Music News Bulletin - 05/01/09

Digital Boosts 2008 Sales To New Mark
"Overall music sales hit a new record in 2008, with over 1.5 billion units sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The Nielsen Company's annual year-end music industry report, released today, reveals that combined sales of albums, singles, music videos and digital tracks increased 10.5% over 2007, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The report covers purchases made during the 52 weeks between Dec. 31, 2007 to Dec. 28, 2008.

Digital tracks posted a 27% gain on their own to over a billion units sold in 2008, a new record. Digital albums grew 32% to 65.8 million units, also a new high. The 2008 numbers dragged when physical product was accounted. Combined sales of albums on CD, tape, vinyl and digital download were down 14% over the year prior, from 500.5 million units to 428.4 million. When track-equivalent albums are figured in, with ten digital tracks counting as an album, the decrease comes to 8.5%.

On a brighter note, total music purchases across all product categories went over 65 million units in the last week of 2008, making it the biggest music sales week in Nielsen SoundScan history." [Billboard]

Scramble over Woolies’ stock
"Companies including EMI and Microsoft are preparing legal action against the administrators of Woolworths to claw back millions of pounds of stock. Although the shelves in its stores are emptying fast, Woolies’ distribution arm, Entertainment UK (EUK), still has CDs, DVDs and computer games worth tens of millions of pounds in its warehouses.

Under “retention of title” rules, suppliers can claim back their own stock if it has not been paid for but, more broadly, they can can claim stock that has been paid for in lieu of debts.
That gives them the chance to resell the merchandise and prevent the administrator, Deloitte, offloading it cheaply." [RecordoftheDay]

Music sales up 10% in 2008, thanks to downloads (and vinyl)
"The music industry finished 2008 with positive sales growth numbers overall, but the grim CD death march continues apace. Overall unit purchases of music in the US increased by 10.5 percent year-over-year since 2007, according to new data released by Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen BDS, and Nielsen RingScan, but the growth is coming completely from downloads—and from vinyl.

More than 1.5 billion songs were sold during 2008, accounting for the 10.5 percent growth since the previous year. One billion digital tracks were sold online, which indicated 27 percent growth since 2007. But the trend toward digital singles continues to hurt full CD album sales—428 million albums (including LPs, CDs, and online albums) were sold in 2008, down 14 percent from the year before." [ArsTechnica]

L’Internet ne compense pas la chute des CD
"L’industrie du disque a subi une nouvelle année difficile en 2008, le développement des techniques de téléchargement légal ne parvenant pas à compenser la chute des ventes de CD, selon l’agence spécialisée Nielsen.

Aux Etats-Unis les ventes totales d’albums sur CD, sur internet, et en vinyle ont accusé un recul de 14 %, à 428,4 millions d’unités, contre 500,5 millions en 2007. En prenant en compte la vente de chansons à l’unité sur internet, le recul atteint encore 8,5 % (535,4 millions contre 584,9 millions d’unités), selon Nielsen.

Les ventes de CD représentant encore plus de 80 % du chiffre d’affaires du secteur, la désaffection des consommateurs pour les disquaires est un véritable défi pour les éditeurs, qui doivent à la fois lutter contre le piratage et trouver une façon satisfaisante de monétiser les téléchargements." [LeSoir]

Facebook Removes Project Playlist
"Facebook today has also removed access to the Project Playlist service from the popular social networking site, citing a request from the RIAA. A Facebook statement says the company hopes to resolve the situation so that the Project Playlist service eventually can resume service on the site, but that it will block access until the proper label deals can be established.

Just days after getting banned from MySpace, Project Playlist has struck a licensing deal with Sony BMG. The deal gives Project Playlist users direct access to the Sony BMG catalog of both music tracks and videos. Financial details were not disclosed.
The major-label licensing deal is a big step forward for the playlist-sharing service, which is being sued by the other three major labels - Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and EMI Music - as well as the RIAA for copyright infringement. Project Playlist allows users to upload music to create playlists that other users can then stream, but until the Sony BMG deal has done so without paying labels a licensing fee." [Billboard]