The music industry has taken a few hits over the past few years with physical CD sales continually decreasing. Merchants were hoping for a successful Black Friday, but they were met with disappointment. Album sales were down 15 percent from last year, Neilsen Music reports.
On the positive side, online CD sales were up 16 percent while vinyl nearly doubled its numbers from last year thanks to Record Store Day's "Back to Black" promotion. Pentatonix was the clear Christmas winner, having sold 217,000 units of That's Christmas to Me.
Here is a breakdown of the numbers via Billboard:
Retailer CD sales: 7.28 million units — down from 8.6 million last year
Online CD sales: More than 1 million units — up 16.5 percent from last year
Vinyl LP sales: 259,000 units — up from 173,000 last year
Some big box and chain stores featured new titles for low prices. Hastings Entertainment had the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack, Maroon 5's V, Godsmack's 1000hp, Jeezy's Seen It All and Little Big Town's Pain Killer priced at $4.99 for the shopping weekend. Walmart, Target and Best Buy had big-name releases down to $7.
All of this could be good news for the consumer, as Billboard notes, with merchants considering discounting titles as the holiday approaches.
About 100 titles were released in the vinyl format for Record Store Day's event, with 5 Seconds of Summer, The Afghan Whigs and Hozier all putting out LPs. Check out the full list here.
Music industry sales for the first half of 2014 were down 5 percent compared to last year. Vinyl was again the bright spot in that report, with sales up 43 percent. Jack White's Lazaretto LP even broke a record.
"It involves you immediately in the music," White said about vinyl. "Your involvement in the media, romantically, can't be touched. If you said play a track and pushed a button on an iPod, there's absolutely nothing romantic about that. Pull out a record and are you not immediately more engaged? I relish the idea of showing a kid how to put a needle on a record."
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