Album Sales Are Like US Box Office

Filed in archive Commentary on May 29, 2007

This article is part of a series on the changing music business.

1. Weakly Album Sales

2. It's Not About the Album

3. Album Sales Are Like US box office

4. EMI Sale: The Continuing Destruction of the Major Labels

Recording album sales are to artist success like US box office revenues are to movie success ... diminishing rapidly.

Both album and US box office sales have matured into slow growth markets with important differences that highlight the lethargy of the music business and its inability to innovate and adapt to technology and consumer preferences

The film industry has understood well the value of packaging to differentiate various formats and media. For example, a DVD doesn't just contain the movie. It often includes multiple languages, interviews, outtakes, alternate endings, and more.

In comparison, a music CD is just the album.

Film distributors have long diversified into other channels, such as pay TV, cable, video rental, and DVD sales. While the US box office has stagnated, overall industry sales continue to grow due to the strength and size of the other channels.

Music distributors can point to channels such as radio, Internet, and satellite broadcasting, digital downloads, digital subscriptions, ringtones, and mobile. However many of these channels are small and young. The channels have been insufficient to make up for the loss in industry revenues due to the CD sales decline.