RIP Albums?

The numbers are in and Adele's new "30" did not even
approach one million total units. The total 839,000
album units consisted of sales (692,000), streaming
(141,000) and track sales (6,000). Although "25" was
withheld from streaming services for a few weeks after
its release, the sales of "30" were clearly not severely
impacted by its immediate availability on streaming
platforms.

If Adele cannot surpass one million units, will we ever
see another album do so again? In just one week, Adele
has the best selling album of 2021. Eleven months into
the year and not one album has sold over one million
units. Is this a turning point for the future of the
album format?

Even during the CD era, it was record setting if you moved a million units in a week. I'm curious to know out of the 692,000 "sales" what percent is physical product vs. paid digital downloads of the full album.

My local Target store now has a bigger selection of vinyl
albums than CDs. The local WalMart only has a single row
of CDs and just a few rows of vinyl.

It's a sad day indeed! I still believe the compact disc is
the standard and I do not understand this obsession to go
back to vinyl especially when the defect rate approaches
10% on many pressings. Discogs and to a greater extent
Youtube has refueled the vinyl format. Again it's easier
to show and market a product that is 12 inches over one
that is 5 inches. What I've spent my adult life doing is
dying a slow death!

I worked with a guy in his early 20s about seven years ago, and he couldn't believe I actually still bought CDs.

Albums aren't dead, people just stream the albums. This younger generation doesn't care about owning things like we do.

Edited by Brian W.