CD Sales numbers??? The Demise of CD's...

[mistercarter2u]

There's a lot of talk and several other posts about the probable demise of CD's, which I absolutely hate, CD fan that I am...

My question is this: When re-issue labels put out product, how many copies do they try and sell? I'm talking about Real Gone, Funky Town Groove, Ace/Kent, BGO, Second Disc, Soul Music, Cherry Red, and other such labels. What is considered a success? 5000 copies? 10,000 copies? 20,000?

I read that The Supremes' "Ultimate Christmas" was a success. How many copies were pressed, and how many sold?

What about other re-issues? All the Diana Ross RCA re-issues and the vast catalog of soul albums that Funky Town has put out? How many did they sell? Were those re-issues considered successes?

What about all the wonderful CD's of Motown material from Ace? How many copies do those sell in order to be considered successful?

Is there enough interest in those labels and those re-issues to keep them releasing more product? Even if the major labels stop with CD's, can those specialty labels afford to keep putting out such quality material?

[midnightman]

I thought this was another article.

But streaming is causing a lot of folks to wanna stay home. When CDs were king, that was literally the only way you can get music [[there was no world wide web back then).

After Napster came in, the industry tried to imprison the Napster founder [[and Metallica was leading the rampage against Napster back in the day; this led to an infamous South Park episode where artists were accused of being greedy).

Then, of course, came P2P sharing, people mixing music on blank CDs, and labels allegedly jumped on this, leaking their artists' upcoming albums.

Articles talking about Best Buy [[and possibly Target) purging CDs mentioned that the explosion of streaming is causing many stores to rethink wanting a bunch of CDs that don't sell.

Target is thinking of changing its policy that where if a CD sells, it will be sold on Target on consignment [[and some labels may agree to do this so they won't get told by Target that they don't want their CDs there).

I just think CDs will mainly be purchased online by 2019, much like Amazon. Remember, this is about CDs being IN STORE. But I don't think they'll stop people purchasing them ONLINE since Target still has CDs on their online site so it's likely the future of CDs will be people either purchasing online and getting CDs from artists during performances [[which has been happening more often lately).

I doubt independent stores like Ace will stop selling them. I think some folks here explain that this is about the major retailers who are rethinking where to sell music, that's all.

The articles make it bigger than what it is IMHO.

[thanxal]

I thought this was another article.

But streaming is causing a lot of folks to wanna stay home. When CDs were king, that was literally the only way you can get music [[there was no world wide web back then).

After Napster came in, the industry tried to imprison the Napster founder [[and Metallica was leading the rampage against Napster back in the day; this led to an infamous South Park episode where artists were accused of being greedy).

Then, of course, came P2P sharing, people mixing music on blank CDs, and labels allegedly jumped on this, leaking their artists' upcoming albums.

Articles talking about Best Buy [[and possibly Target) purging CDs mentioned that the explosion of streaming is causing many stores to rethink wanting a bunch of CDs that don't sell.

Target is thinking of changing its policy that where if a CD sells, it will be sold on Target on consignment [[and some labels may agree to do this so they won't get told by Target that they don't want their CDs there).

I just think CDs will mainly be purchased online by 2019, much like Amazon. Remember, this is about CDs being IN STORE. But I don't think they'll stop people purchasing them ONLINE since Target still has CDs on their online site so it's likely the future of CDs will be people either purchasing online and getting CDs from artists during performances [[which has been happening more often lately).

I doubt independent stores like Ace will stop selling them. I think some folks here explain that this is about the major retailers who are rethinking where to sell music, that's all.

The articles make it bigger than what it is IMHO.

I think you’re correct. I doubt we see industry-wide agreement to stop manufacturing CDs altogether like we did with vinyl. It’s clear that decision was a mistake. For those who don’t know, all the big labels in the US agreed to stop pressing vinyl all at once. I think it was 1990 or 1991. Can’t remember the exact date.

[midnightman]

^ If I'm not mistaken, it was 1991. Ironically that was the same year, Soundscan was implemented to count CD tracking.

But I agree, they shouldn't have gotten rid of vinyl LPs altogether since folks still want vinyl as much as they want CDs and tapes [[which still exist too).

[mistercarter2u]

Does anyone know how many CD's re-issue labels sell? Do these Motown re-issues, like the numerous high-quality releases from Ace, sell in the thousands? The ten thousands? More? Is it true that there were only like 20,000 copies pressed and sold of the Supremes' "Ultimate Christmas"?

[alanh]

I agree, it would be interesting to know sales figures for CDs, espcially for reissues. For general figures I think it varies from country to country. In the UK last week's album sales were 36.6% physical [[CD and vinyl), 11% download, 52.4% streaming. However around Christmas time [[gift giving) and when albums get released perhaps appealing to older people, jazz or classical audiences physical sales are around 50%. So in the UK there is still life left in CDs, but volumes are certainly falling. Out of interest last week's number one album in the UK was [[still) the soundtrack to The Greatest Showman; during that week it sold 16,198 physical, 15,161 streams and 9,465 downloads.