Sales Trends

In the early 1990s, the recording industry was in the midst of a replacement cycle, where consumers were in the process of replacing their old vinyl and cassette collections with the first digital format—the compact disc (CD). In 1994, there was a 20% increase in sales, to over $12 billion. This boom was fueled by discount retailers such as Best Buy and Circuit City aggressively entering the music market, opening up a multitude of retail outlets, and using discounted CD prices as a loss leader to attract customers. These practices, along with the concept of selling “used CDs,” threatened the viability of traditional music stores and caused a plateau in the number of units shipped in the mid-1990s (Phillips, 2001).

By 1995, the CD replacement cycle was nearing completion, and the impact of the changing retail landscape was beginning to take its toll on the bottom line. Traditional retail stores were struggling to compete with discount stores, and sales gains in the industry overall were modest (from $12.068 billion in 1994 to $12.320 billion in 1995). Blockbuster closed hundreds of stores, causing a massive rush of returned product. There was slight improvement in 1996, mostly on the strength of sales of Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill and the soundtrack of Waiting to Exhale featuring Whitney Houston. With sales at $12.5 billion the industry sought to reexamine its strategy for selling prerecorded music, while traditional retailers continued to struggle (RIAA, 1997). The industry experienced a decline in 1997 as “the industry was responding to a smaller but healthier retail base” (RIAA, 1998). But it was one faced with bankruptcy filings and consolidation. One anomaly in 1997 occurred with a 54.4% increase in the sale of CD singles, attributed to Elton John’s remake of “Candle in the Wind,” a tribute to Princess Diana who died in August of that year. Growth returned briefly in 1998 as shipments grew by 5.7%. While shipments of singles dropped, CD units and music video units showed a healthy increase. The RIAA attributed the increase to a steady flow of releases by top artists throughout the year and an increase in the diversity of offerings. The moderate growth continued through 1999 with a 3.2% increase in units, fueled by strong growth in the full-length CD format (12.3% in value), despite a drop-off in music video sales. Credit is given to retailers and suppliers for improved efficiency in inventory management. The RIAA stated that the music industry was successfully competing against the “ever-increasing competition for the consumer’s entertainment dollar” (RIAA, 2000).

The new millennium ushered in a period of decline in recorded music sales as the industry struggled against threats on numerous fronts. The market for CD singles plummeted as the Internet took over, and peer-to-peer file-sharing services were blamed for much of the downturn. The year 1999 introduced Napster, and the concept of free downloading rocked the marketplace. Sales began its steep decline with labels and retailers trying to make up for their loss by increasing the unit cost per transaction with the height of the practice hitting in 2003 at $15.03 per unit. Adding to the rapid adoption of digital files included the introduction of Apple’s iPod in 2001 and its online retail megastore, iTunes, in 2003.

What decreased the unit cost so dramatically over time in the inclusion of digital single sales along with the value of SoundExchange revenue that is not identified by configuration. If 2013 data were parsed to show only full-length albums, RIAA sales data per unit value calculations would be approximately $11.80 per unit. Most notably, since its all-time high in 1999 at $14.5 billion, 2013 revenue is less than half the value at $6.993 billion. With fewer physical retail stores operating, more and legal online portals available, and streaming outlets proliferating, consumers are acquiring music in many different ways. By contrast, transactions of music are at an all-time high, with more people engaged with music than ever, up 70% since 1993, but this engagement or experience is not translating to sales at the cash register, as reflected in the sales data.

Figure 7.1 RIAA total dollar value

Source: RIAA

The period of decline began in the first half of 2000, and was attributed to the rapid drop in sales of CD singles, brought on by the Internet. (The U.S. economy also experienced a downturn at that time.) Cassettes continued to decline, while full-length CDs grew slightly in dollar value due to higher retail prices. The decline was more drastic in 2001 as total units dropped 10%, with a 6.4% drop in full-length CDs for the first time. This downturn coincided with the rapid adoption of music downloading from illegal peer-to-peer (P2P) services and ownership of CD burners, up drastically in two years.

In 2002, the market dropped another 11.2% in units and 8% in value (Christman, 2003). Every configuration saw a decrease in sales except DVDs. At this point, the RIAA began an aggressive campaign to discourage consumers from using illegal file-sharing services, but other factors also contributed to the downturn. Young consumers were spending their entertainment budget on cell phones, computers, video games, DVD collections, and other forms of entertainment. Consumers began to report (through research studies) that they perceived the cost of CDs to be too high. Upon further analysis, young consumers, who had grown accustomed to cherry-picking songs from albums through P2P services, were opposed to paying retail price for an album just to own the one or two songs they wanted. These consumers were beginning to burn their own personal mix CDs either from their own collection or from P2P services. As a result, they preferred music à la carte and were a receptive market for licensed music downloading services. But these services were slow to develop and the offerings were not sufficient to entice droves of consumers into subscription services.

Things did not improve for 2003 as the industry fell another 7.2% in units and 6% in value (Hiestand, 2004). Again full length CDs, the industry’s moneymaker, fell 6.7% in value and 7% in units. The industry began to see some evidence of bottoming out, and even a slight turnaround in 2004 with total sales of $12.154 billion. This turnaround was fueled by a slight increase in CD album sales (1.9% in dollar value), digital singles (139.4 million units) thanks mostly to iTunes, and DVD videos (66% unit increase).

In 2005, the RIAA added new format categories of mobile, digital subscription, digital music video, and kiosks. “Counting all formats and all distribution channels (retail and special markets distribution), overall unit shipments of physical product decreased by 8.0 percent in 2005” (RIAA, 2006). Mobile formats (such as ringtones) shipped 170 million units, representing $421.6 million in retail value. Full-track downloads were a not significant sector at that time.

In 2007, the world and U.S. market was thrust into what has come to be known as the Great Recession, brought on by several economic factors including the subprime mortgage crisis, which was attached to a realestate bubble nationwide. These troubling times magnified household debt and consumers withheld discretionary income purchases for fear of harder times ahead. For 2008, there was a 14% drop to 428 million albums sold in the U.S., while sales of digital downloads increased 27% to just over a billion songs. CD sales were down almost 20% from the previous year (Sisario, 2009).

Music is a luxury good and during the distressing economic downturn from 2007 to 2012 sales plummeted by 32%. Year-end data for 2013 reflect a plateau in purchases, with music sales maintaining right at $7 billion in revenue (RIAA, 2013).

SoundScan Sales Trends and Configurations

Since 1991, the most substantial change of the use of SoundScan data in compiling the Billboard charts occurred December 13, 2014 with the modification to the Billboard Top 200 to include not only album sales, but the additional data of TEA (track equivalent album) and SEA (streaming equivalent album) information. Whereas the RIAA measures shipments in for their annual industry numbers, SoundScan measures over-the-counter sales. In an effort to monitor recorded music sales and determine trends and patterns, the industry in general, and SoundScan in particular, have come up with a way to measure digital album sales and compare them with music sales in previous years. When SoundScan first started tracking digital download sales, the unit of measurement for downloads was the single track, or in cases where the customer purchased the entire album, the unit of measurement was an album. But this did not give an accurate reflection of how music sales volume had changed, because most customers who download buy individual songs instead of complete albums.

In an attempt to more accurately compare previous years with the current sales trend, SoundScan came up with a unit of measurement called track equivalent albums (TEA), which means that 10 track downloads are counted as a single album. This evaluation is based on a financial equivalent, being a $.99 download x 10 would equal a $9.99 album download or CD. Thus, the total of all the downloaded singles is divided by ten and the resulting figure is added to album downloads and physical album units to give a project picture of “total” activity reported in Billboard’s top 200 chart.

The value of consumption does not stop at the download. Streaming songs generate licenses and royalties from the various sites and add revenue to the bottom line of copyright holders. The streaming equivalent album (SEA) was introduced in 2013 to measure streaming consumption. To evaluate streaming equivalents, the current industry standard is 1,500 streams of any songs from a particular album are counted as a single album; 1,500 streams x the standard royalty generated by this airplay $.005 = $7.50, being the wholesale price of an album. All of the major on-demand audio subscription services are considered, including Spotify, Beats Music, Google Play, and Xbox Music, as well as YouTube/VEVO. Combine the streaming activity of all the singles from a particular album and divide by 1,500 and the resulting figure is added to the album downloads and physical album units to give a project picture of “total” activity, known as the top 200.

Here is an example of how this works:

Table 7.2

Nicki Manaj:	33,723 albums
	17,740 TEA = (177,404 / 10 Songs)
	8,110 SEA = (12,165,982 / 1500 Streams)
	= 59,573 Total Activity

Even though Rae Sremmurd sold more albums (at 34,403 units) this week than Nicki Manaj, Nicki sold more songs and had triple the streaming activity, which caused her album project Pinkprint to outperform StremmLife on the top 200 for this week. You may notice that Taylor Swift’s 1989 does not reflect any streaming activity. Swift made a conscience decision to not allow her songs to be included in any streaming outlets after the street date of the album—hence no streaming activity.

The industry as a whole has found the inclusion of these consumption models to be a better barometer of the marketplace.

“Music consumption in today’s marketplace is a diverse mix of access and acquisition, including on-demand streaming, track and album downloading, and physical product purchasing. The introduction of this expanded scope chart brings the Billboard 200 more closely in line with the multi-platform, multi-format experience of music fans.”—Darren Stupak, executive vice president of U.S. Sales and Distribution, Sony Music Entertainment, quoted in “Billboard 200 Makeover: Album Chart to Incorporate Streams and Tracks”

(Billboard Staff, 2014)

Having established TEA and SEA as new units of measurement, industry trends show the following: U.S. album sales have continued to slide every year from a high in 2000 of 785 million units to 476.5 million units in 2014 (including TEA and SEA. Without the addition of the TEA/SEA, album units in 2014 were 257 million). This represents a drop of 1.9% from the 2013 overall album sales of 486.1 million. The big news of 2014 was that on-demand streaming was up 54% with 164 million streams. But this staggering increase in consumption did not make up for the losses in physical and digital sales. Additionally, the vinyl LP format increased its sales by 52%, comprising 6% of all physical sales in 2014. This spike can partially be attributed to a breakout release by indie-rocker Jack White with his summer hit “Lazaretto.” As noted in the graphic below, SEA reflects streaming consumption, which appears to be replacing digital single downloading at a greater pace than album sales. From 2013 to 2014, digital tracks sales are down by 12% where albums without TEA/SEA show a slower decrease at 10%.

Figure 7.2 U.S. Sales in millions

Source: SoundScan™.

What has been remarkable is the fast pace in which the U.S. consumer has adopted this new technology known as streaming. In less than a decade, the industry has realized a majority of its revenue from digital music sources, based on shipment data from the RIAA. The year 2011 became the first to generate more revenue from digital sources than physical sales. And by 2012, digital music revenue exceeded $4 billion for the first time, with $1 billion of this coming from streaming alone. By 2013, $1.438 billion dollars was distributed as monies generated by digital sources. Considering that music sales are $6.99 billion industry, digital sales make up approximately 20.6% of all music sold.

Figure 7.3 U.S. Digital Music Sales

Source: RIAA

Figure 7.4 U.S. Industry Streaming Revenue

Source: RIAA

Annual Sales Trends

Music sales are seasonal, with the majority of sales occurring during the fourth quarter holiday season. For this reason, many of the superstars wait until the fourth quarter to release a new album, so they can take advantage of the holiday shopping season. And conversely, many newer artists will avoid releasing an album in this same time period because competition for retail space is more intense. Valentine’s Day is the second largest record purchasing holiday (if Thanksgiving weekend is considered a part of the Christmas holiday season). Note that digital track sales caught up to album sales right after the Christmas holiday as music fans cashed in their iTunes gift cards and purchased music online. Notice the very different purchasing practices of 2014, where buyers are cherry-picking singles and the level of both album and single purchasing has dropped dramatically: from a steady 7+ million album units per week in 2008 to somewhere closer to 3 million in 2014 and an average 20 million single tracks per week.

Figure 7.5 Weekly Sales 2008

Source: SoundScan™

Figure 7.6 Weekly Sales 2014

Source: SoundScan™

Genre Trends

The category of rock music has dominated the marketplace for many years, with a double-digit lead of about 33% of the market share for nearly a decade. With a lull in popularity in the mid-2000s, the genre began gaining momentum with the help from the popular show “American Idol,” which began to feature more rock artists among the top contestants in 2007–2008, with rocker David Cook winning the 2008 contest. A driving force in the genre would be Eminem who topped the year-end best-selling charts in both 2010 and 2013 and continues to be an influential voice within the rock community.

The concept of “bro-country” made itself felt as early as 2012 with the male dominance on both the sales charts and country radio air-waves. Artists such as Eric Church, Florida Georgia Line, and Blake Shelton have all broken through as household names—especially Shelton who has been one of the judges on television’s popular “The Voice” contest.

In 2011, 2012, and 2013, Drake’s name has been near the top of the best-selling list and has helped to keep the R&B/Hip Hop genre buoyed. Not one artist is a singular standout, but each of these acts had a strong year in 2013: Jay Z, Kanye West, Lil’ Wayne, and Lamar Kendrick, which gave the genre a spike in sales for the year.

The take-away for each genre should be how each consumer group is engaging the music. To look at the market share of each music type, check out how album sales alone versus the additional punch of TEA and SEA added to the bottom line can help or hinder the genre position. EDM, Latin, pop, and R&B/hip hop all enjoy an active consumer who engages the music not just through purchases, but also through streaming, which increases the overall share of consumption. Whereas christian/gospel, classical, country, holiday, jazz, and rock consumers are not as active online, causing their market share to diminish by as much as four percentage points in the rock category, which is significant.

The RIAA measures age and gender for their consumer profile studies. Current data is available only from 2012–2014, with no data collected from 2009–2011.

Age

Look at the total Internet population that is represented by people over the age of 13 years. When identifying strong performing groups, look to

Figure 7.7 Top Genres: Market Share

Source: Nielsen Year End Reports

Figure 7.8 Top Genre Market Share: Album Only v. Total Consumption

Source: Nielsen Year End Reports

those numbers that outperform the average Internet population percentage. As you see, active buyers look to be between the ages of 26–50, with CD buyers aging older, which shouldn’t be a surprise since this is part of their culture and habit. Digital buyers skew younger with streamers shifting to paid subscriptions more actively as the technology becomes more familiar. Not a shock, peer-to-peer downloading is dominated by the younger crowd, ages 13–25, but the practice is not forsaken by those as old as 35 years of age.

Table 7.3 Market Share by Age Group

Gender

It’s difficult to correlate sales of music with the popularity of certain genres, the adoption of music consumption technology and gender and age. The population of potential music buyers is split nearly equally, with women edging out men, 51% to 49%. But analysis of music sales reveal that women out purchase men by nearly 10 percentage points year-over-year. However, as the technological gateway to the music advances, men out-engage women, specifically peer-to-peer exchanges, paid subscriptions, and locker downloading and stream ripping such as Mediafire or Rapidshare.

Table 7.4 Market Share by Age Group

Market Share of the Major

Label market share can be measured in a myriad of ways. The term “overall” business includes all format sales, but to see how well a music company is doing with new releases, one can isolate catalog sales from currents (current releases) to reveal the “state” of the competition’s business. Universal has dominated the market since acquiring PolyGram Records in 1998. It is impressive that Universal has managed to grow additional market share since this acquisition and they have continued on that trajectory since the turn of the century. When reading the market share chart, note that data from EMI stops after 2011. EMI was purchased by Terra Firma, a private equity firm, and dismantled with the label imprints sold to the Universal Music Group and the EMI Publishing Group going to Sony Tree Publishing. Imagine the powerhouse labels of Universal’s Interscope (Eminem, Black Eyed Peas, Philip Phillips), Def Jam (Kanye, Justin Bieber, The Roots), and Island Records (Bon Jovi, Fall Out Boy) merging with EMI imprint Capitol Records (Katy Perry, 5 Seconds of Summer, Sam Smith), among many more. No wonder the company enjoys near 40% market share.

At one time, there were six major music conglomerates that controlled the U.S. music distribution landscape. The 2012 EMI sale was preceded by the 2004 merger of Sony and BMG, which created the second largest music company in the industry, behind Universal. Before the merger, BMG held a strong market position in the late 1990s and early 2000s due in part to their partnership with Jive Records who, at that time, was responsible for the teen hit sensations ’N Sync, Britney Spears, and Backstreet Boys. Sony enjoyed success in the late 1990s with Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, and other pop artists but saw their market share slip when the pop movement subsided. Sony now wholly owns BMG and has created efficiencies by shedding expenses and eliminating redundant departments.

Figure 7.9 Market Share of Majors: Overall Business

Source: SoundScan

Outlets

It’s clear that digital consumption online is impacting where consumers purchase their music. In a year’s time between 2013 and 2014, the “non-traditional” retailer gained 5% in sales in a year that lost 2% overall. “Non-traditional” retailers include Internet portals, venues, direct-to-consumer, and other non-traditional outlets. The next big winner would

Figure 7.10 Physical Album Sales by Store Type

Source: 2014 Nielsen Music U.S. Report

be the independent store outlet that gained a 1% market share. A featured event such as Record Store Day, celebrates the indie store spirit and is traditionally held on the third Saturday of April of each year. Independent stores are working hard to feature “live” events and cater to specific clientele while offering the vinyl format to specialty shopper. Music retail chains are finding it harder to compete with the current financial model in place and mass merchants are dedicating less and less floor space to music specifically. These dynamics make for a perfect digital shift in consumption since it’s harder to find physical product in the marketplace.

Comparison of All and Current Albums

In the following charts, a comparison is made for market share of all albums and market share of new releases for each label. An increase or decrease in current album market share is one indicator of the company’s health, but a comparison of all albums versus current and catalog albums indicates how much a label relies on catalog sales compared to sales from its new releases.

Of the major labels, only UMG has a significantly larger market share for current releases than for all album releases, although new independent releases have also faired well during 2014. This larger piece of the pie indicates an entity’s power to release and sell new hit records in the current climate. When one slice grows bigger, another slice must shrink. In 2014 Warner’s current releases suffered but their healthy catalog helped to maintain a 15% market share. When reading this chart, the “current” and “catalog” numbers combine to create the “all” share.

Figure 7.11 Comparison of All, Current, and Catalog Album Sale by Label Market Share, 2014

Source: SoundScan

Importantly, as market shares vary from hit to hit and year to year, remember the importance of the independent label and their relationship with the music group. Each of these music companies have “independent distributors” as part of their business models. Sony Distribution distributes records for truly independent labels through their Sony Red distribution arm. Universal’s indie distributor is Caroline Distribution and Warner’s is ADA. If the labels that were distributed through these major distribution arms were re-categorized with their percentage of business moved to the “Independent” category the market shares would look very different. As generated by Billboard in the summer of 2014, the value of the independents was measured by doing just this: look at the graphic below. Independents generate over 35% market share if isolated by themselves. This revenue is recognized by the major distributor, but the independent label is generating the money.

Figure 7.12 2014 Label Share Percentage with Distributed Independents Recategorized

Source: SoundScan/Billboard

Catalog Sales

Catalog sales are defined as sales of records that have been in the marketplace for over 18 months. Current catalog titles are those over 18 months old but less than 36 months old. Deep catalog albums are those over 36 months since the release date.

When the compact disc was first introduced in the early 1980s, it fueled the sales of catalog albums as consumers replaced their old vinyl and cassette collections with CDs. This windfall allowed labels to enjoy huge profits and led to the industry expansion of the 1980s and early 1990s. However, catalog sales started to diminish in the mid-1990s as consumers finished replacing their collections. The closure of traditional retail stores also contributed to the decline in catalog sales, with customers having fewer opportunities to be exposed to the older titles.

Music companies have always looked to maximize their catalog’s potential by utilizing various pricing strategies. Throughout the years, labels sought new ways to promote catalog sales through reissues, compilations, and looking at new formats. During the mid-2000s, catalog sales declined overall, but the introduction of digital downloads saw a spurt in catalog sales as consumers sought to fill in their collections with catalog albums and singles that had not been available for some time. Since then, current product dominated the sales trends, but catalog sales in both physical and digital formats have seen a resurgence recently and sales of currents and catalog have become evenly spread in 2014.

Figure 7.13 Current vs. Catalog Sales for Digital and Physical Product 2014

Source: 2014 Nielsen Music U.S. Report

As a result of this resurgence, the sales share of catalog albums in 2014 rose to account for 49% of album sales, compared to the 35.8% the category comprised in 2004.

Figure 7.14 Market Share of Catalog Sales

Source: 2014 Nielsen Music U.S. Report

Industry Concentration

During the 1990s and early 2000s, the industry relied on just a few massive-selling hits to drive the industry, rather than spreading the wealth around with a plethora of profitable releases. Of the albums released in 2004, only 100 titles made up nearly 50% of the 265 million units sold. Over 70% of the 265 million albums sold in 2004 came from less than 1% of the releases. But that day is no more.

Fast forward 10 years and, with the help of the Internet, crowdfunding, and the taste buds of individual consumers, the market has fractionalized and the “hit” album no longer dominates. By mid-October 2014, not one album had cracked the platinum mark and only 60 singles had sold over 1 million copies. In a scramble to the year-end finish line, only four albums made it to 1 million units sold: Pentatonix That’s Christmas To Me, Sam Smith’s In The Lonely Hour, Disney’s soundtrack Frozen, and Taylor Swift’s 1989.

Why buy when you can stream? The proof of that statement continues to validate itself in the numbers. Starting in the middle of the decade, the top 200 albums began to account for a shrinking share of all albums sold. In 2009, Ed Christman of Billboard magazine wrote: “Hit album releases still account for a large but shrinking share of total sales. The 200 best-selling titles of the year have seen their share of annual sales fall from 40.1% in 2004 to 35% in 2008” (Christman, 2009). Looking at the best-selling top 200 titles in 2014, this number represents closer to 25% of total sales.

Figure 7.15 Percent of Album Sales Represented by the Top 200 Titles

Figure 7.16

Source: Compiled from Various Sources, Including Nielson End of Year Reports

Count the stark reality and how times have changed. The number one album in 2000 (’N Sync’s No Strings Attached) sold 9.9 million copies that year; by 2004, the top selling album (Usher’s Confessions) sold 7.9 million units. By 2007, the number one album (Josh Grobin’s Noel) only sold 3.7 million copies that year. In 2008, the top-selling album (Lil Wayne’s Tha Carter III) sold less than 2.9 million copies. And in 2014, the biggest title that was released eight weeks prior to the end of the year sold 3.6 million units—Taylor Swift’s 1989. Meanwhile, the number of titles released each year has varied over the years, jumping from 33,433 in 2002 to an all-time high in 2008 with over 105,000 titles. Most recent data shows that fewer records are being traditionally released, with the 2011 revealing 76,875 titles in the marketplace.

Conclusion

This chapter presented tools and measures used to evaluate the health of the labels and the industry. We used these assessments to illuminate some trends and shifts within the U.S. recording industry. By looking at trends in music genres, the demographics of buyers, configurations, label market share, the proportion of catalog to current releases, and the proportion of blockbuster hits to the total number of releases, one can make inferences about the current state of the industry. Armed with an understanding of these tools and measures the reader will be able to draw their own conclusions in the future as new data becomes available.

Glossary

BMG—Bertelsmann Music Group. Used to by one of the U.S. major labels, merged with Sony and now has publishing entities in the U.S. and global presence worldwide.

Catalog—Older album releases that still have some sales potential. Recent catalog titles are those released for over 18 months but less than 36 months. Deep catalog: those titles over 36 months.

Dollar value—The monetary worth of a stated quantity of shipped product multiplied by the manufacturers suggested retail price of a single unit. The value of shipments is given in U.S. dollars.

EMI—Electrical and Mechanical Industries. One of the major music conglomerates. Also known as EMG—EMI Music Group.

Market share—A brand’s share of the total sales of all products within the product category in which the brand competes. Market share is determined by dividing a brand’s sales volume by the total category sales volume.

P2P (Peer-to-peer)—Electronic file swapping systems that allow users to share files, computing capabilities, networks, bandwidth and storage.

Product configuration—Any variety of “delivery system” on which prerecorded music is stored. Various music storage/delivery mediums include the full-length CD album, CD single, cassette album or single, vinyl album or single, DVD audio, DVD, mp3 or streaming audio and video.

Replacement cycle—Consumers replacing obsolete collections of vinyl records and cassettes with a newer compact disc format.

Streaming Equivalent Album (SEA)—An industry standard used to derive an album equivalent; 1,500 streams equals one album count.

SMG—Sony Music Group. One of the major music conglomerates.

Track Equivalent Albums (TEA)—Ten track downloads are counted as a single album. All the downloaded singles are divided by ten and the resulting figure is added to album downloads and physical album units to give a total picture of “album” sales.

UMG—Universal Music Group. One of the major music conglomerates.

Units shipped—The quantity of product delivered by a recording manufacturer to retailers, record clubs, and direct and special markets, minus any returns for credit on unsold product.

WEA—The distribution arm of WMG. (Stands for Warner, Elektra, Atlantic)

WMG—Warner Music Group. One of the major music conglomerates.

References

Billboard Staff. “Billboard 200 Makeover: Album Chart to Incorporate Streams & Track Sales.” Billboard. N.p., November 19, 2014. Accessed January 26, 2015.

Christman, E. “Running the Numbers.” Billboard.biz. January 17, 2009. http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003928717.

Christman, E. “Average Sale of Albums Dropped in ’02 as Labels Released More, Sold Less,” Billboard. April 26, 2003.

Christman, E. “SoundScan Numbers Show .35% of Albums Account for More Than Half of All Units Sold,” Billboard. April 28, 2001.

Hiestand, J. “Music sales off in ’03, but decline slows,” Hollywood Reporter. January 02, 2004. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2059949.

Nielsen and Billboard’s 2013 U.S. Music Report. http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports/2014/u-s-music-industry-year-end-review-2013.html

NPD Group. Annual Music Study. 2013.

Phillips, C. “Record Label Chorus: High Risk, Low Margin,” Los Angeles Times. May 31, 2001.

RIAA. “1996 Yearend Marketing Report on US Recording Shipments,” RIAA press release. 1997.

RIAA. “1997 Yearend Marketing Report on US Recording Shipments,” RIAA press release. 1998.

RIAA. “Recording Industry Releases 1999 Yearend Marketing Report,” RIAA press release. 2000.

RIAA. Year-End Industry Shipment and Revenue Statistics. 2013.

Sisario, B. Music Sales Fell in 2008, but Climbed on the Web. The New York Times. January 1, 2009. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/01/arts/music/01indu.html?_r=3&scp=2&sq=music%20online&st=cse.

2014 Nielsen Music, U.S. Report. http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us/en/public%20factsheets/Soundscan/nielsen-2014-year-end-music-report-us.pdf