News

U.S. Music Downloads Skyrocket in 2006

Monday, July 10th, 2006 at 8:25 AM - by

CD sales may be dropping, but music download sales are on a sharp rise this year. The BBC reports that legitimate U.S. music download sales jumped 77 percent in the first half of 2006.

Even though 14 million full album downloads where purchased, compared to the 6.5 million for the same period last year, consumers still prefer purchasing just the songs they want. Most music buyers don't like purchasing full albums just to get the one or two songs they really want.

"Digital distribution is an answer to the consumer who's been throwing up that complaint," commented Geoff Mayfield, director of charts for music magazine Billboard.

The company that's reaping most of the benefits of the surge in online music sales is Apple Computer. The company's iTunes Music Store holds about 73 percent of the U.S. market.

Apple's gain, however, comes as traditional music sales continue to slip. CD sales have dropped 4.2 percent in 2006. But instead of erosion to music download sales, Mr. Mayfield thinks this loss is the result of a lack of hits.

He said "Considering that you haven't had a 50 Cent to be the Pied Piper during the first half of the year or a Norah Jones the year before that, being behind 4% in album sales is really not that bad."

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Mon Jul 10, 2006 8:50 pm

<i>...consumers still prefer purchasing just the songs they want. Most music buyers don't like purchasing full albums just to get the one or two songs they really want.</i>

Yup. Because usually, most albums have those one or two good songs, and the rest of the CD flat sucks.

You won't see full album sales rebound until the music industry addresses that issue. And no, it wasn't always like this... back in the 60s and 70s, a lot of artists tried to make the ENTIRE album good. Wotta concept.

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