Album Sales Hit The Lowest of The Decades

Don't musicians make more money from concerts than CDs?

entropyecho

With more people DL music illegally I'm not surprised.

kidsmelly

There aren't many good bands out right now. This really isn't surprising.psychobrew

[QUOTE="entropyecho"]

Don't musicians make more money from concerts than CDs?

Avistann

With more people DL music illegally I'm not surprised.

kidsmelly

Don't musicians make more money from concerts than CDs?

entropyecho

they dont make SQUAT from cds... Record labels are ridiculous. For example, metallica one of the most popular bands and highest selling as well. Sold millions and millions of records across the world, only got like 10 million dollars to split amongst themselves for all their albums combined Its ridiculous. Honestly I dont even know why they charge for music, Just make it all free so more people will listen and hopefully youll have more fans

[QUOTE="kidsmelly"]

With more people DL music illegally I'm not surprised.

KGB32

yeah that too. This year so far has been really lame for music

Well I can't read the article since the site isn't working for me, so I can't comment on anything specifically in the article, but I don't think illegal downloading is to blame. Market studies have been done that show that most people still get their music legally. Rather I blame two factors for the downturn in music sales:

1. The economy. The entertainment budget is always the first thing to get an axe for most people, so it's no surprise that music sales have gone down.

2. Quality of music. The two best selling genres of music are pop and rap, and I don't think many people are going to argue that both of those genres aren't currently at an all time low as far as quality is concerned. Perhaps people are finally getting tired of listening to pop songs about sexcapades and rap songs about how rich the rapper is.

People are making wise choice for not buying crap like Justin Beiber.

Product of the digital age. Great singles bands are going to see diminishing returns since you no longer have to buy their crappy albums and can cherry pick whatever you want.

High prices and single-driven (aka: download) market = lower album sales. Who would've thought?

I'm not admitting to anything here, but a few CDs came out in May that I wanted to buy. Then I found out, the National and the New Pornographers were coming to Vancouver this summer and in September, respectively. I'm spending 80 bucks on tickets plus band tees that go from 20-40 bucks times two (for the two shows I'm seeing). Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the band benefit more from those sales?

And it doesn't help that High Violet is 20 bones at Best Buy up here in Canada when a new release is usually 11.

Well there are 2 main contributes.

1. Illegal downloads (duh)

2. Music for the most part was awful this decade. There really aren't many large new bands, or new mega music trends. Most of the popular bands/music are from older decades.

Well there are 2 main contributes.

1. Illegal downloads (duh)

2. Music for the most part was awful this decade. Because I only listen to what's on the radio.

dercoo

I'll start buying music again when artists start giving a crap about their music again.

More and more people are illegally downloading albums, there are fewer quality bands than there used to be (sound old here but it's the truth), and the economy is in the crapper.

Yeah, I'd say those are going to bring down record sales.

I support my bands by buying their music and ignoring everything else.

Who buys albums anymore with DD? Its really rare a whole album is good so most people just buy singles. Theres also the fact CDs are about dead.

Product of the digital age. Great singles bands are going to see diminishing returns since you no longer have to buy their crappy albums and can cherry pick whatever you want.

QuistisTrepe_

Then how are all these "singles" artists being forced on us all the time?! How are they surviving?

Product of the digital age. Great singles bands are going to see diminishing returns since you no longer have to buy their crappy albums and can cherry pick whatever you want.

QuistisTrepe_

Great singles bands is an oxymoron. If they can't write an entire album worth listening too, they're not good.

I'm proud to say I'm one of the ones that always has and always will by full albums whenever possible :) (And always CDs, **** paying for digital downloads)Darth-Caedus

True that. If I don't physically own the CD, it's just as good as me not owning it. I like admiring my collection of metal 8)

[QUOTE="QuistisTrepe_"]

Product of the digital age. Great singles bands are going to see diminishing returns since you no longer have to buy their crappy albums and can cherry pick whatever you want.

Guppy507

Great singles bands is an oxymoron. If they can't write an entire album worth listening too, they're not good.

I can't say I'm surprised.sammyjenkis898

ditto.

[QUOTE="Lockedge"]

[QUOTE="psychobrew"]There aren't many good bands out right now. This really isn't surprising.psychobrew

If you missed out then that's too bad, but don't whitewash over the musicians who put out a quality product just because you didn't take the time to look around. The music industry doesn't hand you platters of albums to hear like the stack of pancakes you get with breakfast in bed.

So lets hear some of them. There aren't many ground breaking bands out right now (at least that are popular or being pushed by the music industry). This is the copy cat age for rock.

Ground-breaking? I've always wondered what kind of measurement stick that was. As time goes on there's less and less ground to break, and when bands/artists do these days, it's often ignored or called trash. *shrug* Too many people(not assuming you here) looking for new Led Zeppelin material to listen to, and slam bands for either not filling their demands or hating bands for trying to fill Zeppelin's shoes. XD

Anywho, I suppose I should just keep a list handy for cases like this. Seems at least once a month I'm posting a few dozen bands to show people music lives on these days.

Sigur Ros
Islands
Baroness
XX
Sun Kil Moon
**** Buttons
The Horrors
Sufjan Stevens
Cut Copy
St. Vincent
Against Me!
Pink Mountaintops
The Gaslight Anthem
Stars
Florence & The machine
ShoutOutLouds
Black Mountain
Have A Nice Life
Queens of the Stone Age
Band of Horses
Jesca Hoop
Low
Passion Pit
Natural Snow Buildings
Great Lake Swimmers
Battles
Mono
Midlake
Paavoharju
Burial
The Fiery Furnaces
Handsome Furs
OkkervilRiver
Liars
Bon Iver
Opeth
God Is An Astronaut
Panda bear
The Knife
Volcano Choir
Tegan & Sara
Beach house
M83
Sunset Rubdown
Titus Andronicus
Santigold
Antony & The Johnsons
Matthew Good
The Raconteurs
Feist
Menomena
Yeasayer
Built To Spill
The pains of Being Pure At heart
Calla
Muse
Radiohead
Kurt Vile
Mastodon
British Sea Power
Asteroid
Metric
The Antlers
Dredg
Neko Case
Lullabye Arkestra
Joanna Newsom
Girl Talk
The Dodos
Porcupine Tree
Dirty projectors
AC Newman
Interpol
Crystal Castles
Rogue Wave
TV on the Radio
Owen Pallet
Iron & Wine
The Big Pink
John Frusciante
LCD Soundsystem
Cloud Cult
Junior Boys
Explosions in the Sky
MGMT
Beirut
Murder By Death
WolfParade
Saul Williams
Grand Salvo
I'm From barcelona
Animal Collective
The Field
Timbre Timbre
!!!
GrizzlyBear
Brand New
My Morning jacket
The Besnard lakes
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Fanfarlo
Long Distance Calling
Shearwater
The Twilight Sad
Vampire Weekend
Forward Russia
Elbow
FleetFoxes
Arcade Fire
Nadja
The Phantom Band
Crippled Black Phoenix
Regina Spektor
Bibio
The Protomen
Moderat
The National
Holy ****
Elf Power
O'Death
Bat For Lashes
The HoldSteady
Worriedaboutsatan
School of Seven bells
Of Montreal
Phoenix
Madvillain
Japandroids
Parenthetical Girls
The mountain Goats
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead
Broken Social Scene
Manchester Orchestra
Los Campesinos
Fever Ray
Mew
Bloc party
Grails
Royksopp
Spoon
DOOM
Ghostland Observatory
Max Richter
Super Furry Animals
Jesu

Those are recent bands/artists I thought of off the top of my head. There are plenty of others I could check my Songbird for, but I've left plenty of links. :P

[QUOTE="KGB32"][QUOTE="kidsmelly"]

With more people DL music illegally I'm not surprised.

VendettaRed07

yeah that too. This year so far has been really lame for music

[QUOTE="psychobrew"]

[QUOTE="Lockedge"] Last I counted, there were at least 100 good albums that came out last year, and at least 100 the year prior to that. And the year before that. By what standard do you claim there aren't many good bands out right now? What number is this "many"? The past decade has been incredibly fruitful in terms of quality music.

If you missed out then that's too bad, but don't whitewash over the musicians who put out a quality product just because you didn't take the time to look around. The music industry doesn't hand you platters of albums to hear like the stack of pancakes you get with breakfast in bed.

Lockedge

So lets hear some of them. There aren't many ground breaking bands out right now (at least that are popular or being pushed by the music industry). This is the copy cat age for rock.

Ground-breaking? I've always wondered what kind of measurement stick that was. As time goes on there's less and less ground to break, and when bands/artists do these days, it's often ignored or called trash. *shrug* Too many people(not assuming you here) looking for new Led Zeppelin material to listen to, and slam bands for either not filling their demands or hating bands for trying to fill Zeppelin's shoes. XD

Anywho, I suppose I should just keep a list handy for cases like this. Seems at least once a month I'm posting a few dozen bands to show people music lives on these days.

Sigur Ros
Islands
Baroness
XX
Sun Kil Moon
**** Buttons
The Horrors
Sufjan Stevens
Cut Copy
St. Vincent
Against Me!
Pink Mountaintops
The Gaslight Anthem
Stars
Florence & The machine
ShoutOutLouds
Black Mountain
Have A Nice Life
Queens of the Stone Age
Band of Horses
Jesca Hoop
Low
Passion Pit
Natural Snow Buildings
Great Lake Swimmers
Battles
Mono
Midlake
Paavoharju
Burial
The Fiery Furnaces
Handsome Furs
OkkervilRiver
Liars
Bon Iver
Opeth
God Is An Astronaut
Panda bear
The Knife
Volcano Choir
Tegan & Sara
Beach house
M83
Sunset Rubdown
Titus Andronicus
Santigold
Antony & The Johnsons
Matthew Good
The Raconteurs
Feist
Menomena
Yeasayer
Built To Spill
The pains of Being Pure At heart
Calla
Muse
Radiohead
Kurt Vile
Mastodon
British Sea Power
Asteroid
Metric
The Antlers
Dredg
Neko Case
Lullabye Arkestra
Joanna Newsom
Girl Talk
The Dodos
Porcupine Tree
Dirty projectors
AC Newman
Interpol
Crystal Castles
Rogue Wave
TV on the Radio
Owen Pallet
Iron & Wine
The Big Pink
John Frusciante
LCD Soundsystem
Cloud Cult
Junior Boys
Explosions in the Sky
MGMT
Beirut
Murder By Death
WolfParade
Saul Williams
Grand Salvo
I'm From barcelona
Animal Collective
The Field
Timbre Timbre
!!!
GrizzlyBear
Brand New
My Morning jacket
The Besnard lakes
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Fanfarlo
Long Distance Calling
Shearwater
The Twilight Sad
Vampire Weekend
Forward Russia
Elbow
FleetFoxes
Arcade Fire
Nadja
The Phantom Band
Crippled Black Phoenix
Regina Spektor
Bibio
The Protomen
Moderat
The National
Holy ****
Elf Power
O'Death
Bat For Lashes
The HoldSteady
Worriedaboutsatan
School of Seven bells
Of Montreal
Phoenix
Madvillain
Japandroids
Parenthetical Girls
The mountain Goats
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead
Broken Social Scene
Manchester Orchestra
Los Campesinos
Fever Ray
Mew
Bloc party
Grails
Royksopp
Spoon
DOOM
Ghostland Observatory
Max Richter
Super Furry Animals
Jesu

Those are recent bands/artists I thought of off the top of my head. There are plenty of others I could check my Songbird for, but I've left plenty of links. :P

Holy crap do we have similar tastes in music. I've always suspected so but now I know for sure.

You have both **** Buttons and Holy **** on your list. I love you. (and sunset rubdown and the knife and twilight sad and....)

[QUOTE="QuistisTrepe_"]

Product of the digital age. Great singles bands are going to see diminishing returns since you no longer have to buy their crappy albums and can cherry pick whatever you want.

Guppy507

Great singles bands is an oxymoron. If they can't write an entire album worth listening too, they're not good.

There are a great number of bands that live off of great singles but cannot produce a full, competent album. The Offspring are a prime example of this. Look at all the crap produced in the post-grunge era.

[QUOTE="VendettaRed07"]

[QUOTE="KGB32"] more like the quality of music now being poor compared to older stuffLockedge

yeah that too. This year so far has been really lame for music

[QUOTE="Guppy507"]

[QUOTE="QuistisTrepe_"]

Product of the digital age. Great singles bands are going to see diminishing returns since you no longer have to buy their crappy albums and can cherry pick whatever you want.

LJS9502_basic

Great singles bands is an oxymoron. If they can't write an entire album worth listening too, they're not good.

They don't, at least not at any large venues. There have been many a band that have come and gone, but not without that one, or possibly two hit singles before they fade to obscurity.

[QUOTE="Lockedge"]

[QUOTE="psychobrew"]

So lets hear some of them. There aren't many ground breaking bands out right now (at least that are popular or being pushed by the music industry). This is the copy cat age for rock.

majoras_wrath

Ground-breaking? I've always wondered what kind of measurement stick that was. As time goes on there's less and less ground to break, and when bands/artists do these days, it's often ignored or called trash. *shrug* Too many people(not assuming you here) looking for new Led Zeppelin material to listen to, and slam bands for either not filling their demands or hating bands for trying to fill Zeppelin's shoes. XD

Anywho, I suppose I should just keep a list handy for cases like this. Seems at least once a month I'm posting a few dozen bands to show people music lives on these days.

Sigur Ros
Islands
Baroness
XX
Sun Kil Moon
**** Buttons
The Horrors
Sufjan Stevens
Cut Copy
St. Vincent
Against Me!
Pink Mountaintops
The Gaslight Anthem
Stars
Florence & The machine
ShoutOutLouds
Black Mountain
Have A Nice Life
Queens of the Stone Age
Band of Horses
Jesca Hoop
Low
Passion Pit
Natural Snow Buildings
Great Lake Swimmers
Battles
Mono
Midlake
Paavoharju
Burial
The Fiery Furnaces
Handsome Furs
OkkervilRiver
Liars
Bon Iver
Opeth
God Is An Astronaut
Panda bear
The Knife
Volcano Choir
Tegan & Sara
Beach house
M83
Sunset Rubdown
Titus Andronicus
Santigold
Antony & The Johnsons
Matthew Good
The Raconteurs
Feist
Menomena
Yeasayer
Built To Spill
The pains of Being Pure At heart
Calla
Muse
Radiohead
Kurt Vile
Mastodon
British Sea Power
Asteroid
Metric
The Antlers
Dredg
Neko Case
Lullabye Arkestra
Joanna Newsom
Girl Talk
The Dodos
Porcupine Tree
Dirty projectors
AC Newman
Interpol
Crystal Castles
Rogue Wave
TV on the Radio
Owen Pallet
Iron & Wine
The Big Pink
John Frusciante
LCD Soundsystem
Cloud Cult
Junior Boys
Explosions in the Sky
MGMT
Beirut
Murder By Death
WolfParade
Saul Williams
Grand Salvo
I'm From barcelona
Animal Collective
The Field
Timbre Timbre
!!!
GrizzlyBear
Brand New
My Morning jacket
The Besnard lakes
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Fanfarlo
Long Distance Calling
Shearwater
The Twilight Sad
Vampire Weekend
Forward Russia
Elbow
FleetFoxes
Arcade Fire
Nadja
The Phantom Band
Crippled Black Phoenix
Regina Spektor
Bibio
The Protomen
Moderat
The National
Holy ****
Elf Power
O'Death
Bat For Lashes
The HoldSteady
Worriedaboutsatan
School of Seven bells
Of Montreal
Phoenix
Madvillain
Japandroids
Parenthetical Girls
The mountain Goats
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead
Broken Social Scene
Manchester Orchestra
Los Campesinos
Fever Ray
Mew
Bloc party
Grails
Royksopp
Spoon
DOOM
Ghostland Observatory
Max Richter
Super Furry Animals
Jesu

Those are recent bands/artists I thought of off the top of my head. There are plenty of others I could check my Songbird for, but I've left plenty of links. :P

Holy crap do we have similar tastes in music. I've always suspected so but now I know for sure.

You have both **** Buttons and Holy **** on your list. I love you. (and sunset rubdown and the knife and twilight sad and....)

[QUOTE="psychobrew"]

[QUOTE="Lockedge"] Last I counted, there were at least 100 good albums that came out last year, and at least 100 the year prior to that. And the year before that. By what standard do you claim there aren't many good bands out right now? What number is this "many"? The past decade has been incredibly fruitful in terms of quality music.

If you missed out then that's too bad, but don't whitewash over the musicians who put out a quality product just because you didn't take the time to look around. The music industry doesn't hand you platters of albums to hear like the stack of pancakes you get with breakfast in bed.

Lockedge

So lets hear some of them. There aren't many ground breaking bands out right now (at least that are popular or being pushed by the music industry). This is the copy cat age for rock.

Ground-breaking? I've always wondered what kind of measurement stick that was. As time goes on there's less and less ground to break, and when bands/artists do these days, it's often ignored or called trash. *shrug* Too many people(not assuming you here) looking for new Led Zeppelin material to listen to, and slam bands for either not filling their demands or hating bands for trying to fill Zeppelin's shoes. XD

Anywho, I suppose I should just keep a list handy for cases like this. Seems at least once a month I'm posting a few dozen bands to show people music lives on these days.

Sigur Ros
Islands
Baroness
XX
Sun Kil Moon
**** Buttons
The Horrors
Sufjan Stevens
Cut Copy
St. Vincent
Against Me!
Pink Mountaintops
The Gaslight Anthem
Stars
Florence & The machine
ShoutOutLouds
Black Mountain
Have A Nice Life
Queens of the Stone Age
Band of Horses
Jesca Hoop
Low
Passion Pit
Natural Snow Buildings
Great Lake Swimmers
Battles
Mono
Midlake
Paavoharju
Burial
The Fiery Furnaces
Handsome Furs
OkkervilRiver
Liars
Bon Iver
Opeth
God Is An Astronaut
Panda bear
The Knife
Volcano Choir
Tegan & Sara
Beach house
M83
Sunset Rubdown
Titus Andronicus
Santigold
Antony & The Johnsons
Matthew Good
The Raconteurs
Feist
Menomena
Yeasayer
Built To Spill
The pains of Being Pure At heart
Calla
Muse
Radiohead
Kurt Vile
Mastodon
British Sea Power
Asteroid
Metric
The Antlers
Dredg
Neko Case
Lullabye Arkestra
Joanna Newsom
Girl Talk
The Dodos
Porcupine Tree
Dirty projectors
AC Newman
Interpol
Crystal Castles
Rogue Wave
TV on the Radio
Owen Pallet
Iron & Wine
The Big Pink
John Frusciante
LCD Soundsystem
Cloud Cult
Junior Boys
Explosions in the Sky
MGMT
Beirut
Murder By Death
WolfParade
Saul Williams
Grand Salvo
I'm From barcelona
Animal Collective
The Field
Timbre Timbre
!!!
GrizzlyBear
Brand New
My Morning jacket
The Besnard lakes
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
Fanfarlo
Long Distance Calling
Shearwater
The Twilight Sad
Vampire Weekend
Forward Russia
Elbow
FleetFoxes
Arcade Fire
Nadja
The Phantom Band
Crippled Black Phoenix
Regina Spektor
Bibio
The Protomen
Moderat
The National
Holy ****
Elf Power
O'Death
Bat For Lashes
The HoldSteady
Worriedaboutsatan
School of Seven bells
Of Montreal
Phoenix
Madvillain
Japandroids
Parenthetical Girls
The mountain Goats
...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead
Broken Social Scene
Manchester Orchestra
Los Campesinos
Fever Ray
Mew
Bloc party
Grails
Royksopp
Spoon
DOOM
Ghostland Observatory
Max Richter
Super Furry Animals
Jesu

Those are recent bands/artists I thought of off the top of my head. There are plenty of others I could check my Songbird for, but I've left plenty of links. :P

Please pay attention to what I said in parenthensise. How many of those bands are pushed on the radio?

[QUOTE="QuistisTrepe_"]

Product of the digital age. Great singles bands are going to see diminishing returns since you no longer have to buy their crappy albums and can cherry pick whatever you want.

Nifty_Shark

Then how are all these "singles" artists being forced on us all the time?! How are they surviving?

New school methods of payola. Just because its illegal now doesn't mean it isn't still going on. Not just in music, but in other industries as well.

[QUOTE="Lockedge"]

[QUOTE="psychobrew"]

[QUOTE="Lockedge"]psychobrew

Please pay attention to what I said in parenthensise. How many of those bands are pushed on the radio?

[QUOTE="LJS9502_basic"][QUOTE="Guppy507"]

Great singles bands is an oxymoron. If they can't write an entire album worth listening too, they're not good.

QuistisTrepe_

They don't, at least not at any large venues. There have been many a band that have come and gone, but not without that one, or possibly two hit singles before they fade to obscurity.

[QUOTE="QuistisTrepe_"]

[QUOTE="LJS9502_basic"] Absolutely true....and they won't last as long as the bands have that make good albums. Does anyone want to spend money on ticket to see a singles band?Lockedge

They don't, at least not at any large venues. There have been many a band that have come and gone, but not without that one, or possibly two hit singles before they fade to obscurity.

I disagree with you. They are a glorified singles band. Though I'd argue that they have never had a hit track.

[QUOTE="psychobrew"][QUOTE="majoras_wrath"]All these people saying "herp derp no good bands" are really making me laugh. Have you even bothered to look beyond the radio? I blame equally both pirates and record companies for the decline of the album. Thanks for making bands like The Jonas Brothers top sellers, while amazingly fantastic bands like The Antlers or Los Campesinos stay limited to hipster magazines and newspapers.majoras_wrath

There's always money for marketing, etc. The amount of money a record company stands to make in a gamble far outweighs the amount of money they'd lose. Most companies expect this.

In any case, I blame the Clearchanel network for refusing to take any risks.

[QUOTE="Lockedge"][QUOTE="QuistisTrepe_"]

They don't, at least not at any large venues. There have been many a band that have come and gone, but not without that one, or possibly two hit singles before they fade to obscurity.

QuistisTrepe_

I disagree with you. They are a glorified singles band. Though I'd argue that they have never had a hit track.

EDIT: Replace "Push/Pulk" with "Everything In It's Right Place", "Idioteque", "In Limbo", "Morning Bell"

All fairly loved songs that would never get on the radio.

[QUOTE="psychobrew"]

[QUOTE="Lockedge"]

[QUOTE="psychobrew"]

[QUOTE="Lockedge"]majoras_wrath

Please pay attention to what I said in parenthensise. How many of those bands are pushed on the radio?

[QUOTE="majoras_wrath"][QUOTE="psychobrew"]

Please pay attention to what I said in parenthensise. How many of those bands are pushed on the radio?

psychobrew

Radio is declining though. Things like satellite radio started it, and the internet will finish it.

EDIT: Replace "Push/Pulk" with "Everything In It's Right Place", "Idioteque", "In Limbo", "Morning Bell"

All fairly loved songs that would never get on the radio.

majoras_wrath

I just played those tracks on Zune, and now I have a migraine.

I've never been interested in music.Legolas_Katarn

Why is that exactly?

[QUOTE="majoras_wrath"]

EDIT: Replace "Push/Pulk" with "Everything In It's Right Place", "Idioteque", "In Limbo", "Morning Bell"

All fairly loved songs that would never get on the radio.

QuistisTrepe_

Their singles are bad enough, but those tracks you listed shouldn't have ever seen the light of day. I always knew Radiohead was terrible, but I had no idea just how many extra levels of terrible they had achieved.

Please pay attention to what I said in parenthensise. How many of those bands are pushed on the radio?

psychobrew