JosephC wrote:
Looks like a complete train-wreck for the music industry.
It appears that 15-20% of the albums on the chart are either greatest hits packages, old catalog titles, soundtracks or various artist collections.
AC/DC's Back in Black has been around for 30+ years and had sold over 21 million copies entering into this year...but there were only 113 releases that out-sold it? Seriously, how many copies could have this album sold in 2015? I'm guessing, give-or-take, somewhere around 200,000...and that is good enough to be #114 on the list of best-sellers?
The number two album on the list has only been certified as platinum and wikipedia indicates it sales are at 1.7 million. I randomly picked 1985 because it was 30 years back, and in just the first two months of that year there were at least 4 albums released that sold over 2 million copies.
John Fogerty - Centerfield
Phil Collins - No Jacket Required
Whitney Houston - Whitney Houston
Tears for Fears - Songs from the Big Chair
Still some question in my mind as to the most significant causes. Downloading? Streaming? Marketing? MP3 singles? Cultural decline? Sense of entitlement amongst under 30's? Dreadful strategies by the industry? Playing music on phones? Very little career building by the majors? Lack of education by the majors as to the benefits of pricey hi-res catalog reissues? All the B&M's that have gone out of business? .....................
A friend & I were discussing awhile back that we've had more cultural change in the last 15 years or so then in the previous 75 years. My current thinking is that the same thing has happened again, but this time in perhaps as little as the last 2 years.
