Retail sales of music has been recorded since 1969 and never have they fallen off as this year, so far. Even in 2002-03 with piracy and free illegal downloads via Napster, the decline was only 7% which was even less then 1982, right before the arrival of the compact disc.
Sale decline started in Jan. with the surge in sales of iPods and other digital music players with Apples iTunes allowing listeners to purchase individual tracts instead of entire albums.
Piracy is widespead with viewers listening to and watching music videos on Youtube. Rich Greenfield of Pali research predicts a 10% decline in 07 and 08. Not too promising if you are making a CD
I have an interesting story to tell. On Saturday I went to first Walmart to buy the new Paul McCartney CD, the one with the catchy, happy tune that you see him singing in the commercials on TV. At , they didn't even have a bin for poor Paul. So I went to FYE, to get it there figuring it would be on display at the front of the store. It was n't, so I asked the store clerk, who looked at me with blank eyes, not even knowing who I was talking about. After an extensive search on his computer for poorPaul, the clerk went to the way back of the store and came back with a CD, saying he thought maybe this one was the one I was looking for.
My daughter bought it for me for my birthday and we happily listened to it that afternoon.
Who is"Dispatch"? They are the only band to sell out Madison Square Garden instantly. This Boston band which formed in 1995 and broke up in 2004 have a huge grass roots following and is the first Indie band to sell out MSG. They have never had much radio play or a presence on MTV but are quite a presence on MySpace and that is the way that "Dispatch" sold out three shows at MSG. You would think that they will be quite rich after their shows, think again cause the members are reuniting to raise money for Zimbabwean charities and their foundation.
List + Donate=Creativity
Joanne Deutch
