Billboard posted its Q3 Wrap, comparing the first nine months of 2008 to the first nine months of 2007. Sales are down, down, down.
• Album sales (physical + digital): nearly 298 million units, down 11.7% from 337.3 million units during the same time frame last year.
• Tracks: 795.8 million downloaded, up 20% from 612.2 million in the first nine months of 2007. Woo hoo! Go singles!
• Album sales + track-equivalent albums: 377.4 million units, down 5.3% from last year's combined total of 398.6 million.
• CD sales: 249.2 million units, down 17.1% from 300.6 million in the same time frame last year.
Variety reports that vinyl sales "have doubled to 1.3 million LPs sold."
Might be a little early to declare the CD format is dead. But a rebound appears unlikely.
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Vinyl sales up! Vinyl sales up! *hugs records*
Yeah, but saying that record sales are up is sort of like saying that blank cassette sales are up; either way, it's still a very limited segment of the entire market. Don't get me wrong; I love vinyl too. But the folks most likely to buy vinyl are the same folks who buy gold CDs: MUSIC GEEKS!!!
My cousins in India tell ne that in their country the vinyl recordings are selling like mad hotcakes among the youth.