It's the same old song and dance. Digital sales grew while CD sales shrunk. Nielsen Soundscan numbers for the first 3 quarters of 2006 show that physical album sales through October 1st totaled 370.5 million units, a loss of 8.3% from the 404.2 million sold int eh same period last year. But, of course, digital "album" sales climbed 115%, with 22.6 million sold through September. Total digital downloads soared 72%, to 418.6 million in total. Contrary to what you might think, the phenomenal growth in digital units doesn't make everybody happy. Glenn Coolfer writes, "[I] wonder how many more CDs would have been bought if there were no a la carte downloads". It's a sentiment I hear echoed throughout the music business; Just think of all those albums we could have sold if ala carte digital downloads weren't an option.
Coulda, shoulda, woulda. While Metallica, Radiohead and Kid Rock strive to save the album as a format, and music execs wring their hands at lost unit sales, few people consider the fact that the "album" is a 20th century concept. Born of the size disc required to fit a track on wax at 78 RPM, and then increased in capacity by reductions in spindle speed from 78 RPM to 33 and 1/3 RPM, the album is an arbitrary body. It's length became defined more by expectation than physical necessity as the 20th century marched by.
No matter how many memories you have of perfect 45 minute two-chambered platters of joy, the fact is they're no longer needed. The death of the album is upon us and I for one would rather celebrate its life, rather than mourn its passing.
[Reuters via Coolfer]
1. Whether or not the "album" was created based on practical matters of size/time limits for vinyl records, it sort of took on a life of its own, and became a form of expression. Before and during the LP period, some artists were still releasing singles not available on albums, while creating albums-as-whole-pieces of work. I feel like the a la carte download situation sort of harkens back to the days of the single, and if it's destroying the art form of the "album," I'd like to think there'll be a replacement art form in the purely digital world of downloadable music. I don't think such a thing really exists today, but I hope it will exist at some point.
Posted at 1:03PM on Oct 18th 2006 by i, squub