Album Sales Are Dying as Fast as Streaming Services Are Rising

[Megalith]

Streaming services are killing album and song sales, which is a no brainer, but Rolling Stone has the exact figures for 2018: while total on-demand music streams and audio on-demand streams shot up 35.4 and 42 percent respectively, album sales fell 18.2 percent from the previous year and song sales fell 28.8 percent. “Of all the music that U.S. fans listened to last year, 77 percent was through music-streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music.”

Even though total song downloads are still in the hundreds of millions, they’re coming down in scale at the top. In 2018, there was not a single song that broke 1 million sales — compared to 14 songs that reached that figure in 2017, 36 in 2016 and 60 in 2015. At the 2 million sales mark, two songs took that trophy in 2017, while five claimed it in 2016 and 16 songs made it in 2015, throwing the modest figures of this year’s sales into even sharper relief.

 

[Lakados]

90% of my music listening is done at my desk, in the car, or at the gym. Neither my computer nor the car have a CD player, and does anybody even sell Discman's any more?

 

[RealBeast]

While streaming is probably accounting for much of the drop, perhaps the quality of music in recent years is even more to blame -- who wants to buy crap?

 

[sabrewolf732]

I feel like this is due to albums consisting of 90% trash with one or two good tracks

whereas albums previously were a cohesive experience.

 

[Jailer]

But, but, but, I thought is was piracy that was killing album and song sales?

 

[ComputerBox34]

I feel like this is due to albums consisting of 90% trash with one or two good tracks

whereas albums previously were a cohesive experience.

Those albums still exist but they are mainly in niche dramas and no longer seen in the main stream in my experience.

I find myself listening to music in the car just for background noise. I don't nearly enjoy it as much as when I was younger.

 

[Zepher]

I feel like this is due to albums consisting of 90% trash with one or two good tracks

whereas albums previously were a cohesive experience.

I agree 100%

 

[jpcahn1]

Hell yeah Belly! Now They'll Sleep for the win. Great taste in music! I actually got to see them a few times in Boston before I moved down south. I believe one big show was Belly, Letters to Cleo, and Garbage. What a show!

 

[Zepher]

Hell yeah Belly! Now They'll Sleep for the win. Great taste in music! I actually got to see them a few times in Boston before I moved down south. I believe one big show was Belly, Letters to Cleo, and Garbage. What a show!

I was only able to catch them once in 97 or 98 here in Norfolk. I also saw Garbage once as well, back in Vegas in 99 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel.

Oh, Belly's lead singer went solo as well, picked up all of her solo albums when I found out she went solo.


And this is my favorite video of garbage, I love the way she looks in this video,

 

[1Nocturnal101]

I guess people don't care about quality of the music, then again the iPod was a thing so that goes to show how people don't care, most are satisfied with bluetooth out of convenience. Then again most albums these days arent really that great I can't remember the last one I bought that you could listen from start to finish and claim it was a great album, most artists these days seem to either be 1 hit wonders or only have a couple to a few worth buying.

Even music is niche, Gibson was bankrupt and honestly I don't see them surviving on selling 1200$ and up over harvested wood guitars when most prefer a 50s-70's used one near the price of a new one, I mean sure you can buy a studio, but the sustain is god aweful with the weight relief. Fender has the same issue why buy a new one when you can buy an 80's or earlier before they were bought out.

 

[TheMadHatterXxX]

Is this story from 2001?

 

[Brian_B]

Is this story from 2001?

Replace "Streaming" with "Napster" and it would be.

 

[steakman1971]

I used to own a lot of cassettes and some vinyl. I later bought the same crap again on CD. I bought even more of the same crap re-mastered. Most of my music is from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. There is some newer music, but can't tell you the last time I heard anything recent that I cared for.
I'm not saying there isn't any music I might like, I just am boring and don't care about it anymore. I find myself listening to more talk shows than anything these days (got to get my Mad Money podcasts in!)
If I were to listen to new music, it would be streaming 100%. I have no desire to buy another album to get a few tracks I like.

 

[Uncle]

I still have my equipment from the seventies, Phase linear amp, Crown pre amp, Thorens turntable, Audia Technica * Stanton cartridge, Polk Audio speakers. All my albums from the late sixties till they were killed off by CD's. The recent batch of Albums suck big time. No high fidelity. They are recorded onto the albums as though their off of a cd player. I bought two albums one year apart and will not buy another because of the poor quality of sound coming off them. I can put an older 80's on side by side with a new pressing and it like night and day. The old one just has truer, realistic sound vs the other like its off of an fm radio station. From what I read their is only one company in Canada, last time I read, pressing albums. There use to be only one in the US. Problem is their not using the original master recordings so have lost their true sound of the day. To pay on average $30 for a new album with a cd sound is crazy. I can be a little forgiving on bands not around anymore, but not for newer artists. Lets get the proper masters done for vinyl, then I will buy albums.

 

[joobjoob]

Upside is that none of this current trash will survive coming digi-pocalypse.

 

[tetris42]

Upside is that none of this current trash will survive coming digi-pocalypse.

Did NASA predict another Carrington event or something?

 

[nilepez]

While streaming is probably accounting for much of the drop, perhaps the quality of music in recent years is even more to blame -- who wants to buy crap?

No, it's streaming. Old people not liking new music isn't a new thing. For the most part, older people didn't like popular music in the 60s, 70s, 80s or 90s either.

 

[nilepez]

I feel like this is due to albums consisting of 90% trash with one or two good tracks

whereas albums previously were a cohesive experience.

If that was the case, then single track downloads wouldn't be declining.

 

[darckhart]

haha it's great how people don't like to own the stuff they buy anymore and rather would pay for access to something. I buy physical when I can, although in this case that means an actual trip to rasputin or amoeba, since target and best buy have dropped nearly all CDs from their inventory. I hate when apple and amazon have "accidentally" revoked my access to stuff in the past. It got restored, but I had to jump thru hoops I shouldn't have had to in the first place...

 

[Armenius]

I feel like this is due to albums consisting of 90% trash with one or two good tracks

whereas albums previously were a cohesive experience.

If this is your opinion then you're not listening to the right music.

 

[Kongar]

Audiophiles still buy physical media, and it's oftentimes cheaper than digital. But unless you have nice equipment to enjoy high quality music on - there's really no point to purchasing physical media anymore.

 

[IcePickFreak]

While streaming is probably accounting for much of the drop, perhaps the quality of music in recent years is even more to blame -- who wants to buy crap?

It's easier for no-name bands to get their music out there than ever before. Waiting for the mainstream outlets to spoon feed you something good is on you at this point.

 

[nilepez]

Audiophiles still buy physical media, and it's oftentimes cheaper than digital. But unless you have nice equipment to enjoy high quality music on - there's really no point to purchasing physical media anymore.

BS. I've got tinitus out the ass, and everytime there's a streaming test online between lossy and lossless clips, I can pick it out. Sometimes I can tell on my logitech speakers, but I can almost always tell on headphones. Is it easy to tell? Not if you're not familiar with the lossless version, but if you are, then it's generally not hard. Cymbals are always screwed up by lossy audio.

You need an insanely good system (10's of thousands) to benefit from vinyl (assuming the vinyl and CD are coming off the same master), but for CDs any CD with a decent receiver and speakers will do...or as I said, just use headphones.

 

[nilepez]

It's easier for no-name bands to get their music out there than ever before. Waiting for the mainstream outlets to spoon feed you something good is on you at this point.

If a no name band is hoping to break it from Spotify, good luck. They get lost in the mass of music and none of the streaming companies pay them well. Nothing trumps buying music direct from the band (for getting money in their pockets). I suspect even a CD on amazon is better than MP3s, but I that's a guess on my part.

 

[AltTabbins]

Audiophiles still buy physical media, and it's oftentimes cheaper than digital. But unless you have nice equipment to enjoy high quality music on - there's really no point to purchasing physical media anymore.

I am not even an audiophile but I love the experience of shopping for albums. I don't buy all of my music on physical media, but I prefer it when I can.