Only Artists To Sell Half A Million Copies

[boscy]

Maybe the record labels ought to consider lowering CD prices to $3.99 like the way Amazon sold Paul McCartney's latest album.
Y'know, supply, demand, price equilibrium.


Jan 11, 2021

BTS And Taylor Swift Were The Only Artists To Sell Half A Million Copies Of An Album In The U.S. In 2020

by Hugh McIntyre

It may be difficult to believe, but there were only two albums that managed to sell at least half a million copies in the U.S. last year, and one outperformed the other by a huge margin.

www.Forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2021/01/11/bts-and-taylor-swift-were-the-only-artists-to-sell-half-a-million-copies-of-an-album-in-the-us-in-2020

[iHype.]

Selling something for cheaper is ineffective if is just no longer seen as convenient to buy the product in general. Would you buy a flip phone in 2021 even if it was only $5?

Anyone who uses Spotify/Apple Music/etc full-time is most likely not gonna buy albums individually even if they're discounted. And selling it to the remaining base who still buys albums for lower only further cuts into potential profit that is left.

I will say in BTS's case though, their price of $50+ was an outlier that possibly turned off many fans who wanted to buy the release.

[musicfan134]

Streaming is the way of the future. It's here, whether we want it to be or not.

Are there still artists holding their catalog from streaming services? I know Taylor Swift and Adele were both doing so for a time...if people truly want album sales to be a thing again, the only way might be to do a temporary hold on releasing the album to streaming services. But I question how effective that would be.

[shayonce]

Streaming is already here, now.
sales at this point mostly bought by extremely dedicated fandom which is why artists are doing multiple cover version, special versions, cassette/Vinyls more than ever.
and you can see big differences when artist don't do it.. like BTS/Taylor's recent album have a lot less pure sales due to lack of them.

BTS
map of the soul:7 - 4 versions + 32 random photo card = 674k sales (646k CD)
Be - 1 Version. 273k sales (252k CD)

Taylor
Lover - 5 versions + massive bundles = 1.259M
Folklore - 8 versions of CD/Vinyl + massive bundles + singed CDs = 1.276M
Evermore - 1 versions 283k (this week 16k)

[Choco]

Jan 13, 2021 20:13:02 GMT -5 musicfan134 said:

Streaming is the way of the future. It's here, whether we want it to be or not.

Are there still artists holding their catalog from streaming services? I know Taylor Swift and Adele were both doing so for a time...if people truly want album sales to be a thing again, the only way might be to do a temporary hold on releasing the album to streaming services. But I question how effective that would be.

Those two were the biggest holdouts. I don't think there's any other current hitmaker doing it anymore.

[JOJO SIWA DERANGEMENT SYNDROME]

Jan 13, 2021 20:13:02 GMT -5 musicfan134 said:

Are there still artists holding their catalog from streaming services?

Aaliyah's music is still not on streaming services for various reasons involving her estate (there was news that the music will be on streaming this year but we hear about this every so often).

De La Soul's music is also not on streaming and for a while wasn't even available to buy digitally. Their situation is far more complicated because of allegedly uncleared samples, contracts that didn’t stipulate that cleared samples could be used for digital purposes and major label bureaucracy from their time under the Warner umbrella.

Garth Brooks is only on Amazon.

Most of Suede/The London Suede's music is still unavailable on streaming.

Joanna Newsom.

A lot of independent artists have chosen not to put their music up because of how little they will actually get from streaming. Singer/songwriter Amber (known for the songs "This Is Your Night", "Sexual (Li Da Di)", "Yes!", etc.) has not made anything she released after she went independent to stream. Her Tommy Boy era stuff is available but it was apparently done without her involvement, and from what I have read, she hasn't received any royalties from that.

And there are many instances of labels that went under and their catalogs are totally unavailable.

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

People don't buy physical music to listen to anymore, it's to collect. And the average consumer sees no meaningful difference between streaming and buying a digital album in terms of consumption. The only reason digital albums even exist still is that the overhead is practically zero for the labels. I don't see it swinging back anytime soon unless the labels try to overplay their hand on streaming and do what cable networks are attempting (and failing) in creating proprietary streaming services. But Tidal already tried that on a small scale, with artists making themselves Tidal exclusives, and that lasted all of about 8 months before they went back to being available widely.

I just think "album sales" is a useless figure these days.

[musicfan134]

Jan 13, 2021 22:07:47 GMT -5 Choco said:

Jan 13, 2021 20:13:02 GMT -5 musicfan134 said:

Streaming is the way of the future. It's here, whether we want it to be or not.

Are there still artists holding their catalog from streaming services? I know Taylor Swift and Adele were both doing so for a time...if people truly want album sales to be a thing again, the only way might be to do a temporary hold on releasing the album to streaming services. But I question how effective that would be.

Those two were the biggest holdouts. I don't think there's any other current hitmaker doing it anymore.

I do wonder how successful it would be for someone like Adele to release an album that was a "sales exclusive" at this point. Even a timed exclusive..."if you want to listen to this right away, you need to buy the album. Otherwise, it's available to stream in a month." If anyone can pull something like that off, it's Adele (or mayyyyybe Taylor, but I don't see her doing that).

Jan 14, 2021 5:52:07 GMT -5 JOJO SIWA DERANGEMENT SYNDROME said:

Jan 13, 2021 20:13:02 GMT -5 musicfan134 said:

Are there still artists holding their catalog from streaming services?

Aaliyah's music is still not on streaming services for various reasons involving her estate (there was news that the music will be on streaming this year but we hear about this every so often).

De La Soul's music is also not on streaming and for a while wasn't even available to buy digitally. Their situation is far more complicated because of allegedly uncleared samples, contracts that didn’t stipulate that cleared samples could be used for digital purposes and major label bureaucracy from their time under the Warner umbrella.

Garth Brooks is only on Amazon.

Most of Suede/The London Suede's music is still unavailable on streaming.

Joanna Newsom.

A lot of independent artists have chosen not to put their music up because of how little they will actually get from streaming. Singer/songwriter Amber (known for the songs "This Is Your Night", "Sexual (Li Da Di)", "Yes!", etc.) has not made anything she released after she went independent to stream. Her Tommy Boy era stuff is available but it was apparently done without her involvement, and from what I have read, she hasn't received any royalties from that.

And there are many instances of labels that went under and their catalogs are totally unavailable.

Hmmm...very interesting. Very interesting indeed.

The only way I see music sales making a meaningful return is if more artists and labels take a stand against streaming...which I don't see happening.

[Choco]

Jan 14, 2021 16:29:29 GMT -5 musicfan134 said:

Jan 13, 2021 22:07:47 GMT -5 Choco said:

Those two were the biggest holdouts. I don't think there's any other current hitmaker doing it anymore.

I do wonder how successful it would be for someone like Adele to release an album that was a "sales exclusive" at this point. Even a timed exclusive..."if you want to listen to this right away, you need to buy the album. Otherwise, it's available to stream in a month." If anyone can pull something like that off, it's Adele (or mayyyyybe Taylor, but I don't see her doing that).

I think it being Adele it would probably sell well, but it would ultimately lose a lot of streams and SPS. Imagine how big Taylor's streams would have been had she had 1989 on the services before.

And a pandemic doesn't really help the case for physical sales (shipments take forever, in store pickup is obviously a little risky like all out-of-home activities, etc...) I guess iTunes would be glad to see some activity on their album chart tho.

[Amnesiac]

Jan 14, 2021 5:52:07 GMT -5 JOJO SIWA DERANGEMENT SYNDROME said:

Jan 13, 2021 20:13:02 GMT -5 musicfan134 said:

Are there still artists holding their catalog from streaming services?

Aaliyah's music is still not on streaming services for various reasons involving her estate (there was news that the music will be on streaming this year but we hear about this every so often).

De La Soul's music is also not on streaming and for a while wasn't even available to buy digitally. Their situation is far more complicated because of allegedly uncleared samples, contracts that didn’t stipulate that cleared samples could be used for digital purposes and major label bureaucracy from their time under the Warner umbrella.

Garth Brooks is only on Amazon.

Most of Suede/The London Suede's music is still unavailable on streaming.

Joanna Newsom.

A lot of independent artists have chosen not to put their music up because of how little they will actually get from streaming. Singer/songwriter Amber (known for the songs "This Is Your Night", "Sexual (Li Da Di)", "Yes!", etc.) has not made anything she released after she went independent to stream. Her Tommy Boy era stuff is available but it was apparently done without her involvement, and from what I have read, she hasn't received any royalties from that.

And there are many instances of labels that went under and their catalogs are totally unavailable.

One of the last big ones was The KLF, whose music has been out of print in general since they retired in 1992. Then earlier this month they put out an EP that brought some of their hits like "3 A.M. Eternal" and "What Time is Love?" to streaming for the first time. I'm hoping that means their albums are next; Chill Out in particular would be really nice to have on Spotify.

[bat1990]

Tangental, but Heart's 1985 self-titled album with some of their biggest hits isn't on streaming. These include "What About Love," "Never," and "These Dreams"

[JOJO SIWA DERANGEMENT SYNDROME]

Jan 27, 2021 13:55:32 GMT -5 Amnesiac said:

Jan 14, 2021 5:52:07 GMT -5 JOJO SIWA DERANGEMENT SYNDROME said:

Aaliyah's music is still not on streaming services for various reasons involving her estate (there was news that the music will be on streaming this year but we hear about this every so often).

De La Soul's music is also not on streaming and for a while wasn't even available to buy digitally. Their situation is far more complicated because of allegedly uncleared samples, contracts that didn’t stipulate that cleared samples could be used for digital purposes and major label bureaucracy from their time under the Warner umbrella.

Garth Brooks is only on Amazon.

Most of Suede/The London Suede's music is still unavailable on streaming.

Joanna Newsom.

A lot of independent artists have chosen not to put their music up because of how little they will actually get from streaming. Singer/songwriter Amber (known for the songs "This Is Your Night", "Sexual (Li Da Di)", "Yes!", etc.) has not made anything she released after she went independent to stream. Her Tommy Boy era stuff is available but it was apparently done without her involvement, and from what I have read, she hasn't received any royalties from that.

And there are many instances of labels that went under and their catalogs are totally unavailable.

One of the last big ones was The KLF, whose music has been out of print in general since they retired in 1992. Then earlier this month they put out an EP that brought some of their hits like "3 A.M. Eternal" and "What Time is Love?" to streaming for the first time. I'm hoping that means their albums are next; Chill Out in particular would be really nice to have on Spotify.

I saw an article about that recently. I have a feeling expanded editions of their prior releases will be put up later this year.

[Au$tin]

Jan 13, 2021 22:07:47 GMT -5 Choco said:

Jan 13, 2021 20:13:02 GMT -5 musicfan134 said:

Streaming is the way of the future. It's here, whether we want it to be or not.

Are there still artists holding their catalog from streaming services? I know Taylor Swift and Adele were both doing so for a time...if people truly want album sales to be a thing again, the only way might be to do a temporary hold on releasing the album to streaming services. But I question how effective that would be.

Those two were the biggest holdouts. I don't think there's any other current hitmaker doing it anymore.

Garth Brooks is the last one. But he's always been the odd man out when it comes to, well, anything. You can stream him on Amazon Music now, though, which is honestly a huge deal since the dude didn't even allow his music on iTunes and still doesn't. So even he will eventually go full on streaming IMO.

[taylor]

Jan 13, 2021 20:13:02 GMT -5 musicfan134 said:

Streaming is the way of the future. It's here, whether we want it to be or not.

Are there still artists holding their catalog from streaming services? I know Taylor Swift and Adele were both doing so for a time...if people truly want album sales to be a thing again, the only way might be to do a temporary hold on releasing the album to streaming services. But I question how effective that would be.

Adele held 25 from streaming services until June 2016. When the CD was released on November 20, 2015, it sold 3.38 million copies in its opening week in the US alone. By the end of the fifth week of worldwide sales (as in, within the year 2015), it had sold 17.4 million.

Taylor held reputation from streaming services until December 3, 2017, just under a month after release. When November 10, the date of the album's release rolled around, it posted first-week US sales of over a million copies, with two million sold worldwide.

It's very effective, especially if you're a big name like those two. I'm highly certain that Ariana Grande could pull such numbers on physical sales alone if she held albums off of streaming for a certain time period. Her fanbase is that rabid, so it helps.

[Choco]

Ariana has never been a big seller. Streaming is where her numbers are at.

2016 was a far kinder market for physicals too. I don't think the strategy works nearly as well in 2021.