U.S. music sales up as positive trend rolls on
Thu 20 November, 2003 03:04

By Sue Zeidler

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. album sales have risen in the past week, boosted by the debut of three major hip hop releases, as the fast-consolidating music industry nears the end of another weak year on a strong note, data shows.

CD sales have rebounded in the fourth quarter after suffering a protracted sales slump for much of the year. The last five out of six weeks have seen year-over-year sales increases, helped by a slew of new releases the labels typically save for the critical holiday shopping season.

In the week ended Nov 16, industry tracker Nielsen Soundscan found that 15.0 million units were sold, up from 13.7 million a year earlier.

Topping the charts was the debut of rapper Jay-Z's "Black Album," featuring productions by Eminem and others, and selling 463,000 units.

The album was released two weeks earlier than planned because illegal copies were circulating on the Web, its label, Island Def Jam, a unit of Vivendi Universal said.

Ranking No. 2 was "Resurrection," the latest posthumous release from slain rapper Tupac Shakur, which sold 430,000 units, followed by "Beg for Mercy" by G-Unit, which sold 377,000 units in its first week, said Nielsen Soundscan.

"Closer," a new release by pop and classical singer Josh Groban, came in at fourth, selling 375,000 units.

Rounding out the top 5 was country star, Toby Keith, whose album, "Shock'n Y'All," fell from first place last week to sell 227,075 units in the latest week.

The gains in recent weeks have prompted some analysts to conclude that CD sales will top last year's fourth quarter sales of 221 million units, particularly as the labels roll out more end-of-year big releases.

The music industry has been driven to consolidation after three years of slumping sales, rampant piracy, and increased competition from rival entertainment such as video games.

EMI Group Plc, home to acts such as the Rolling Stones, has made a firm offer for Time Warner's Warner Music just weeks after rivals BMG and Sony Music unveiled a proposed combination.

Current week sales are expected to be boosted by pop queen Britney Spears' much-hyped newest album, "In the Zone," released on Tuesday, which is on track to sell 550,000 to 600,000 units.

Other big releases should come from Blink-182, and The Beatles' newly remixed "Let It Be... Naked" is expected to sell over 200,000 units.

According to music trade Web site Hits Daily Double.com, which tabulates daily sales, Jackson's "Number Ones" album, which was released as police combed his Neverland Ranch Tuesday in response to child sexual molestation charges, is likely to sell just shy of 100,000 units in its first week.

Retailers said it was hard to tell how and whether news coverage of Jackson's legal troubles would impact sales.

"The news so far has not had a measurable effect, either positively or negatively," said Fred Fox, executive vice president for Trans World Entertainment, which operates 950 music stores including the FYE brand, Wherehouse and Strawberries Music stores.

It's just Xmas sales boosting...nothing more.

No, it's the economy turning.

First half results showed sales of 5 million CD singles in the first half of the year, compared to 1 million last year.

The recording industry's problems have never had anything to do with P2P.

somehow I've got the feeling they will claim that P2P usage is down and that's why the rebound. they'll figure out some way to discredit P2P

I think the unaware now believe in an "honor system." They think if you download and like what you hear, you should buy it to show you're support.

However, this does not solve the issue of the record labels jacking all the money consumers believe is supporting the artist.

also to play devils advocate, (hope I don't get pelted for this) does this also mean the boycott isn't working as well???

Thing is I believe alot of the stuff they put out is propoganda in their favor! So I don't believe them and their lieing selves :> I'm with you compmore on your first statement

We are voices in the wilderness.

"No, it's the economy turning."

I agree.

"First half results showed sales of 5 million CD singles in the first half of the year, compared to 1 million last year."

Yeah, but singles sales aren't really an indicator because they are dependent on whether or not the labels choose to release singles. The labels are coming around and releasing more singles. As a single collector, it really pissed me off when the labels said single sales were down - that was because they weren't releasing singles! Out of that 5 million, Clay and Ruben of American Idol account for about 1 to 1.5 million.

that shows how they can manipulate the market for their own purposes.

release fewer singles and then claim sales are down. go on the attack and make a big deal out of file sharing, then release more singles again (what the public wants anyways) and claim that sales are up and the attack on music lovers is justified

"does this also mean the boycott isn't working as well?"

Not necessarily. They saved up everything for the last quarter at the expense of the rest of the year. Brought out all their big guns at once.

I think it'll take more than one week of sales.

mroop -- for once, we're in agreement. They cut the singles then complained that the market disappeared.

kinda like the battle of the bulge

Maybe they will quit suing the teenage girls that they so love to do.

Next year should be pretty interesting. Most of the court challenges will finally arrive in court, it looks like Sharman may sue the riaa web crawling toadies, the serious challenges to the DCMA will come, and Dmusic will sign Mick and the boys to a 12 album deal. Here's to everything coming out in favor of the good guys!

We can always dream!

know what would be really fun?
It would be like absolutely cool to the max if the government would undertake an investigation and audit of the books of the major labels AND make the labels pay for it.....

SIGH...we can only dream....

They had an arguement?

Album sales are up..

RIAA: This is proof that stopping pirates is key to our success.

I didn't even read it all.. I'll assume they said that somewhere.

Every one we need to make it clear, We DO NOT WANT CDs for christmas, we don't want any one to buy cd's for christmas, we have to ruin their holiday sales. christmas is depended on to create profit or even bring the total income YTD into the black (hence black tuesday). if we can slash sales this year along with the millions upon millions the RIAA will be spending on court costs we can really damage them.

My daughter will not be getting any CD's for Christmas. I've already told her that. she agrees and isn't too upset

I've refused to buy any music (CD, cassette, etc) since the beginning of "RIAA's tantrum" I'm still standing strong with my online radio and my radio in my car.

Radio, even online radio and satellite radio don't play my favorite music, so I'm still downloading like a buzz saw. Progressive and Power Metal (especially Traditional Metal) have never gotten the radio play they deserve. Could it be the lack of riaa endorsement? Many forms of Metal exist, though not many know of it.

Listeners of Techno and Trance can also agree with my points.

Hip Hop is the riaa's most prolific sales generator, with Country coming in second place. Pop stars like Britney Spears also bring in a ton of cash. Most of the songs that are prevalent on the radio belong to those 3 categories. The riaa also floods the record stores with them (and Nu-Metal, of course). Linkin Park gets a ton of radio play and the record stores are really busting out with that (less than exciting) Meteora album.

Bottom line for Metalheads is this:

WE WILL NOT BE TOLD WHAT TO LISTEN TO!

riaa, you continually avoided TRUE Heavy Metal and thusly alienated ALL Metal fans. Why are you sales slumping? There's your answer. You don't offer ALL types of music, only what YOU consider music.

I'm not into Trance or Techno, but I can appreciate what the fans of those genre's go through. Music is to the listener's ear. Listen to what YOU like. Buy what YOU like. Keep the music coming and I will buy what I decide is music. As long as the riaa has nothing to do with it.

An anomaly, easily erased by the next round of 12 year olds served with subpoenas.

It's very, very hard to try to tell a teenager why it is wrong to buy RIAA-released material. Not a few adults don't "get it" either.

It is the job of the spin doctors to "put a good face" on things when they want it rosy. This is one of the rosy outlooks.

No amount of saying the product is over priced, of lousy quality, that we don't want DMCA, or other talk will put a dent in the ears of the music industry. Simply, it isn't what they want to project as the truth of the hour.

They will want to say that now the pay for download is going that is the reason for the boost. That and scaring the public with the "we'll sue" tactics. Of course, p2p will always be to blame. If the drum can't be beat then surely there is another stick around that will make noise when it hits the drum. This is more of the same old same old drivel we have heard all along.

Christmas will be over in a few short months and it will be back to the grind of poor me, how can I survive on a few billions of income...

Of course sales rise at christmas. They get a bit strange around christmas because people are buying CDs for others, and so music as unlikely as Bob the Builder can make it to #1 P2P has negligable effect on christmas sales anyway, noone would download a christmas present (except me . The peak should continue through the january sales, as it does every year. Then it falls, and remains low until next christmas. P2P is definately affecting sales outside the christmas season, even if the extent is unknown. Its going to get worse for the labels as p2p continues to become more popular. Edventually they will have to abandon CDs, but they will survive. Unfortunatly.

Hummm I hope they go bankrupt even if they stop their attack on P2P. We will be lucky tho if they don't stop their attack on P2P because i think that WOULD eventually drive them out of business. A few more years of pissed off customers means a lot less profits.

I agree with gdZiemann, the economy is turning. Other factors that should be considered in this are:

1) The RIAA has lowered prices. Yes, they are still too high in many cases, but many unknown acts have their new CD's on sale for 9.99 and many major new releases go for 11.99. And many include extras (like DVD's) that weren't included before.

2) If P2P file sharing was the problem, how is it that music sales can be increasing when file sharing isn't going away? Last time I checked, there were over 3 Million people on Kazaa. And many have left Kazaa for other services, due to the recent lawsuits. If you campaign was really working, wouldn't we see a larger decrease in the P2P file sharing? Obviously, the RIAA's claim that file sharing destroys sales is a LIE.

3) It's the holiday season, with the RIAA having "Brought out all their big guns at once." to quote gdZiemann.

4) I hadn't noticed that there were more singles released. Thanks compmore for pointing that out. Release more, sell more. It doesn't take a genius to figure out THAT marketing strategy.

I say we should plan for another COMPLETE boycott to advertise worldwide mid-January 2004. No one would mind boycotting then, away from the holiday season.

As I commented in a previous posting (http://www.boycott-riaa.com/article/9025) about The Beatles' "Naked". it was released as a corrupt CD here and it would not surprise me that all the others are. Buyers will be in for a surprise when they try to play them on non-compatible equipment.

Ineedalover thanks for the plug but I cannot take the credit. mroop pointed it out first. I just elaborated on it. I wasn't aware of that either

Ok compmore... good point mroop.

Although they may be releasing more singles, they still keep them centralized to their "stars", don't they? For example, when Tommy Lee's song came out called "Hold Me Down", I searched high and low for a CD single. None was found. I would suggest that Tommy Lee's label didn't consider his "star power" significant enough to warrant a large single release.

Just as some others said: Such a sales hike, however temporary, will only convince the RIAA that their totalitarian, police-state approach and emphasis on disenfranchising technology are justified, and they will be even more ruthless are unscrupulous in their vendetta against digital consumers. In other words, they will be further encouraged.