While the recent news of Lil Wayne topping 1 million album sales in a week is certainly encouraging to record executives everywhere, the long-term picture is significantly less encouraging. In 2007, roughly 1.87 billion records in any shape or form were sold worldwide, down 11 per cent from 2.09 billion in 2006, and from the peak of 3.4 billion in 1996. The last time sales were this low was 1985, when "We Are the World," Aha's "Take On Me," and Madonna, Wham! and Tears for Fears ruled the airwaves (which by then included television thanks to MTV). The loss of revenue is credited to declining CD sales thanks to digital piracy, or basically, everything we've known for the past decade.
[Times (U.K.) via Daily Swarm]
I'm sick of the decline in record sales being blamed on downloading. Many people do download, but many of those people also buy records. While I've been known to grab a track or two from the interweb (legally), I still buy a lot of records on vinyl, on cd, on tape, and from iTunes when I decide that I hate myself (personal issue). And, I know a lot of people like me who do the same. If the record labels want to get their sales up, they should just go ahead and release bands that don't suck and make CDs more affordable. It's an easy answer, but the labels are too obsessed with their bottom lines rather than the music.