Everyone knows people don’t listen to albums like they used to . . . and a “Rolling Stone” report says we may be witnessing the DEATH of the format.
Overall album sales for downloads, CDs, and vinyl plummeted by 25.8% in the first half of this year, when compared with the first half of last year.
If that decline holds for the rest of the year, and it probably will, sales in 2018 will end up at HALF the size of what they were as recently as 2015.
The decline in 2018 also means U.S. consumers will have spent around half a BILLION dollars LESS on albums this year than they did in 2017.
The report says the music industry probably can’t save the album at this point, because people’s listening habits have changed . . . so they probably won’t stop streaming individual songs and go back to listening to a full 12-track album.
And streaming isn’t going anywhere . . . artists have embraced it. A lot of the biggest releases of the year were delivered exclusively on streaming services first, and only came out in a physical format AFTER the initial sales rush.
So, if artists can’t make money on the random, non-hit ‘album tracks’ anymore . . . it’s only a matter of time before they stop releasing them.
PAT RIVERS
LUNCHTIME REQUEST CAFE
10:00am-3:00pm on WARM 101.3
Do you have a special song you want to hear during your lunch hour?
Call Pat at 222-1013 or email him at patrivers@warm1013.com.