Digital Music Sales Decline for First Time Since Opening of iTunes Music Store

[crescentmoon52]

CD quality...

The music needs to move to 24 bit... there is big difference in sound quality. The technology has not changed in over 30 years!! Its time we moved at least into the early 21st century...

 

[cclloyd]

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In our defense, none of us are proud of a few artists. Her included.

 

[gnasher729]

It would help digital sales if they offered lossless formats. Right now, you get the same quality with streaming and downloading. But if you could get downloads in perfect quality, it would be an incentive for buying music.

99% of customers don't care. And Apple Lossless is usually around 700 Kbit / second, say 90 Kbyte per second, that's three hours per Gigabyte. Except for the iPod Classic, there's nothing that can hold a decent music collection in portable form.

 

[Icaras]

The purchase of physical media is harder to track especially pre-existing material that can be found from superstore to carboot. Sales of new physical media will decline though however there will always be a demand for physical material for reasons Ive previously stated.

As for Itunes market share rising, the purchase, storage and ease of distribution among devices is a draw as is the fact this year Itunes has had a lot of exclusive content notably Beyonce's album.

So why not try to not just post an asinine comment and think about why the Itunes market share rose but still digital sales are falling. If you have a better explanation then say, if not then you shouldn't criticise.

So emotional.

As for my "asinine" comment, I merely paraphrased the part about the rate in which sales for physical CDs is declining is greater than digital. I doubt that undocumented sales from smaller stores is going to alleviate that disparity of decline rate much. If you want to get a clearer perspective, you should probably also look at data for shipped CDs, but even then I still highly doubt that number will hold a candle to digital sales.

Of course there is still a demand for physical CDs. Never in my original post did I discredit physical CDs and their obvious strengths. What I'm looking at here and what I deem is important is the rate of decline and which one is dropping faster than the other, and so far all evidence clearly points to physical CDs. You can speculate about missing numbers all you want, but really it's just all speculation (Again, I think a hard number on shipped CDs might give a clearer picture.)

Also I would surmise that the rise of iTunes share probably shares a direction relation to the steep decline of physical music sales, as well as the other points you mentioned in terms of marketing and exclusivity, all add up to that conclusion.

 

[peterdevries]

Yes, there are. And it's become easier than ever to discover them. I have no idea why people are complaining specifically about the kind of music that is most popular, as if that had any bearing whatsoever on the choice of music available to them.

The problem is not so much that we are not able to find our own music. The issue is that we are pestered with crap music as soon as we turn the TV or radio on in the car or when we enter a generic store in the shopping center.

 

[MagnusVonMagnum]

Music largely sucks today. It's that simple. The record companies won't support groups with actual talent or types of music (e.g. rock) that they think are outdated and yet groups like the Eagles sold more albums than most of today's artists put together so you do the math. Nirvana ruled the '90s, supposedly, but when Pink Floyd went on tour with an album for the first time in seven years in 1994, they sold out STADIUMS, not concert halls and yet we don't even many good rock groups anymore because the record companies don't want to promote them (i.e. rock is dead). How many groups can sell out a stadium today? But no, it's people not buying their music, etc. that's the reason, not crappy music forced on us by a music industry that doesn't know what real music is anymore. I cringe at most of the stuff playing on the radio. Maybe I'm too old, but it's funny how if I go the other way in time to eras pre-dating my generation I still can enjoy it even if it's not my favorite genre (and I mean big-band, jazz, rag-time, etc. not '50s rock). I can't even STAND half the stuff they call "music" these days with endless sampling, pitch-correction and talking rather than people who can actually sing. And I once thought country music was as bad as it could get. LOL.

I used to buy 15-30 albums a year in the '80s and early '90s. Now I buy 1-4 albums a year and it's not because I wouldn't like to hear new music. I'm sure there is some out there but finding it is another matter. You can't find it on MTV or VH-1 anymore or most radio stations so you're stuck with Pandora or something like that, but it wants to look for music by what you already like so finding something new AND different is more of a chore. I don't have the time or the desire when I've already got 9000 songs in my library. Let me know when the new David Gilmour album comes out. I'll buy that....

 

[tkermit]

The problem is not so much that we are not able to find our own music. The issue is that we are pestered with crap music as soon as we turn the TV or radio on in the car or when we enter a generic store in the shopping center.

I'm fully with you on the last point (Muzak). One more reason to shop online as much as possible, I guess. As for TV and Radio my suggestion is to cut the chord, so to say. Both are examples of yesteryear's technology. The future is in on-demand watching and listening, with programming that is either automatically tuned to your taste or manually adjusted to your liking. TV and radio as we know it will only get worse from here on...

 

[Klae17]

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You are so wrong.

 

[TsMkLg068426]

Well I listen to Dance/Electronic music iTunes really does not have the classic stuff so I buy the albums on CD through Amazon Prime and than rip it, it is really difficult to find much from iTunes other than todays junk from MTV or VH1 when was the last time any artist released something good during 2013? I really do not care about pop music I do not even bother listening to FM Dials in my car. iTunes Radio good but not so great often the tracks are so repetitive would also rather listen to Radio edit instead the extended tracks that are for DJs.


If iTunes went the Spotify direction instead of Pandora style it would be so much better but clearly Apple probably had a difficult time with record labels to get on board with iTunes Radio probably even tried the Spotify idea.

I wonder would Apple ever take a risk to do something like Netflix or Amazon Prime for movies or TV Shows? Would be scary if this did happen not sure if Apple can get more to stream than Netflix or Amazon Prime probably be the same deals if it ever happened.

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The problem is not so much that we are not able to find our own music. The issue is that we are pestered with crap music as soon as we turn the TV or radio on in the car or when we enter a generic store in the shopping center.

I totally agree with you on this around the time when there was Tower Records or Virgin Megastore TV or Radio would play variety of music today if you turn the FM dials all you hear is this generic Pop music, todays rap music is not even rap what happened to gangsta rap? Oh wait it died off around 2002, as for music on TV where is music on TV? Are we talking about channels like MTV or the other MTV channels like MTV Hits and MTV Jams that no one bothers to watch because it has been filled with junk and do not even get me started with MTV and MTV2 both networks are a waste with reality shows and repeats. MTV2 all they play now is Save By The Bell and Boy Meets World.


You know what channel I miss the most? THE BOX before MTV2 bought them and ruined everything.

 

[Xiroteus]

Sorry but comments like these are just absurd. I have no idea how people don't make the slightest attempt to listen to any new music besides what's on the radio then make sweeping generalization that all music is terrible.

In my opinion, there were ten or so great albums in just 2013. And no, none of them are what you see on that top 40 list above.

People are always saying how music, tv and movies today are so much worse then they were a decade ago. Then people post what was popular ten years ago, really no different then what is out there today. There will always be bad music, tv, movies yet I doubt it's any worse then five, ten, fifteen years ago.

And like you said, not everything good will be char toppers.

I find there to be tons of entertaining music, movies and tv shows these days. Sometimes it appears that nostalgia can get in the way. Reminds me if animated programs we all watched as a kid. Some of it still holds up while a lot of it was quite bad yet looked great from the prospective of a child. There have been several animated shows that are of higher quality made over the last fifteen years.

 

[diazj3]

What's newsworthy is not that music sales are declining, but that somehow that's surprising to them... what did they expect? there has never been so much media available for us to consume - TV, movies, music, podcasts, newscasts, youtube videos, internet radio, video on demand, independent musicians, audiobooks, ebooks, the web, etc etc etc. Plus, also, ways for getting these for free - legally or illegally - have never been as widely available. Plus all other forms of communication such as social networks, chat services, forums, etc that take a chunk out of our time too.

And not to mention the demographic, economic and cultural shifts and issues the whole world is going through.

So, again, the real question is, in the face of all this, what did they expect?

Once again, the folks that manage the music business don't appear to be too bright after all, as the world takes them by surprise yet again.

And I agree: music as an art form has been mostly crappy this decade, thanks to the same greedy douchebags that prefer to repackage, rebrand and sell disposable McSh*t (Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, et al!) rather to take a chance with new talented artists.

cheers

 

[Icaras]

Well I listen to Dance/Electronic music iTunes really does not have the classic stuff so I buy the albums on CD through Amazon Prime and than rip it, it is really difficult to find much from iTunes other than todays junk from MTV or VH1 when was the last time any artist released something good during 2013? I really do not care about pop music I do not even bother listening to FM Dials in my car. iTunes Radio good but not so great often the tracks are so repetitive would also rather listen to Radio edit instead the extended tracks that are for DJs.

I'm the same as I am a huge electronic music listener and it's true that a lot of the classic stuff is sorely missing in many digital online stores, not just on iTunes. But I reckon that has more to do with many of the previously released DJ sets needing to clear a crap load of copyrights with all of the contributing artist's records. Just sounds like a big PITA to get a lot of these DJ albums up digitally. In fact, what's left of my dwindling CD collection to this day are mainly just those classic electronic music albums and DJ set albums.

As for iTunes Radio, although I dabble in a little DJing myself, I agree that skewering heavily towards radio edits for the casual listener would be better suited since it isn't meant to be a substitute for a proper compiled DJ mix to begin. A lot of DJ extended tracks can get too drawn out as you say.

 

[TsMkLg068426]

I'm the same as I am a huge electronic music listener and it's true that a lot of the classic stuff is sorely missing in many digital online stores, not just on iTunes. But I reckon that has more to do with many of the previously released DJ sets needing to clear a crap load of copyrights with all of the contributing artist's records. Just sounds like a big PITA to get a lot of these DJ albums up digitally. In fact, what's left of my dwindling CD collection to this day are mainly just those classic electronic music albums and DJ set albums.

I'm with you on the iTunes Radio thing too. Although I dabble in a little DJing myself, I think skewering heavily towards radio edits for the casual listener would be better suited since iTunes Radio isn't meant to be a substitute for a proper compiled DJ mix.

You know what would be great someone would take over the debunked label Global Underground and Moonshine re-release their stuff I have been buying a bunch off Amazon Prime. Try to find anything from Sasha on iTunes it is terrible only thing you can get is Involver 2 and 3 forget Involver 1 the tracks are screwed up also where is his classic album Airdrawndagger? Lot of people would also love to get Northern Exposure series if it was on iTunes I am amazed no re-release has happened. There is John Digweed & Sasha Renaissance classic 3 set on iTunes but the separate tracks just the tracks from the mix terrible release and editing clearly was released by some terrible U.S. label not UK.


iTunes really needs to improve searching such as by Genre all they got is Downtempo or Ambient how about Chillout and Lounge? Would it hurt to also break it down by Record Labels there so many well known ones.


So much room for improvements but iTunes store is like a giant cluster **** I would have better chance finding at Tower Records or Virgin Megastore if they were still around (miss those days going out and getting excited to buy something on CD).

 

[.macbookpro.]

Image

For me(being born in the 90's) I've never got into the "old" music. After studying music GCSE, learning about a whole range of genres from around the world from the last 200 years was a real eye opener.
ALT-J ∆ have some of the best lyrics, melody, rhythm, etc. that I've ever heard.
They are mildly popular in the UK.
To compare Niki Minaj and Zeppelin without comparing a terrible song from the 70's to the song below is unfair. Whilst there is a lot of terrible music, there will always be terrible music.
What I like about the song below, is its not just a boring love story.
Its got background.

Indochina, Capa jumps Jeep, two feet creep up the road
To photo, to record meat lumps and war
They advance as does his chance, very yellow white flash
A violent wrench grips mass, rips light, tears limbs like rags

Burst so high finally Capa lands
Mine is a watery pit Painless with immense distance
From medic from colleague, friend, enemy, foe
Him five yards from his leg, from you, Taro

Do not spray into eyes, I have sprayed you into my eyes
3:10 pm, Capa pends death, quivers, last rattles, last chokes
All colors and cares glaze to gray, shriveled and stricken to dots
Left hand grasps what the body grasps not, le photographe est mort

Three, point, one, four, one, five, alive no longer my amour, faded for home May of '54
Doors open like arms my love, painless with a great closeness
To Capa, to Capa, Capa dark after nothing, re-united with his leg
And with you, Taro

Do not spray into eyes, I have sprayed you into my eyes
Hey Taro

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You are so wrong.

100% Agree. See my other post for another example of lyrical genius. There is always good music, there is always bad music.

 

[wonderspark]

For me(being born in the 90's) I've never got into the "old" music. After studying music GCSE, learning about a whole range of genres from around the world from the last 200 years was a real eye opener.
ALT-J ∆ have some of the best lyrics, melody, rhythm, etc. that I've ever heard.
They are mildly popular in the UK.
To compare Niki Minaj and Zeppelin without comparing a terrible song from the 70's to the song below is unfair. Whilst there is a lot of terrible music, there will always be terrible music.
What I like about the song below, is its not just a boring love story.
Its got background.

Indochina, Capa jumps Jeep, two feet creep up the road
To photo, to record meat lumps and war
They advance as does his chance, very yellow white flash
A violent wrench grips mass, rips light, tears limbs like rags

Burst so high finally Capa lands
Mine is a watery pit Painless with immense distance
From medic from colleague, friend, enemy, foe
Him five yards from his leg, from you, Taro

Do not spray into eyes, I have sprayed you into my eyes
3:10 pm, Capa pends death, quivers, last rattles, last chokes
All colors and cares glaze to gray, shriveled and stricken to dots
Left hand grasps what the body grasps not, le photographe est mort

Three, point, one, four, one, five, alive no longer my amour, faded for home May of '54
Doors open like arms my love, painless with a great closeness
To Capa, to Capa, Capa dark after nothing, re-united with his leg
And with you, Taro

Do not spray into eyes, I have sprayed you into my eyes
Hey Taro

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100% Agree. See my other post for another example of lyrical genius. There is always good music, there is always bad music.

Taro has been my top fave song since it came out. Great tune.

 

[chromite]

Dubstep has been amazing since 2009, and it's only getting better

 

[Boulder]

This is not surprising. Why pay for individual albums or songs when can subscribe to a streaming service? Where all the music I like is avabile on pretty much any internet connected device or you can download it to your device. Spotify has changed the way I listen to music. I listen to whole new artists and albums instead of sticking to old favourites. Just now I added a whole new album that I may or may not like, but who cares it costs me nothing to add it. I am already paying the fee for the streaming. Unless Apple comes up with an actual streaming client then iTunes sales are bound to go the way of the CD shop. Also music does not stink anymore today than in the past. We just have much better marketing for the junk than ever before.

 

[djtech42]

99% of customers don't care. And Apple Lossless is usually around 700 Kbit / second, say 90 Kbyte per second, that's three hours per Gigabyte. Except for the iPod Classic, there's nothing that can hold a decent music collection in portable form.

Download it in lossless for the Mac and sync lossy versions to the portable device. Problem solved. Of course the people that are downloading crappy pop songs don't care.

 

[rizzo41999]

Lest we not forget, music has been at an all time low.

 

[.macbookpro.]

Taro has been my top fave song since it came out. Great tune.

How big are they in USA? I didn't think they'd be that popular.
Something about the ending, it's just beautiful and chilled. What a way to end an album.

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This is not surprising. Why pay for individual albums or songs when can subscribe to a streaming service? Where all the music I like is avabile on pretty much any internet connected device or you can download it to your device. Spotify has changed the way I listen to music. I listen to whole new artists and albums instead of sticking to old favourites. Just now I added a whole new album that I may or may not like, but who cares it costs me nothing to add it. I am already paying the fee for the streaming. Unless Apple comes up with an actual streaming client then iTunes sales are bound to go the way of the CD shop. Also music does not stink anymore today than in the past. We just have much better marketing for the junk than ever before.

It doesn't help that in the UK, spotify premium is £10, compared to $10 in america. They need to sort out their exchange rates

 

[Stella]

If I buy music, it has to be good. Unfortunately I don't buy much music these days due to lack of quality.

YMMV of course.

In the past year I've purchased two albums and half a dozen songs.

 

[wonderspark]

How big are they in USA? I didn't think they'd be that popular.
Something about the ending, it's just beautiful and chilled. What a way to end an album.

I play it for my friends here, and so far, none have ever heard it before.

I found them from my time spent in Brighton, listening to Radio6.

 

[TsMkLg068426]

Dubstep has been amazing since 2009, and it's only getting better

Oh lawd lol and lets not forget TRAP music haha. 2-step and UK Garage music is better since that is the root of Dubstep music it least that stayed underground if I remember Caspa and Rusko are the reason why Dubstep became mainstream.

I rather listen to Chill Dubstep or Liquid Dubstep and for TRAP music I wish that sub-genre never happened bunch of people twerkin to that and that is it, it is like the Hip Hop scene was desperate to get into the Electronic Scene even though Hip Hop does fall under Electronic music just not the way it did before..

 

[Mike in Kansas]

I am a big music fan with hundreds of CDs, been to dozens of concerts and follow music religiously. (Needless to say burn through my data via pandora) I only bought two albums last year since honestly music is becoming so...disposable! it's not bad, but it's not great either, and most importantly not enough to hold people's interest for more than a few weeks, and certainly no "timeless classics". This has been the case over the last decade or so, the 2000s weren't good for music

You could be 10 or 100, but as soon as you hear the opening bars of 'starting something' you want to do the dance
As soon as you hear 'staying alive' you burst into disco, even if it was long dead before you were even alive
Whitney Houston died a couple of years back, I was shocked how many kids know the lyrics of 'I will always love you'
And madonna... Dozens of classics (massive catalog)

When was the last time you heard 'umbrella'? How about 'poker face'?

That's why I think streaming works best.

What an ignorant perspective. I guess modern cars, appliances, movies, etc. aren't any good either? If you can't find good recent music, you are looking in the wrong places. Whatever happened to the good ol' days, right?

 

[shinji]

Consumers don't have much of an incentive to buy music outright with all-you-can-eat streaming services like Spotify, Rdio, etc.

I don't think this really has anything to do with audio quality or how 2013 wasn't a great year for new music.