UK music sales decline for sixth consecutive year

[raliverpool]

UK music sales decline for sixth consecutive year
5 January 2011 Last updated at 16:57
BBC News[/b]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12120789
Music sales in the UK have fallen for the sixth consecutive year, according to the British record industry's trade association.

The British Recorded Music Industry (BPI) said combined digital and physical album sales fell 7% last year, from 128.9 million to 119.9 million.

The 2009 figures saw an overall drop of 3.5%, despite a rise in download sales.

Digital analyst Mark Mulligan said the figures were not suprising, adding "alternative products are needed".
"The simple fact is that CD sales are declining much more quickly than digital sales are growing," he went on.
"Worse still, download sales growth is slowing.

"There is nothing in current trends to suggest that download sales are going to accelerate quickly enough to turn around music sales anytime soon.
"New alternative music products are needed. 99p downloads aren't enough."

Earlier on Wednesday, music and books retailer HMV announced plans to close 60 UK stores in the next 12 months.
The company said Christmas sales were down 10% and warned profits would be at the lower end of forecasts, blaming severe weather and "challenging trading conditions".

The BPI monitored sales gathered by the Official Charts Company and said sales of digital albums this year have increased by 30%.

It also found the combined singles market recorded an all-time high of 161.8m, beating last year's figure of 152.7m.

Yet sales of digital single tracks, which have continued to rise since 2006, represented 98% of the overall figure.

CD singles only accounted for 1.9m sales - down on last year's total of 2.5m.

In the final week of 2010, sales of downloaded singles surpassed the 5 million mark for the first time ever.

The market for digital albums also went mainstream in 2010, with nearly a fifth of sales now coming from online services.

Take That's Progress was crowned the best-selling album of the year after shifting more than 1.8m copies.
The top-selling single of 2010 was Eminem's Love the Way You Lie, closely followed by When We Collide by X Factor winner Matt Cardle.

BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor said sales recorded from the previous year show that digital sales highs in the past few years had been "no fluke".
"Music fans continue to embrace the convenience, value and choice offered by legal download stores," he added.

The BPI has blamed illegal downloading for the drop in sales, and has again called for "meaningful action" to tackle the issue.

However, Jim Killock of the Open Rights Group said: "Music companies should make albums more compelling, rather than calling for families to be cut off the internet.
"Music competes with games, video and TV for your hard-earned cash," he continued.
"Record labels are masters of their own fate and need to stop blaming their customers for their industry's own failures."

The Open Rights Group aims to raise awareness of digital rights and civil liberties issues.

More bad news for the music industry?

[Jordan]

I can't for the life of me figure out what they're going to do about it. Illegal downloading is simply too big to be tackled now. It'll be around as long as the internet is.

[vastar iner]

Isn't it amazing how music sales have gone down every year since X Factor started?

[raliverpool]

Jan 5, 2011 20:50:59 GMT 1 vastar iner said:

Isn't it amazing how music sales have gone down every year since X Factor started?

Agreed. It is no coincidence that the UK music industry thrived in the two eras British music was so inventive and dominant (mid 1960s & late 1970s/early 1980s); and declines when British music is rubbish.

If you take the creativity and art form out of music to turn it into product, then what is the point of the art form in the first place when it becomes so cheapened and devalued.

As the BAFTA award winning documentary series Pop Britannia perfectly explained a couple of years ago - The Beatles broke the mould of middle age svengalis controlling music with bland safe good looking singers singing tin pan alley covers; and now the likes of Cowell is closing the mould up again by getting a nation of teenagers to aspire to be over hyped fame hungry bland good looking singers performing/miming glorified insipid karaoke.

With the current UK musical climate it is impossible now for a future Beatles; Bowie or Bush to come along and take the nation by storm; this young generation don't even seem to have the appetite to produce a new version of the Sex Pistols or Clash.

Hence, UK popular music is dying, a slow slow death.

[smokeyb]

There is a complete lack on vision in music today. Todays artists are lazy, in that its easy to just sample an old track and tweak it, rather than sit down with a piano, guitar etc and actually write something new and fresh. There is too much R & B (my pet hate) and too many female solo artists, with not a lot on offer (throw in a sexy video) and you get a hit.

I'm glad I lived through the 60's, 70's and 80's when there was a great diversity of innovative music. Yes there was a lot of rubbish too, but at least it was original rubbish.

Where are the great music trends, like the Beatles & Stones in the 60's,Glam with Bowie, T Rex & punk with Sex pistols & the Clash in the 70's, New Wave with Human League, Duran Duran, Japan, etc in the 80's, I could go on.

Less records are being bought because too much of todays music fits into one category, with very few exceptions.

[vastar iner]

Jan 5, 2011 21:20:43 GMT 1 raliverpool said:

Hence, UK popular music is dying, a slow slow death.

And you can bet the BPI will blame it on downloading, despite the evidence to suggest downloaders buy MORE music, than the fact that all new developments in music are being tightly controlled by a cabal to such an extent nobody outside is able to break through, and a giant slice of the market is thereby alienated.