Is the Music Business Dying or Not?

"Not," according to Music Think Tank:

We read so much doom and gloom about the music business every day that it’s easy to think that pretty soon the whole thing will come crashing down. Cheer up. It’s not as bad as you think.

As all the various research and trade organizations begin releasing their 2011 sales figures, a number of them have jumped out to perfectly define the state of the music industry today. Check this out:

• US album sales were up 1.3% last year, the first year since 2005 that’s happened. 66% of these sales were CDs.

• There were 249 million albums sold in the US last year. People will tell you that the music industry is dying, but 249 million of anything is still a huge number.

• 75% of all CD sales were made offline. That means that people physically purchased the CD at a brick and mortar store or an event.

• 40% of all CD buyers are over the age of 45, which means that the demo that mostly grew up with CDs are the ones still buying them. But it also means that 60% of all buyers were under 45 too.

Read more here.

Comments

[Greggory]

I think one of the most interesting statistics in the article is the one about the Superbowl. 555% jump for Madonna this year? *shiver*