Rejoice, my record store and band-fan brethren! The end of the dry spell has finally come, as I can happily announce that music sales have increased 4.5% (31.95 million units in 2011, up from 30.56 million in 2010) for an astounding fifth week in a row! This is, according to a report on Billboard, the first time since 2004 that US music sales have enjoyed a positive gain for this length of time.
“This is the fifth week of year over year sales increases,” explains National Association of Recording Merchandisers president Jim Donio, “underscoring both the strong new release schedule and impressive catalog and digital sales.”
Close inspection of the sales data released by Nielsen SoundScan reveals that sales have increased in multiple areas, including back-catalog and digital downloads, as well as internet and mail-order retailers; however, when it comes to actual brick-and-mortar stores and new albums, sales have merely slowed their abysmal decline, and in general, executives don’t even know why the increase is taking place.
But fuck all that bad news, because I think the wound has totally healed and that we’re on the path to continual, increased growth in all areas of music sales, and Jim Donio agrees: “The last time we’ve seen this kind of positive movement over consecutive weeks was nearly seven years ago, and with more key titles coming out in the coming weeks, we remain optimistic.”
Optimistic and happy to start spending too much money on too little product once again!
