Rich Fiscus
29 Dec 2007 18:14
In a continuation of the all too familiar trend of the last few years, the CD industry saw more huge declines in sales during 2007. In addition to the expected sales drop during the rest of the year, Christmas sales were an abysmal 20% lower than last year during the weeks leading up to Christmas. Sales for the entire year were down 15.3%.
In addition to other factors, including reduced shelf space for CDs in many stores, the drop is being attributed to poor weather and a lack of hit albums during the Christmas buying season. "It just makes things worse in one of those already bad holiday selling seasons," says Rob Perkins, president of Marietta, Ga., chain Value Music.
"Unless we get some innovation put into physical music," Value Music's Perkins says, "we will see a continuing of this bad sales trend." Music executives are already forecasting another drop in sales next year, which could be aggravated by retailers continuing reclaim valuable shelf space by reducing the amount devoted to CDs.
Source: Reuters