Some interesting figures regarding released albums and sales

[Popmartijn]

Hello,

I found this post on another forum. It's an interesting look at the figures regarding how much a record sells these days (in the USA):

Figures Borrowed From Soundscan/Various

According to Soundscan, there were 39,000 records released in the United States last year. This figure only includes records reported to the Valley District Database, which is the beginning of the Soundscan chain. It doesn’t include the record you made to sell at gigs, or that charming Love Songs of the Aeolian Flute CD you see advertised on late night TV. These 39,000 records were released on bona fide labels, that do business through major distributors.

77% of all the records released sold 999 copies or less.

52 records, representing only .13% (point one three percent) of the total released, accounted for 37% of the total Soundscanned sales volume.

What does this mean to us, particularly if we’re hoping for a major label contract?

30,030 records released sold less than 999 copies. 8,970 sold 1,000 or more. Your chance of having a record that sells more than 999 copies is one in four, or 25%. Not too bad so far.

Your chance of being one of the 52 records that accounted for 37% of all sales is 1 in 750, or .0013. Your chance of having a substantial hit is 1 chance in every 750 records released. Dismal, isn’t it?

And that’s not even looking at the fact that most of those 52 records have at least three hit singles coming off them, and shoot for six or seven. If you factor that in, your chances of having a hit single drop to 1 out of every 3,000-5,000 records released, because your lone single is competing with the 200-500 singles those 52 records account for through the year.

I think this gives a good perspective of the relative performance of HTDAAB. It may not be the top seller (every week), but it does contribute for a large part of the total sales. Because at the end of the year, the record will be among those 52 that represent 37% of total US sales.

And here's another interesting comment from an article in the Daily Times:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_23-3-2005_pg5_17

Sony BMG and Universal combined to account for about two-thirds of the top 50. Eight albums sold more than 5 million copies in 2004, including Usher’s “Confes-sions” and U2’s “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb,” compared with five in 2003.

C ya!

Marty

 

[Dima]

" Eight albums sold more than 5 million copies in 2004, including Usher’s “Confes-sions” and U2’s “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb,” compared with five in 2003"...this is for jick and everyone who thinks that 8.5 million copies sold is disappointing: come back to earth.

HTDAAB hasn't to become a success...it's ALREADY a success.

 

[pinkasu2]

:OH YEA!!!!
wink: