Tuesday (8/24) on the Gramophone website, Naxos founder Klaus Heymann talks about the state of classical music recordings. “There will be the CD—or a physical carrier—for many more years to come,” he says. “The classical CD is not declining at the same rate as pop or rock. … I think we are basically down to the core collector. And I think that’s at a stable level. Any changes in sales are more due to repertoire, or one-offs—like in Japan, where Harmonia Mundi sold 100,000 copies of Nobuyuki Tsujii [Gold Medal-winning pianist of the 2009 Van Cliburn Competition]. These kind of things can change it dramatically. But by and large I think we’ve now found a fairly stable market for physical product. … The growth in downloads has slowed down dramatically. There’s a bit of growth, but it’s not at the same rate. Again we’re talking about classical music, but I doubt it will go above 20 percent of total sales.”
Posted August 26, 2010
