Here are some highlights from NARM’s 50th Anniversary Conference’s Digital NARM 2008 San Francisco Marriott. NARM is the premiere event for those in the business of selling recorded music. This year’s event embraced the digital part of the music industry in a much greater manner than any other NARM events.
· So far for 2008 consumers have made 724 million purchase decisions of music and videos
· Nearly 80% of albums sold less than 100 copies
· 570,000 albums sold in 2007
· Fewer than 10,000 albums amounted for 80% of album sales
· Album sales down 15% from last year
· The last time album sales were up – 2004
· So far this year, vinyl sales are up 38%
· 10, 800 albums released by the major labels last year – accounting for over 80% of new album sales
· Top Download artist – Fergie – 7.5 million full track downloads
· Total Digital track sales for 2007 was 844 million
· 726.6 million – major labels
· 117.5 indy tracks
· T-Pain – top selling Ringtone artist for 2007 – 2.3 million downloads
Miscellaneous Facts
· American Idol and Disney artists sold 35 million albums the last two years
· 3 of the top 10 artist were either from American Idol or Disney – amounting to 13% of 2007 album Sales
· Kevin Arnold – Founder of IODA mentioned during one of the panels that Verizon wireless was one of their top 5 retailers
· Napster was only available on 12, 000 AT&T phones in 2007…will now be on 12 million phones….June projection (according to Napster President Brad Duea)
· NPD’s Russ Crupnick stated 61% of music was bought by teens using gift cards
· Digital music has been growing at 40 to 45% a year
· Last year was the worst year for holiday season albums in Nielsen history
· Video games is the new king – Grand Theft Auto IV broke records for sales $500 mil first week
Tony Samuel
R.O.P.
Alanis Morissette performing at NARM’s opening night.
Lisa Loeb during a discussion at NARM.
