There is nothing surprising about these numbers: according to Nielsen Soundscan, despite a brief and unexpected increase during 2011, album sales went down by 4.4 % in 2012 . Of course, digital sales went up, way up, even surpassing mass merchants, such as your usual Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy retail stores, for the first time in history. In 2012, digital sales reached 111.7 million units whereas the department stores sales only reached 93.1 million, whereas, according to Billboard, both were almost equal last year: 103.6 million for the stores versus 103.1 million for the digital ones.
So the tendency was totally reversed in just one year, the majority of albums were sold as downloads and the two winners are currently iTunes and Amazon with a 6% increase from 2011. Does this mean we are soon going to see CDs disappearing from the aisles of your next Best Buy store? I guess so, department stores will never be able to compete with a Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ at 99 cts or a Taylor Swift’s ‘Red’ at $1.99!
Personally, I couldn’t care less if Target doesn’t carry CDs anymore, but I would be so sorry to see little and big independent stores disappear! I love my Amoeba as anyone else, and their survival only depends on vinyl sales right now. But indie stores are fighting and holding on: they represent 7% of all albums sold in the US, just like in 2011. I cross my fingers it will continue…