Friday (1/4) on the Los Angeles Times blog Pop & Hiss, Todd Martens writes, “With CDs suffering double-digit declines in sales and digital albums seeing double-digit increases in 2012, the inevitable has happened. Downloads for the first time accounted for the majority of albums sold, according to year-end data released by Nielsen SoundScan. This past year, 37% of all albums purchased were done so as downloads via digital destinations such as Apple’s iTunes store, Amazon’s Amazonmp3 outlet or retailers such as eMusic. That’s a 6% increase from 2011 and an 11% jump from 2010. Previously, the bulk of album purchases came from so-called ‘mass merchant’ stores such as Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy. In 2012, 29% of all album sales were generated by the mass merchants, down from about 31% the previous year when sales at digital outlets and mass merchants were equal. In 2010, 33% of all albums purchased were done so at mass merchants. … Boosting the iTunes market share, of course, is its reliance on singles, but until this year album sales were still largely the province of physical retailers. Digital retailers can also offer discounts that physical outlets often can’t match.”
Posted January 7, 2013
