johnm1120
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Post by johnm1120 on Oct 18, 2014 21:54:24 GMT -5
2014 is first year ever with ZERO platinum-certified recordsIn Music by Joel FreimarkOct 17, 2014 While there were certainly a number of great albums you need to have from this year, 2014 will mark the first year since its inception in 1976 that no artist’s album will be certified as platinum from sales. The award is given by the RIAA to mark one million units sold, and with only a few weeks remaining in the year, no album is even remotely close to making the threshold. The two records nearest the magic number are Beyonce’s self-titled album and Lorde’s “Pure Heroine,” but neither have even crossed the 800,000 mark, with sales of both having tapered off months ago. There is one caveat, and that is the fact that the soundtrack to the animated film Frozen has moved well over three million units; but it being a soundtrack and not a single-artist release places it into a slightly different category. Yet the year is not a complete wash, as 60 individual songs have been certified as platinum, and this is a clear reflection of the overall shift that the industry has made back to a singles-based focus. Thanks to digital downloads, buyers are no longer required to purchase an entire album, but when compared to last year, the number of platinum-certified singles is still down more than 20%. The remainder of 2014 is rather bleak in terms of world-wide artists that could move massive units in a short time, as the only possible shot will come from Foo Fighters’ “Sonic Highways;” but it’s been nearly a decade since that band achieved such commercial sales success. Given that reality, it’s safe to say that in nearly every aspect, 2014 will mark the most disappointing and dismal year ever in terms of mainstream music sales. Many will be quick to blame the rise of streaming music services, as a large number of industry executives claim that this discourages the purchase of full albums and even singles to an extent. In fact, this was what many blamed for 2014 marking the lowest album sales since SoundScan tracking began in 1991 just a few weeks ago. When these numbers were released, it was the first solid indication of how uninspiring mainstream releases have been throughout this year, as those two previously mentioned albums that are closest to platinum status were both released in 2013. As the traditional music model changes more and more, the industry must get out of the mud and admit they have to make massive adjustments in their sales approach if they wish to survive. With the reality that songs can get millions of streams and video views, yet only sell tens of thousands of copies, the old model is no longer relevant, and when the big labels collapse, they’ll only have their arrogance and ignorance to blame. www.deathandtaxesmag.com/229695/2014-is-first-year-ever-with-zero-platinum-certified-records/
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bornfearless2000
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Post by bornfearless2000 on Oct 19, 2014 9:02:58 GMT -5
Wow. This is so frustrating in music business.
Taylor will easily scan platinum in a week or two.
Hopefully Carrie will get platinum with her GH.
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YourFaveIsAFlop
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Post by YourFaveIsAFlop on Oct 19, 2014 10:01:14 GMT -5
GH albums are hard to move big numbers for unless there is a lot of new material on them.
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Post by K. on Oct 19, 2014 10:09:56 GMT -5
I bet a few will make it with holiday sales. But I would be interested to see the streaming numbers and $$$. I would imagine those are marching upwards.
Also I'd like to note Beyonce's (comparatively) low sales despite not making her album available for streaming. Worked for the debut week, for all those people who were bound to buy the album eventually no matter what. Unclear if it has worked as a general profit-creating strategy.
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surfy
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Post by surfy on Oct 19, 2014 14:00:16 GMT -5
Since streaming also gains revenue, I suggest that once sales die down for an album, then you release it to streaming, it ~might~ gain new potential buyers, and you make money off of the fans using streaming services who have already bought the album.
Streaming may not make much based on individual streams, but MILLIONS listen to the songs on there. Lana has 75MILLION streams for Young and Beautiful WW! That's a big number!!!
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Green Baron
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Post by Green Baron on Oct 19, 2014 14:04:19 GMT -5
The Foo will do it.
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on Oct 19, 2014 15:41:28 GMT -5
Their first five albums went Platinum and their last two went Gold. I doubt they'll do platinum by year's end. They'll be lucky to hit a million with this album overall.
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vipanonymous
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Post by vipanonymous on Oct 19, 2014 16:05:38 GMT -5
Taylor is the only hope. This is a bummer tbh it's now a single market. How many singles were certified this year? I bet a lot.
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Post by Love Plastic Love on Oct 19, 2014 18:38:25 GMT -5
Taylor is the only hope. This is a bummer tbh it's now a single market. How many singles were certified this year? I bet a lot. I swear I read that even the singles market had stalled...but maybe that was just the growth isn't as large as it was for the past several years.
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Post by Push The Button on Oct 19, 2014 18:46:54 GMT -5
Taylor is the only hope. This is a bummer tbh it's now a single market. How many singles were certified this year? I bet a lot. I swear I read that even the singles market had stalled...but maybe that was just the growth isn't as large as it was for the past several years. Yeah, single sales are down 12.9% so far this year. 2013 was the first year that there was a dip in single sales, and it was down 5.7% overall.
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trustypepper
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Post by trustypepper on Oct 19, 2014 18:48:27 GMT -5
Taylor is the only hope. This is a bummer tbh it's now a single market. How many singles were certified this year? I bet a lot. 60, according to the post
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Gary
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Post by Gary on Oct 19, 2014 19:00:05 GMT -5
Get used to it. This will happen next year too. The only albums "going platinum" in 2015 will be albums already in release. This will be this way until the year comes when streaming peaks, which will happen but not anytime soon.
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vipanonymous
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Post by vipanonymous on Oct 19, 2014 19:08:14 GMT -5
Get used to it. This will happen next year too. The only albums "going platinum" in 2015 will be albums already in release. This will be this way until the year comes when streaming peaks, which will happen but not anytime soon. Adele?
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14887fan
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Post by 14887fan on Oct 19, 2014 19:12:08 GMT -5
Taylor Swift will easily be the first person to do it. Sam Smith could probably do it once the holidays come around; "I'm Not the Only One" is starting to build.
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YourFaveIsAFlop
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Post by YourFaveIsAFlop on Oct 19, 2014 19:16:28 GMT -5
Get used to it. This will happen next year too. The only albums "going platinum" in 2015 will be albums already in release. This will be this way until the year comes when streaming peaks, which will happen but not anytime soon. If labels were more aggressive in their pricing, they would move more units. As it stands, there is a huge population that sees music as having no value. Those people are never going to start buying albums again. But there are people who see music as having value, but not the value that the labels currently are setting it at. There are fewer and fewer people who think an album is worth $15, but that doesn't mean that these people have just stopped listening to music. They are just consuming it in a way that fits the value they place on the music. For some, thats illegal downloading, for others, it's renting through streaming services.
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Gary
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Post by Gary on Oct 19, 2014 19:40:21 GMT -5
Get used to it. This will happen next year too. The only albums "going platinum" in 2015 will be albums already in release. This will be this way until the year comes when streaming peaks, which will happen but not anytime soon. Adele? Thank you. I will be LESS specific in my statement
As album sales continue double digit declines, we are seeing this year the first of what is likely to be a trend in the future. Where we are seeing this now as a first and unique, this will soon become the norm. This will continue until the consumer someday again is geared towards owning the album rather than renting it.
Will there be platinum albums in the future? Yes, but there will continue to be fewer of them until the industry reverts back to a sales-based model rather than one based on streaming and a year like this will happen again.
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BDGeek
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Post by BDGeek on Oct 19, 2014 20:07:10 GMT -5
This is extremely subjective, but I would chalk much of this year's lackluster sales up to the quality of releases. I would argue that most high-profile releases in 2014 and 2013, both from new and established artists, just weren't particularly good albums. Most major albums that have dropped in the last year are ones I listened to once, then quickly forgot about apart from a song or two.
I realize there are other factors such as streaming, illegal downloading, etc. But ultimately, with few exceptions, I feel like artists, labels, and other industry players aren't taking enough risks to create works fans want to invest in.
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surfy
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Post by surfy on Oct 19, 2014 20:39:26 GMT -5
Definitely quality has declined as well, so there's yet another factor that contributes to the loss of sales. Lorde, Ed, Sam, and Beyonce have the biggest albums for a reason...
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Post by Devil Marlena Nylund on Oct 19, 2014 20:48:27 GMT -5
There's definitely a shift in the value put on music since streaming continues to become a thing, both paid streaming and free ones like YouTube. There just isn't a need to own even a digital copy anymore. So I think for some people, only the essentials will need to be owned in some form and those essentials will have to be considered important all around for the people putting in the (small) investment of buying it.
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EvanJ
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Post by EvanJ on Oct 19, 2014 21:29:05 GMT -5
This is extremely subjective, but I would chalk much of this year's lackluster sales up to the quality of releases. I would argue that most high-profile releases in 2014 and 2013, both from new and established artists, just weren't particularly good albums. Most major albums that have dropped in the last year are ones I listened to once, then quickly forgot about apart from a song or two. I realize there are other factors such as streaming, illegal downloading, etc. But ultimately, with few exceptions, I feel like artists, labels, and other industry players aren't taking enough risks to create works fans want to invest in. The album sales decrease didn't start in 2014, so you can't only blame artists' most recent albums. Here are the mean Hits Daily Double album sales for the Top 10 each week by year excluding a few weeks with the data not available and excluding Decembers when albums sell more (the percent change from the previous year is in parenthesis): 2000 (starting with the April 15 chart): 1,748,907 2001: 1,477,228 (down 15.5%) 2002: 1,380,762 (down 6.5%) 2003: 1,321,030 (down 4.3%) 2004: 1,345,641 (up 1.9%) 2005: 1,193,413 (down 11.3%) 2006: 1,093,849 (down 8.3%) 2007: 1,028,942 (down 5.9%) 2008: 889,548 (down 13.5%) 2009: 802,466 (down 9.8%) 2010: 743,537 (down 7.3%) 2011: 713,771 (down 4.0%) 2012: 705,636 (down 1.1%) 2013: 653,880 (down 7.3%) I'm guessing 2000 would be higher if sales from the beginning of the year were available because that was when "No Strings Attached" sold about 2,400,000 in its first week. I didn't collect this information for 2014. Sales for the top 10 were down 62.6% from 2000 to 2013. 12 of the 13 changes were decreases. The median change was down 7.3%.
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Gary
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Post by Gary on Oct 19, 2014 21:46:44 GMT -5
Here are the actual numbers
Total Album Sales (physical + digital albums)
2013: 289.41 million 2012: 315.96 million 2011: 330.57 million 2010: 326.15 million 2009: 373.9 million 2008: 428.4 million 2007: 500.5 million 2006: 542.4 million 2005: 618.9 million 2004: 667 million 2003: 687 million 2002: 681 million 2001: 763 million 2000: 785 million 1999: 754.8 million 1998: 711 million 1997: 651.8 million 1996: 616.6 million
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Gary
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Post by Gary on Oct 19, 2014 21:50:33 GMT -5
2014 is tracking down 14% which would mean at or around 250 million, that is less than 1/3 of where it once was. There is no sign it will be increasing any time soon. This no platinum in 2014 thing is just the beginning
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imbondz
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Post by imbondz on Oct 19, 2014 22:33:33 GMT -5
wait til there's no gold album in a year
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pnobelysk
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Post by pnobelysk on Oct 20, 2014 6:13:40 GMT -5
Along with Taylor , lil Wayne should be able to pass 1 million, his carter series has a strong following
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HolidayGuy
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Post by HolidayGuy on Oct 20, 2014 7:15:19 GMT -5
Of course, with RIAA numbers- which were more significant in the 90s/early 2000s than now- total album shipments/sales topped 1 billion at the peak. Those were the days.
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YourFaveIsAFlop
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Post by YourFaveIsAFlop on Oct 20, 2014 8:47:29 GMT -5
I think the outlook on the industry will change if they start moving towards a TEA based way of looking at album sales that incorporates single sales and and streaming. Yes, the numbers are down but there is more to it than the raw album sales numbers show.
This is particularly true with new artists who don't already have a following. If only the fans are the ones buying full albums anymore, then maybe the focus should shift from album sales to TEA sales.
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Post by areyoureadytojump on Oct 20, 2014 9:06:19 GMT -5
The writer is confusing the term Platinum with scanning a million copies.
He mentions Beyonce and Lorde. Both were certified Platinum in February.
Both album have sold over 1 million copies. Beyonce 2 million and 2xP...
"Only a few weeks remaining"? Try *11* chart weeks!
Sam Smith will be close to 700,000 after this chart week. He'll sell one million copies in 2014.
Barbra Streisand will be close to 500,000 after this chart week. She has a good chance of scanning 1 million.
We all know Taylor Swift will sell one million in her first or 2nd week on the charts.
Lil Wayne... Does his album have a release date?
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YourFaveIsAFlop
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Post by YourFaveIsAFlop on Oct 20, 2014 9:09:16 GMT -5
Coldplay could hit a million if they were discounted around the holidays
And I wouldn't doubt 1D's ability to scan a million with Christmas sales. There are a lot of teenage girls in America, and a lot of parents with stockings to stuff.
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EvanJ
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Post by EvanJ on Oct 20, 2014 9:16:13 GMT -5
Here are the actual numbers Total Album Sales (physical + digital albums) 2013: 289.41 million 2012: 315.96 million 2011: 330.57 million 2010: 326.15 million 2009: 373.9 million 2008: 428.4 million 2007: 500.5 million 2006: 542.4 million 2005: 618.9 million 2004: 667 million 2003: 687 million 2002: 681 million 2001: 763 million 2000: 785 million 1999: 754.8 million 1998: 711 million 1997: 651.8 million 1996: 616.6 million Thank you. So sales were down 63.1% from 2000 to 2013, meaning that my estimate of 62.6% was close.
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Post by areyoureadytojump on Oct 20, 2014 9:20:57 GMT -5
Thanks to oldbloke:
ALBUMS WEEK 41
Rank - Estimated 2014 Sales - TITLE - Artist ( Estimated Total Sales )
01 - 3,159,000 - FROZEN - Soundtrack ( 3,496,000 ) 02 - 784,000 - BEYONCÉ - Beyoncé ( 2,085,000 ) 03 - 762,000 - PURE HEROINE - Lorde ( 1,450,000 ) 04 - 732,000 - GHOST STORIES - Coldplay ( 732,000 ) 05 - 729,000 - THE OUTSIDERS - Eric Church ( 729,000 ) 06 - 655,000 - IN THE LONELY HOUR - Sam Smith ( 655,000 ) 07 - 642,000 - CRASH MY PARTY - Luke Bryan ( 2,164,000 ) 08 - 639,000 - NOW 50 - Various ( 639,000 ) 09 - 591,000 - JUST AS I AM - Brantley Gilbert ( 591,000 ) 10 - 542,000 - GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY: AWESOME MIX VOL.1 - Soundtrack ( 542,000 ) 11 - 539,000 - PRISM - Katy Perry ( 1,511,000 ) 12 - 533,000 - G I R L - Pharrell Williams ( 533,000 ) 13 - 524,000 - HERE'S TO THE GOOD TIMES - Florida Georgia Line ( 2,056,000 ) 14 - 522,000 - NOW 49 - Various ( 522,000 ) 15 - 520,000 - X - Ed Sheeran ( 520,000 ) 16 - 512,000 - NIGHT VISIONS - Imagine Dragons ( 2,331,000 ) 17 - 497,000 - 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER - 5 Seconds Of Summer ( 497,000 ) 18 - 493,000 - THE MARSHALL MATHERS LP 2 - Eminem ( 2,220,000 ) 19 - 484,000 - PLATINUM - Miranda Lambert ( 484,000 ) 20 - 446,000 - NATIVE - OneRepublic ( 872,000 )
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