RIP Albums?
Printed From: Top 40 Music on CD
Category: Top 40 Music On Compact Disc
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URL: https://top40musiconcd.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9713
Printed Date: 10 May 2025 at 6:20am
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Topic: RIP Albums?
Posted By: Scanner
Subject: RIP Albums?
Date Posted: 28 November 2021 at 6:47pm
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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? |
Replies:
Posted By: LunarLaugh
Date Posted: 28 November 2021 at 8:57pm
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Did they even press one million units? ------------- https://thelunarlaugh.bandcamp.com/ - Listen to The Lunar Laugh! |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 28 November 2021 at 9:16pm
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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. ------------- Aaron Kannowski http://www.uptownsound.com" rel="nofollow - Uptown Sound http://www.919thepeak.com" rel="nofollow - 91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop |
Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 28 November 2021 at 11:08pm
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Adele used to be one of the only reasons to buy a new CD. For anyone curious the 30 album is about 4 rungs lower in quality than the 21 album and about 3 rungs lower in quality than the 25 album and about 2 rungs lower than 19 album in quality.
Generally it is Target with the special editions having 2-3 tracks that are generally exclusive. Otherwise when every new release is digitalized and even Adele has 30 Vinyl LP pressed for the release it should tell you that the CD is fading. With Spotify and Tidal and even Apple offering its music service etc the need for physical media on CD is getting lower and lower sadly. ------------- Favorite two expressions to live by on this board: "You can't download vinyl" and "Not everything is available on CD." |
Posted By: Paul Haney
Date Posted: 29 November 2021 at 2:36am
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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. |
Posted By: Hykker
Date Posted: 29 November 2021 at 9:49am
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The nearest Target is a a couple hours' drive away, so I can't comment on that, but the "record dept" of the nearest Walmart
seems pretty meager in both LPs and CDs. CDs seem to win out by a bit, but not by much. I rarely see anyone browsing either one. I wonder how many people (music collectors excepted) even have CD players anymore outside of autos (and even there they're disappearing). Likewise, IMHO the concept of an "album" is fast becoming obsolete...why pay for a bunch of songs you may or may not listen to when you can download/stream just the ones you want? |
Posted By: AutumnAarilyn
Date Posted: 29 November 2021 at 8:31pm
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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! |
Posted By: eric_a
Date Posted: 30 November 2021 at 2:32am
Sony is reported to have pressed 500,000 on vinyl alone! Given the wide appeal across demos, I suspect we'll see strong sales through the end of the year as a stocking stuffer. https://variety.com/2021/music/news/adele-vinyl-record-pressing-plant-lp-shortages-1235103951/ - Variety: Adele sends vinyl plants into overdrive |
LunarLaugh wrote:Posted By: Brian W.
Date Posted: 30 November 2021 at 2:18pm
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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. |
Posted By: eriejwg
Date Posted: 30 November 2021 at 4:23pm
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From my business's standpoint and everything being streamed
now by the public, when I am the DJ at an event, people expect that I own every song that exists in the world in my library. They are shocked if I don't have some odd album track that nobody has ever heard of...except them. ------------- John Gallagher Erie, PA https://www.johngallagher.com" rel="nofollow - John Gallagher Wedding & Special Event Entertainment / Snapblast Photo Booth |
Posted By: Jody Thornton
Date Posted: 30 November 2021 at 4:43pm
I have to admit that I'm not with you there on the joys of CDs dominance. 1990 was a sad year for me, as vinyl disappeared from the stores. The next 17 years were spent searching out records to just find the product I wanted. Very taxing and hard. Even though I know the purpose of this board is to find radio edits on CD, I simply use it to find out more information on the radio edits themselves. Provided you guys had all of the CDs you wanted, I'd sooner and happily take all of your 45-rpm and 12" promo records. :D ------------- Cheers, Jody Thornton (Richmond Hill, Ontario) |
Posted By: AdvprosD
Date Posted: 30 November 2021 at 6:36pm
That's a major part of the reason why I don't do the DJ gig anymore. Back when the majority of a party's population was based upon dance music that almost all of them knew, it was a lot less difficult striking up a set that would please them all at some point. It was very upsetting to me seeing folks that didn't come to have a good time, but rather to hassle the guy behind the speakers. It was easy to ignore for a while, though I found less and less fun being scoffed at because I didn't have the specific remix each of them wanted. ------------- <Dave> Someone please tell I-Heart Radio that St. Louis is not known as The Loo! |
Posted By: Hykker
Date Posted: 01 December 2021 at 7:11am
Same here, except I got out of it in the late 80s. Even by then, there were fewer and fewer across-the-board hit songs, I especially noticed it at events like office parties, etc. where the attendees ranged in age from their early 20s to their 60s...not many songs that appealed to more than a small group. Then there were they guys who'd keep asking for all this rock stuff that would just clear the dance floor. My hat is off to people like John who can still make a living doing this in today's highly fragmented environment. |
Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 01 December 2021 at 7:17am
If this board had a "thumbs up" feature your comment would have gotten one. My nephew would rather subscribe to spotify (which often times has non-hit versions of top songs) then take the time and actually discover what the true 45/single versions of these hits are. Now don't get me wrong digital downloading has its advantages. I have found many a hit that is unavailable on CD through Qobuz/7 Digital/Itunes. Just recently I bought 1985's Natalie Cole Dangerous album. Not likely to be on Spotify, Apple or any service and not available on Qobuz/7 Digital/Itunes. Only place to get it is the old fashioned CD! ------------- Favorite two expressions to live by on this board: "You can't download vinyl" and "Not everything is available on CD." |
Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 01 December 2021 at 7:20am
That's because we are conditioned to believe that every song is out digitally on a CD or somewhere when the truth is that decades and decades of vinyl, 45's etc still have not made CD since the early 80's introduction. ------------- Favorite two expressions to live by on this board: "You can't download vinyl" and "Not everything is available on CD." |
Posted By: aaronk
Date Posted: 01 December 2021 at 4:27pm
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That's actually not the reason. People think DJs use the internet to DJ. They don't understand that most of the time our laptops are not even online, let alone linked up to a streaming service to play music. ------------- Aaron Kannowski http://www.uptownsound.com" rel="nofollow - Uptown Sound http://www.919thepeak.com" rel="nofollow - 91.9 The Peak - Classic Hip Hop |
Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 01 December 2021 at 4:29pm
Any chance you can make us proud and change your board name to youcantdownloadvinyl ? :) Been waiting on someone on this board to do it, might as well be you! ------------- Favorite two expressions to live by on this board: "You can't download vinyl" and "Not everything is available on CD." |
Posted By: PopArchivist
Date Posted: 01 December 2021 at 4:31pm
I never once thought that DJ's stream. I did once upon a time think that every song was pretty much released as I heard it, which is a fallacy. The last time I hired a DJ was 1991, so what do I know? ------------- Favorite two expressions to live by on this board: "You can't download vinyl" and "Not everything is available on CD." |
Posted By: Scanner
Date Posted: 03 December 2021 at 2:11pm
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There have always been record buyers who purchased an
album for just one or two songs on it. The dueling "You Light Up My Life" albums have always intrigued me. The single was readily available and sold abundantly. Yet, Debby Boone's album went Top 10 and platinum. The soundtrack, which did not even feature the hit version (!), went Top 20 and gold. I have always wondered how many people who purchased either album ever listened to more than just the opening track on each. In today's streaming world, both albums would be successful if people would only listen to "Light" and none of the other tracks. Does this make an album a success or just the song? I would love to see a breakdown each week of how many points (streaming, sales) each song on an album earned weekly to see how much the whole album or a just few of its songs are contributing to the album's chart position. After Adele's album bomb clears the Hot 100 in the next 1-2 weeks, the only songs likely left behind will be its current singles, "Easy On Me" and "Oh My God." Should the success of just those two songs make the entire "30" seem like a chart success? |
Posted By: Jody Thornton
Date Posted: 03 December 2021 at 5:30pm
Haaaaaaaa! That would be funny. Nut no I always put my name by my comments :) Good suggestion though. ------------- Cheers, Jody Thornton (Richmond Hill, Ontario) |
Posted By: radiofan16
Date Posted: 08 December 2021 at 12:44am
Spotify release their weekly numbers every Friday. First Week: Easy On Me, 13.6M Oh My God, 10.2M Can I Get It, 7.4M My Little Love, 7.2M I Drink Wine, 7M Strangers By Nature, 6.6M Cry Your Heart Out, 6.2M To Be Loved, 5.9M All Night Parking, 5.3M Woman Like Me, 5.2M Hold On, 5.1M Love Is A Game, 4.5M Second Week: Easy On Me, 7.9M Oh My God, 4.7M Can I Get It 3.1M My Little Love, 3.1 The rest have fallen out of the Top 40. |
Posted By: Scanner
Date Posted: 08 December 2021 at 3:29pm
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Thanks, radiofan16. Week 2 shows how few of the "30" songs
are still keeping the album atop the Billboard 200 due to streaming. (At least this album is selling, although it is depressing that this is the first album to sell more than one million copies in over a year!) With all the Christmas albums bounding up the chart, how many of those I wonder are being supercharged by just one track? For example, is anyone listening to anything other than "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree" on Brenda Lee's Christmas albums or "The Christmas Song" on Nat King Cole's? |
Posted By: TallPaulInKy
Date Posted: 09 December 2021 at 8:34am
According to current standards a Gold Record is awarded for sales of either 500,000 copies of a single or album. So I guess the term "Million Seller" nolonger applies. |