"Store Singles" up 23.6% + Other Stats, from BBMW

[Nic (Britney Spears)]

i almost never see any info on the market itself, so i figured since I have the ability to, I will give you all a little market update.

INFO FROM BILLBOARD MARKET WATCH
For some reason Billboard has been mailing me the Billboard Magazine even though I am not / never have been subscribed.

I thought I'd mention that store singles (physical singles) are up A LOT from this time last year -- 23.6%! From this time last year, Store singles had sold 726,000 copies, but this year nearly 900,000 have been sold up until this point.

Also, TEA (Track Equivalent Albums) are down from 206,000,000 to 189,000,000. All this really shows is that people are continually shying away from albums and JUST going for singles (a TEA is when 10 songs from an album are sold digitally). so, Digital Single sales are up, but overall people are buying less songs from the same album.

Indie sales are up 8.1%, and non-traditional music sales are up by 10.2%. Mass Merchant sales are down 11.5% and Chain music sales are down 34.7%

Album sales are down 11.1%

I'm most interested in why store single sales have gone up so much -- anyone know the answer?

[#LisaRinna]

I'm not surprised. Some R&B acts still release CD Singles sporadically.

T4P

[Chelsea Press 2]

Certain artists have continued to release CD singles even though the significant majority of artists do not. I know that most if not all of the Lady Gaga singles off of The Fame and The Fame Monster had CD maxi singles released. Madonna has been releasing CD singles for all of her recent singles as well. There have been occasional ones for Sony BMG associated artists' singles. And Beyonce has had a few occasional physical releases which were Walmart exclusives.

I used to buy CD singles a lot during the 90's and 2000's. I still occasionally buy when I can find them. U.S. ones are really rare though, especially for the major artists. I'm into Dance/Electronic music and some of the labels still release them.

[Nic (Britney Spears)]

^ i've never seen a maxi single for a GaGa song outside of itunes :S

[WotUNeed]

Jun 25, 2010 17:36:57 GMT -5 Nic (Britney Spears) said:

^ i've never seen a maxi single for a GaGa song outside of itunes :S

They did get physical pressings, but I don't think they're being widely carried by traditional retailers.

The increasing popularity of vinyl is helping the physical singles market. I would guess that's where most of the increases are being seen, especially with many indie labels releasing exclusive vinyl singles and the likes. Not saying those pull in huge numbers, but, with the numbers having been so low, even a moderate increase in one sector results in a fairly significant increase overall.

[Enyasurvivor]

everytime I go to FYE, they have many of GaGa's singles there with the albums.

[Nic (Britney Spears)]

^ really? i've never seen that ever :S

[WotUNeed]

Jun 27, 2010 13:02:16 GMT -5 Enyasurvivor said:

everytime I go to FYE, they have many of GaGa's singles there with the albums.

Funny you should mention this. I was at FYE yesterday for the first time in a while and I checked for those singles because of this thread. I saw several copies of "Telephone" and "Alejandro." I also noticed many copies of a two-track for Katy Perry's "California Gurls" for $1.99.

I haven't noticed any of those at the other two record stores I visit, but one of them is Best Buy, which has a limited selection, and the other is a local independent store which does not cater to the crowd that'd be buying GaGa and Perry. (You can see the kind of things they stock here, if you so desire.)

I guess where you can find various singles depends on the artist, the merchandiser, and the market segment being targeted.

[Chelsea Press 2]

Jun 25, 2010 17:43:38 GMT -5 WotUNeed said:

Jun 25, 2010 17:36:57 GMT -5 Nic (Britney Spears) said:

^ i've never seen a maxi single for a GaGa song outside of itunes :S

They did get physical pressings, but I don't think they're being widely carried by traditional retailers.

The increasing popularity of vinyl is helping the physical singles market. I would guess that's where most of the increases are being seen, especially with many indie labels releasing exclusive vinyl singles and the likes. Not saying those pull in huge numbers, but, with the numbers having been so low, even a moderate increase in one sector results in a fairly significant increase overall.

The physical CD maxis for Lady Gaga and Madonna singles can also be purchased at online stores like Amazon.com. Amazon usually stocks most physical CD singles unless they are a certain store's exclusive. They also have the vinyl singles.