Music sales rise after years in the doldrums
Kai Ryssdal: Things are looking a little bit brighter for the music industry. For the first time in six years, sales are up. More than 1.5 percent better this year than last, that’s according to Nielsen, the ratings people.
There are all kinds of reasons for the bump, including, as Marketplace’s Alisa Roth explains, maybe the best one: music that people think is worth paying for.
Alisa Roth: The upshot of the Nielsen report is that we’re buying fewer CDs, but we are still buying music. Russ Crupnick is an entertainment analyst for the NPD Group, which is a market research firm.
Russ Crupnick: We’re seeing really good growth in terms of the number of people who are coming in and buying digital downloads. And we’re seeing really good growth in the number of people who are buying digital albums, so that’s positive.
Crupnick says — as with so many new technologies — the challenge is how to make money from it. Although music sales have risen in terms of units sold, in terms of dollars, the business still isn’t doing so well.
That may get better. Nielsen says people are paying more for music: many single downloads now go for a $1.29, rather than the 99 cents they cost originally.
Dan Keen is a professor at Belmont University. He says one thing that’s really helping is good new music. The British singer Adele’s CD “21” recently became the most downloaded album ever on Amazon.
Dan Keen: It’s not just about a groove, although that’s part of it, or about a great production. But it’s the pathos and the ethos in her voice that really connects with people.
Whether it’s Adele, the Beatles — who are now available on iTunes — or Lady Gaga, people are getting more and more tunes online. And — music to the ears of the industry — less and less from illegal fileshares.
In New York, I’m Alisa Roth for Marketplace.
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