2007 was a dry year for music sales, echoing the larger
year-to-year trend of an industry’s struggle
with changing times.
The numbers are brutal, according to Nielsen Soundscan’s recently-released
annual report: U.S. album sales are down by over 15 percent, and digital
music sales – while positive – slowed as well, showing a measly 2 percent
increase as compared to 2006’s triumphant 19 percent jump.
Christmastime is a usually a strong holiday for the music
business, but this year the season proved less than merry: whereas 2006 saw
31.3 million albums sold, 2007 saw 25.6 million in sales – a 19 percent drop.
Together, total yearly sales plummeted to 500.5 million
units.
Experts attribute a variety of reasons for 2007’s decline: a
lack of big hits to drive sales, piracy
and competing forms of entertainment, like videogames.
“I was astounded: There was no CD to give as a gift,” says
Mike Dreese, CEO of Brighton, Massacheusets-based Newbury Comics. “I have never
seen that before.”
Dreese attributes his stores' slump to a combination of the aforementioned
factors as well as bad luck. With
heavy snow and a New England Patriots game, Dreese saw an 80% drop on sales on a traditionally high-volume weekend.
Dreese’s statements seem to mirror the sentiments of other
retailers around the nation. While Omaha-based Homer’s Music and Gifts expected
the usual December weather, company president Mike Fratt says that shootings at
a local mall “led everyone into a malaise for about a week.”
Some experts think the music industry squandered
its time and goodwill in the battle
against digital distribution, with the results ending up as the loss of “a
whole generation of kids,” said industry attorney Kenneth Kraus.
Kraus, a partner at Nashville-based Loeb & Loeb, thinks
it may be a good five years before the industry is able to recover, hopefully by
enacting a pricing system that gives fans the freedom of legally downloading
music without restrictions.