While we looked at the reasoning behind many record labels hoping to move entirely digital back in November, it seems we now have one further – and more concrete – source for concern: actual sales figures. The numbers are in and last year the physical purchase of music dropped while downloads soared. Surprising? Not particularly...
The music industry body to release these findings - (BPI) - blames piracy as one of the main reasons why physical sales have dropped 13% in the last year to 86.2 million discs. The one key positive is that while downloads increased in sales by 24% on last year, the total only came to around 26.6 million units. Other formats are still relevant, but in smaller degrees. It’s alleged around 350,000 vinyls were sold too. By these rates, it will be a long time before physical music is dropped entirely, if that ever happens.
The BPI note, as stated in the previous feature, that people value the physical ownership of their music and that is one of the saving graces of the music industry. While fans with this view are praised for helping keep album sales high, the British government find themselves under fire for taking too long to deal with the issues of piracy.
Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the BPI, said, “While other countries take positive steps to protect their creative sector, our government is taking too long to act on piracy, while weakening copyright to the benefit of the US tech giants. The UK has already fallen behind Germany as a music market. Unless decisive action is taken in 2012, investment in music could fall again - a creative crunch that will destroy jobs."
At present the government is allegedly looking at plans that would result in a letter being sent to suspects of illegal downloads. All this would offer is advice and a warning that they had been noted as a perpetrator, but offers no real punishment. Following on from the BPI’s concern, this – when compared to other countries – shows how behind and light the British government are. France, for example, passed a law that allows those caught pirating to be blocked from the internet for one whole year after three discrepancies. Moving on from the Government’s lacklustre approach to punishment...
These aforementioned figures, of course, account primarily for albums. It’s noted that when it comes to singles, downloads account for around 98% of purchases. Digital media consultant, Philip Buxton, was quoted by the BBC as saying, “People now buy the individual songs they like rather than buying the whole album because they like a single. So they might buy the single and then use services like Spotify and Last.fm to listen to the other tracks.”
Streaming is another factor that influences the purchase of physical music greatly. The abovementioned websites make it far easier for consumers to access vast amounts of music for minimal cost; it’s convenient. Growing numbers are becoming more concerned with the ease of acquiring their music and, while holding a CD in our hands is preferable to many, downloads will undoubtedly grow drastically to rival the handheld mediums.
Against all this, some artists still prevailed in the last year, but many sources claim “even they can’t save the industry”. Adele’s record ‘21’ may have sold 3.8 million copies in the UK, yet sales across the board simply don’t match up to the president set by her. Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and Jessie J also helped boost the industry in the last twelve months, helping to ensure that half of the ten best selling albums were by British artists.
Tony Wadsworth, the chairman of the BPI, addressed the success of home-grown talent while dealing another blow at the Government’s nonchalance, saying, “Led by Adele, Jessie J, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran and others, records by British artists in 2011 achieved both critical and commercial success both at home and around the world. But the challenge of sustaining this performance against a backdrop of chronic piracy means that Government action remains absolutely crucial for British artists and their labels.”
So what does this all mean? We speculated that it could affect businesses in the last feature: Borders already fell foul in the book world by not adapting to digitisation, Richard Branson admitted that Virgin Megastores closed because of the influence Apple had on the industry. Now, there’s more of a threat than ever before.
EMI was one key casualty of 2011. Whether or not the debts it faced were entirely based on sales, the move to split the company with Universal and Sony left many equally dismayed as pleased that the company was being given a new chance. EMI is famed for being behind many artists, notably the Beatles. This classic client of theirs led them to be a renowned household company name, so much so it was a shock to many to witness the company face such turmoil.
Another household company name is HMV. As the prime music store across the UK, the figures for 2011 can’t exactly be the best news to absorb. This marks the seventh consecutive year that music sales have dropped; the peak of sales was 2004’s total of around 160 million albums overall.
 A major drop around the Christmas period lay with the X Factor single. In September, Simon Fox – the boss of HMV - had spoken of how excited he was about certain tracks for the season; as it turned out, Little Mix’s track was the lowest selling X Factor single since 2004. Following this blow, he said, “We've never said we're not in a structurally demanding market. But I think those figures say more about the performance of Little Mix and X-Factor than anything else.”
In December, Mr. Fox then said the company needed to sell HMV Live to raise much needed money. This sector is the company’s most profitable business, which operates around twenty festivals and venues. The company paid £60 million for the company two years ago and allegedly had an interest of purchase from Peter Dubens, the founder of Oakley Capital and others. Regardless of all these plans to raise money, their shares closed at 3.35p, a 0.12p drop.
Jonathan Pritchard, retail analyst at Oriel Securities, said, "I don't think HMV has got any choice. Their core business is declining and a number of moves they've made, such as changing the space allocation to electrical goods away from CDs and DVDs, sadly isn't enough."
HMV is our last real cling to the physical ownership of music in terms of being able to walk into a store chain in the UK. The changing attitudes towards music and its purchase is causing further problems for the company and its evident that selling a number of their assets is the only way to try sustain themselves at present. Are we looking at another EMI? Are major companies going to come in and split the purchase of HMV too?
That, at the moment, is not certain. But, the trouble HMV faces is clearly a reflection on the dwindling desires of walking into a store and shopping. Why do that when you can buy an album for a fraction of the price via your laptop? It may not be the company’s only problem, but if the company does fall foul to this drop in figures, it eliminates the option for many to buy CDs in town. In my town, at least, HMV is the only proper music store.
We’re not going to have a new record from Adele every year to keep the industry afloat, nor are we going to have thousands of albums released that do remotely as well as ‘21’. If we were to take this approach, we really need to find the rising stars and unmistakable talent to focus our efforts on year after year.
In realistic terms, as much as it was a reluctant decision to admit that the music industry will most likely go entirely digital at some point down the line, we must also reluctantly admit that the physical ownership of CDs will continue to dwindle. It may never fade out entirely, but it’s only logical that the use of legal downloads in music will continuously increase (assumedly alongside the illegal side too) to the point that it becomes the dominant force in music.
While Apple pioneered this digitisation, perhaps there’s a company out there able to brainstorm the way to save the physicality of this industry. Maybe 2012 will show a rise in figures, but seeing as they’ve dropped seamlessly seven years straight, it doesn’t look too bright at present.NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
We don't run any advertising! Our editorial content is solely funded by lovely people like yourself using Stereoboard's listings when buying tickets for live events. To keep supporting us, next time you're looking for concert, festival, sport or theatre tickets, please search for "Stereoboard". It costs you nothing, you may find a better price than the usual outlets, and save yourself from waiting in an endless queue on Friday mornings as we list ALL available sellers!
Let Us Know Your Thoughts
Related News |
No related news to show
