The Music Industry’s Comeback
Much to its dismay, the music industry has seen sales plummet over the last several years for various reasons such as illegal downloads, a tanking economy, and shift from traditional to digital media. According to Forrester Research, total revenue from U.S. record sales in 1999 was over $14.6 billion, and subsequently fallen to $6.3 billion by 2009. But record labels and artists may take some comfort in the results of Nielsen Company & Billboard 2011 Music Industry Report, which indicates that the winds of change may be blowing in the other direction.
Physical CD sales continued to fall in 2011, with a 5% decrease. That number, however, affords some reason for optimism if you consider the fact that the decline in physical CD sales for 2010 was a whopping 19.5%. Not surprisingly, the top selling markets were New York and Los Angeles, with the two entertainment capitals outpacing Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Boston, San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Atlanta, and Seattle to round out the top ten U.S. markets for overall CD sales for the year. There were a total of 226 million CDs sold in the U.S. last year.
