Music Recession -Proof? Not Completely

A WEEKLY ROUNDUP OF NOTABLE CHART ACHIEVEMENTS Music Recession -Proof? Not Completely

When I saw a car on the freeway with a the Internet or a CD burner in a col- might go or job security, music pur- to be a more popular purchase than sim- homemade sign that said "Bail Out Peo- lege dorm, had replaced blank cas- chases can become vulnerable for the ilarly priced CDs. ple, Not Banks," I chuckled, but I also settes as the culprit of lost sales, simple reason that there have always I'm the first to agree with the notion thought about the one issue on which although digital copying is a far more been ways to consume music without that albums are a better value than music sales pioneer Henry Droz and I insidious foe. buying it. movies, but through the week ending With help from two NPR differed the most. In the '80s, a good pair of blank cas- According to a Pew Internet study re- Oct. 14 -even with Wal -Mart absent shows, bassist Charlie Haden, Droz, the longtime president of W EA settes were just a couple of bucks leased in July, 55% of U.S. households from Nielsen VideoScan's store sam- who has placed more than a Distribution and later chairman of Uni- cheaper than an LP, while today's cost have access to broadband, unleashing ple average No. 1 on Top DVD dozen sets on Top Jazz -the Albums, finds No. 2 on Top versal Music Group Dis- difference between a myriad ways to enjoy music without Sales for 2008 stands at 424,527, ver- Bluegrass Albums and his first tribution, firmly held the blank CD and a recorded needing to buy or steal a download. A sus 247,978 for a No. 1 album. Billboard 200 ink. Sax man opinion that recorded one is significant. Be- home with satellite TV or digital cable With album sales again trailing Dave Koz gets his first No. 1 on Smooth Jazz Songs to go with music is a recession-proof yond that, in my college picks up at least a dozen music video prior -year pace in 2008, the economic his fourth No. 1 on Top market because it repre- days, it took 45 minutes channels and oodles of satellite radio or climate gives labels and retailers new Contemporary Jazz. sents a relatively inexpen- to tape a 45- minute Music Choice channels. reason to scrutinize the average cost sive product that is long album, whereas a digital Even during the early '80s' post -disco of a CD after its first week or two on Kings of Leon score the on value. in a few crash, a guy who making the market. band's best sales week and its copy happens didn't bother first top 10 on the Billboard Cognizant of the crater minutes, if not seconds. cassette copies of albums could turn on 200 (No. 5, 74,000 copies). labels and music retail- In a recent article his favorite radio station to satisfy a THREE: Metallica's "Death Magnetic" "Only By the Night" also bows ers fell in during the late about Wall Street woes' music craving. becomes only the third 2008 release to at No. 1 in the United Kingdom and in Ireland and starts at '70s, when the economy suffered dou- possible impact on the music business Since the dawn of the iTunes store in top the Billboard 200 for as many as 4 on Top Euro Albums. ble -digit inflation and double -digit un- (Billboard, Sept. 27), Koch Entertain- 2003, the consumer has been taught that three weeks and just the second to do employment, he blamed the album ment chairman Michael Koch echoed an album download is worth $9.99. Ear- so for three straight frames. Selling downturn of 1979 -1982 on other fac- the opinion I heard from Droz almost lier than that, DVDs had already proved 132,000 copies (down 61 %), it is also tors: disco going from white hot to 20 years ago, boosting the only album on this stone cold with no genre taking up the music's ability to uplift at issue's chart to surpass slack: the abandonment of the 8 -track an economical price. And, 100,000. Next week it's configuration; and home taping. it could well be that the destined to become just A similar triple threat at the start of price of gas and worries the 12th album this year this decade helped initiate the slump over the economy's health to sell at least 1 million FLAS that has seen album sales decline in might enhance the per- copies, compared with 20 » n the verge of his six of the last seven years, with teen ceived value of albums as at this time last year. Two rd No. 1 on the Billboard pop, than disco, the gifts in this year's holiday - Hollywood titles, Jonas X00, as "Paper Trail" tallied rather hitting first -day sales of 222,000 on freezer in the early 'OOs, and the cas- selling period. Brothers' "A Little Bit

'Nielsen 1 SoundScan's Oct. sette representing a configuration that Still, I can't shake the Longer" (936,000 to date) Building chart. It's the largest Wednesday Building total was subtracted from the market. notion that if Mr. and Ms. and Miley Cyrus' "Break- since Coldplay's "Viva La And home taping? In the late '90s, Consumer feel woozy out" (921,000) are next in Vida" rang 316,000 in June. peer -to -peer swapping, whether on about how far a dollar line to join that club. .

I VI II(e ` Watch A Weekly National Music Sales Report For week ending Sept. 28. 2008. Figures are rounded niclscn CI-IAR1 Compiled from a national sample of retail sl..,e.lis I ..i, k Weekly Unit Sales Year -To -Date sales reports collected and provided by SoundScan DIGITAL DIGITAL 13EAT ALBUMS ALBUMS' TRACKS 2001 2008 CHANGE 2001 2008 CHANGE »Kid Rock's "All Summer This Week 6,460,000 1,2 31,000 18,830,000 OVERALL UNIT SALES YEAR -TO -DATE SALES BY ALBUM CATEGORY Long" rebounds 29 -28 on th Last Week 6,924,000 1,263,000 19,289,000 Albums 337,344,000 297,866,000 -11.7% Current 202,743,000 169,297,000 -16.5% Billboard Hot 100 while the Digital Tracks 612,222,000 795,793,000 30.0% cover version by the Rock Change -6.7% -2.5% -2.4% Catalog 134,601,000 128,569,000 -4.5% Heroes leaps 38 -29. That pu Store Singles 1,748,000 1,270,000 -27.3% This Week last Year 9,059,000 1,092,000 15,039,000 Deep Catalog 95,086,000 92,239,000 -3.0% the two "Summer" songs ba Total 951,314,000 1,094,920,000 15.1% to -back, the first time the Change -28.7% 12.7% 25.2% Albums w/TFA* 398,566,200 377,445,300 same song has held adjacen 'Digital album sales are also counted within album sales. -5.3% 'Includes track equivalent album sales (TEA) with 10 track downloads equivalent positions on this chart since to one album sale. the week of July 16, 2005, Weekly Album Sales (Million Units) CURRENT ALBUM SALES when Carrie Underwood's 30 "Inside Your Heaven" was N '07 4 and Bo Bice's rendition of ALBUM SALES '08 169.3 million the same song was No. 5. 25

»Speaking of "American Id '08 297.9 ALBUM SALES finalists, Jennifer Hudson 20 2008 million CATALOG scores the 203rd No. 1 forth '07 franchise with "Spotlight," which claims pole position 15 '08 128.6 million the Adult R &B survey. To SALES BY ALBUM FORMAT 6.5M CD 300,584,000 249,224,000 -17.1% 5 Digital 35,769,000 47,259,000 32.1% Read Fred Bronson Nielsen SoundScan counts as current only sales within the first 18 months of an album's release (12 months for classical and jazz albums). Titles that stay in the every week at Cassette 236,000 67,000 -71.6% top half of The Billboard 200. however. remain as current. Titles older than 18 o months are catalog. Deep catalog is a subset of catalog for titles out more than billboard.com/fred. 36 months. a J FM A M J J A S O N D J Other 755,000 1,316,000 74.3%

Go to www.billboard.biz for complete chart data I 53