CD SALES RISE IN US



CD sales in the US rose by 2.3% last year - despite a huge increase in the number of legal music downloads.

The increase is the first the country has seen in four years, and though 14 million albums were downloaded last year, 98% of the 666 million albums sold were on CD format according to research company Nielsen Soundscan.

The end of 2004 saw the number of weekly legal music downloads reach an all time high of 6.7 million, compared to 300,000 a week mid-2003, reports the BBC.

Usher’s ‘Confessions’ was the biggest selling US album, totalling more than eight million copies.

Other big sellers included Norah Jones and Eminem.

The increase is mirrored by record sales in the UK, with 2004 totals showing a 3% increase. As previously reported, Scissor Sisters scored the biggest-selling album of the year.

Isn't it weird Norah Jones album was still huge, yet somehow went virtually unnoticed?

Norah Jones released an album in 2004?

Since it came up, though pretty weak if you ask me:

A Christmastime increase in sales of Scissor Sisters' self-titled debut has made it the UK's top-selling album of 2004.

Prior to the festive purchases, Keane's Hopes And Fears was the UK's top-selling album of 2004. Just shows what a few songs named after girls can do. That or the album was played at many an office party.

Here's the top ten:

1 Scissor Sisters - 'Scissor Sisters'
2 Keane - 'Hopes And Fears'
3 Robbie Williams - Greatest Hits
4 Maroon 5 - 'Songs About Jane'
5 Katie Melua - 'Call Off The Search'
6 Anastacia - 'Anastacia'
7 Usher - 'Confessions'
8 Norah Jones - 'Feels Like Home'
9 Snow Patrol - 'Final Straw'
1o Il Divo - 'Il Divo'

And the US list:

1 CONFESSIONS Usher LaFace/Zomba
2 SPEAKERBOXXX/THE LOVE BELOW OutKast LaFace/Zomba
3 CLOSER Josh Groban 143/Reprise/Warner Bros.
4 THE DIARY OF ALICIA KEYS Alicia Keys J/RMG
5 FEELS LIKE HOME Norah Jones Blue Note
6 FALLEN Evanescence Wind-up
7 SHOCK'N Y'ALL Toby Keith DreamWorks (Nashville)/Interscope
8 IN THE ZONE Britney Spears Jive/Zomba
9 THE VERY BEST OF SHERYL CROW Sheryl Crow A&M/Interscope
10 WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN Kenny Chesney BNA/RLG
11 THE BLACK ALBUM Jay-Z Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam/IDJMG
12 THE COLLEGE DROPOUT Kanye West Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam/IDJMG
13 NOW 14 Various Artists Columbia/Universal/EMI/Zomba/Sony Music
14 IN THIS SKIN Jessica Simpson Columbia/Sony Music
15 SONGS ABOUT JANE Maroon5 Octone/J/RMG
16 NOW 16 Various Artists Universal/EMI/Sony Music/Zomba/UMe
17 METAMORPHOSIS Hilary Duff Buena Vista/Hollywood
18 AUTOBIOGRAPHY Ashlee Simpson Geffen/Interscope
19 HERE FOR THE PARTY Gretchen Wilson Epic (Nashville)/Sony Music
20 BEG FOR MERCY G-Unit G-Unit/Interscope

Yeah, it was decent. Diana Krall and Nellie McKay kinda blew her out of the water, though.

i read in RS that sales were only up 1-2%, and that the labels were very very worried about it. a 2% increase in sales is shitty and pitiful, especially if the overhead to make the cd in the first place costs 10% more than it did last year...

bort

But does the overhead cost that much more? And if so, why?

Suing people costs money?

First of all, where's the love for NOW 15? A far superior album as a whole IMO.

Just for the record, I prefer NOW's early stuff.

i don't know if the cost for making an album went up, and if so by how much, and if yes than for what reason. i don't know any of it. all i know is that the music industry is not happy with a 2% increase in sales.

bort

I would think the overhead in making cd's would go down since cd's are paractically free if you buy them in bulk. It's the DVD's they stick in there that are costing them overhead.

I like their first album the best. The others (2-16) sound like that difficult sophomore album done like 15 times.