AND SOME REMIXS AINT ON NAPSTER.
BUT FUCK NAPSTER TOO, THEY ARE FULL OF SHIT. THEY INCLUDE SOME DMA SECURITY FEATURE WITH THEIR MUSIC, WHICH MEANS YOU CANT EVEN LISTEN TO IT ON ANOTHER COMPUTER WITHOUT INSTALLING NAPSTER ALL OVER AGAIN. WHAT IF THE COMPUTER DONT HAVE AN INTERNET CONNECTION, AND ITS A HASSLE TRANSFERING IT TO OTHER DEVICES.
July 6th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
t.i. still sold records so niggas jus need 2 step there game up period!!
T.I. Vs. T.I.P. is the fifth studio album released by Atlanta rapper T.I. The album was released on July 3, 2007. T.I. revealed on the radio on July 3rd that he already sold 50,000 by 5:00 p.m. in Atlanta at Target.The album has been confirmed to have sold over 234 000 copies on its first day with many Target Stores as well as Best Buy stores reported to have sold out on the first day. As of the evening of July 5th, the album has sold 412 000 copies and is expected to sell over 550 000 in its first week, which would make it the number 1 album in the country and would be T.I.’s highest first week sales (beating King which sold 522 000 in the first week), as well as the highest first week sales for a rap artist in 2007. However, numbers can change very quickly as this is an approximate amount so the album may sell over 600 000 or as little as 450 000. It is most likely to be certified gold in the first week.(500,000 copies).
July 6th, 2007 at 10:53 pm
I AINT BUYIN SHIT..
IF IT AINT GOT NO DVD WITH IT WAS THA USE…
PEOPLE WANT TO REALLY GET TO KNO THA ARTIST…
I THINK THAT IS REALLY WHY THA SALES ARE DECLINING…
NICCAZ DROP ALBUM AND THEN YOU HAVE TO WAIT A 2YEARS FOR THA NEXT SHIT TO DROP…
WITH NO UPDATES OR LIKE ONE MIXTAPE SONG FROM THA ARTIST…
WE WANT MORE!! AND WE GON GET MORE…
FUCK YA’LL!!
A HREF=”WWW.MYSPACE.COM/OMEGABLAZE”TITLE=”YEAH!I’M ON MYSPACE BIH!!CLICK HERE!”
July 6th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
I AINT BUYIN SHIT..
IF IT AINT GOT NO DVD WITH IT WAS THA USE…
PEOPLE WANT TO REALLY GET TO KNO THA ARTIST…
I THINK THAT IS REALLY WHY THA SALES ARE DECLINING…
NICCAZ DROP ALBUM AND THEN YOU HAVE TO WAIT A 2YEARS FOR THA NEXT SHIT TO DROP…
WITH NO UPDATES OR LIKE ONE MIXTAPE SONG FROM THA ARTIST…
WE WANT MORE!! AND WE GON GET MORE…
FUCK YA’LL!!
July 7th, 2007 at 8:40 am
I’ll buy a Dr. Dre album…a Jay Z album..Outkast album.I’ll buy a D Block album….Look at the albums yall putting out. The Shop Boys?…I’ll get the ringtone, who is interested in a Shop Boy? Don’t play us with that non sense and say it’s us. Its a shame when Kanye West is as diverse as it gets in the main stream. De La Soul use to run Mtv when they came out..just like TRIBE, but nooooo yall run shit in the ground and make a motherfucker hate shit. I never thought I would get tired of so called Gangsta Rap…The people who are good at it, you don’t promote. So it’s like Fake Gansta rap with 50, what about Kool G. Rap. Jadakiss instead of LLoyd Banks, Papoose instead of the Shop Boys. I’m done.
December 2nd, 2008 at 6:25 pm
stop signing wack artist like yung berg and souljah boy and release only classics