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year-end analysis

Year-End Analysis, Continued: The Final Sales Tallies Are In

register.jpgNielsen SoundScan released its full end-of-year sales report today (it adds year-end stats to the report released last week), and both Listen Up and Coolfer have rundowns of the numbers; overall, 588.2 million albums were sold in 2006, down 4.9% from the 2005 total of 618.9 million. (We don't seem to be on SoundScan's mailing list yet, so if anyone has a full copy of the report, feel free to pass it along.) Album-wise, 2006 was for the children (or, at least, the tweens): the High School Musical soundtrack remained in the top spot on the end-of-year albums chart, while Hannah Montana, which lodged itself in the top 10 immediately after its release at the end of October, finished the year as the No. 8 album.

THE GOOD: Overall, the number of digital album sales more than doubled, jumping from 16.2 million in 2005 to 32.6 million last year. While that's a drop in the bucket—it amounts to only about 5.5% of all albums sold—it does show an increase in users' comfort level with digital music stores.
THE BAD: There's a fair amount of bad news, and most of it has to do with physical media: CDs suffered an 8.2% decline in sales; sales tallies at independent music stores plummeted 18%; Tower Records' shuttering probably means an even worse fate for CD sales in 2007.
THE WHAAAA? Listen Up pointed out what was probably the report's most head-shaking statistic: Fergie's supersucky "Fergalicious" set an all-time record for most digital song sales last week, after 295,000 people who apparently don't own any JJ Fad MP3s bought it. Clearly, we need to take some action, so we've posted an MP3 of "Supersonic" below; feel free to pass it along to any errant Fergie-downloaders in your household.

JJ Fad - Supersonic [MP3, link expired]
Year-End Music Sales: A Mixed Bag [Listen Up]
2006 In Numbers [Coolfer]

2:48 PM on Thu Jan 4 2007
By mjohnston
573 views
8 comments

Comments

  • No commenter image uploaded by Halfwit at 03:01 PM on 01/04/07
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    I think that the 18% dip for indie music stores is probably the most troubling. I know that, when my willpower collapses, I can walk out of my local place with $40+ of music (I've done $70 more than once), but it's usually $4-8 used discs. It's easier to go to emusic for indie albums, itunes for the occasional single, and half.com for the rest.

    No commenter image uploaded by cutshallow at 03:05 PM on 01/04/07
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    I would

  • No commenter image uploaded by cutshallow at 03:07 PM on 01/04/07
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    I would just like to say that while I can't stand Fergie, her "Fergalicious" isn't so bad, cuz you know if Missy Elliott put it out, bloggers would be falling all over themselves to call it the single of the year.

  • Image of Maura Johnston by Maura Johnston at 03:08 PM on 01/04/07
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    *

    "London Bridge" > "Fergalicious." And the JJ Fad song trumps them both.

  • Image of Ned Raggett by Ned Raggett at 04:09 PM on 01/04/07
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    Yeah, JJ Fad got a raw deal from history. (I assume.) But one classic is better than none.

  • Image of Chris Molanphy by Chris Molanphy at 07:22 PM on 01/04/07
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    As I mentioned here, every December for the last three seasons the week between Christmas and New Year's is iTunes' blockbuster week. A downloaded-singles record has been set every year during this week, and it's not rocket science: the kids all get iPods and iTunes gift cards, and starting the afternoon of the 25th, they (to quote Beck) get crazy with tha Cheez-Whiz.

    Until Shakira set a new one-week record last spring (the week "Hips Don't Lie" was finally, belatedly released to iTunes), the one-week record was held for a few months by that immortal snap classic, D4L's "Laffy Taffy" - the beneficiary of last Christmas's I-need-something-stoopid-to-impress-my-homies-and-piss-off-my-parents sweepstakes. This year, Fergie wins the stoopid prize. (The only good news, as I mentioned here, is that Beyoncé had nearly as strong sales and much heavier radio airplay, so she managed to hold onto #1 on the Billboard charts.)

    It's really not that remarkable. Fifty-one weeks hence, some equally shitty song we can't even fathom yet - I predict it will rip off Newcleus's "Jam on It," but with lamer rapping and a crappy lyric about Superman battle-rapping Paris Hilton - will set the record again.

  • Image of MJ by MJ at 05:33 AM on 01/05/07
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    If Missy Elliot had been the one to put out "Fergalicious", we'd be falling over ourselves to praise it because Missy, unlike Fergie, knows how to rap.

  • No commenter image uploaded by incarag at 11:35 AM on 01/05/07
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    Hey you guys stole my idea:
    http://japanesegodjesusrobot.blogspot.com/2006/12/am-i-sup...

    Then again I did acknowledge that it wasn't the most original thought in the world, so it's ok by me.

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