We thought we'd dissected every stat possible from last year, but here's another one. In Los Angeles on Tuesday morning, Tommy Silverman kicked off New Music Seminar with this: 74% of all US-based albums sales came from CDs in 2010. “They aren't doing so bad," the RIAA board member told the crowd. “People still like them."
Actually, the percentage gets even higher for certain genres. For example, Silverman noted that 84 percent of Country, 85% of Gospel, and a staggering 93% of Latin album sales came from physical.
So maybe there's a 'glass half full' argument here, at least for a few years? But the spill is in motion: overall albums—physical or digital—dropped another 12.7 percent last year, and without digital albums, CDs alone slumped 19%.
Overall, digital formats accounted for 46% of US-based sales last year, according to Nielsen Soundscan.
Actually, the percentage gets even higher for certain genres. For example, Silverman noted that 84 percent of Country, 85% of Gospel, and a staggering 93% of Latin album sales came from physical.
So maybe there's a 'glass half full' argument here, at least for a few years? But the spill is in motion: overall albums—physical or digital—dropped another 12.7 percent last year, and without digital albums, CDs alone slumped 19%.
Overall, digital formats accounted for 46% of US-based sales last year, according to Nielsen Soundscan.
