Thursday, January 7, 2010

Music Sales Up Again Last Year (2009)

The Nielsen Company 2009 Year-End Music Industry Report


NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nielsen SoundScan, the entertainment industry's data information system that tracks point-of-purchase sales of recorded music product, Nielsen BDS, the music industry’s leading music performance monitoring service, and Nielsen RingScan, which tracks mobile ringtone purchases, have announced their 2009 U.S. year-end sales and performance monitoring data for the 52-week period January 5, 2009 through January 3, 2010.

There are an amazing amount of interesting statistics, stop by the press release for more data here:

http://www.businesswire.com/



2009 TOP TEN VINYL ALBUMS
(12/29//2008-1/3/2010)

1. Abbey Road/ Beatles         34,800
2. Thriller/ Michael Jackson    29,800
3. Merriweather Post Pavilion/Animal Collective 14,000
4. Wilco/ Wilco                      13,200
5. Fleet Foxes/ Fleet Foxes     12,700
6. Backspacer/ Pearl Jam        12,500
7. Veckatimest/ Grizzly Bear    11,600
8. Appetite for Destruction/ Guns N’ Roses    11,500
9. Big Whiskey & the.../Dave Matthews Band   11,500
10. In Rainbows/ Radiohead  11,400



2009 TOP TEN VINYL ARTISTS
(based on vinyl album sales from 12/29/2008-1/3/2010)

1. Radiohead 45,700
2. Beatles 38,800
3. Michael Jackson 30,400
4. Metallica 30,200
5. Wilco 29,600
6. Bob Dylan 24,500
7. Animal Collective 20,600
8. Pearl Jam 19,900
9. Bon Iver 17,100
10. Iron & Wine 16,600




2009 U.S. Year End Factoids

•Music purchases in 2009 reached the 1.5 Billion mark, making it the fifth consecutive year music sales have exceeded 1 billion; 1.5 billion (2008), 1.4 billion (2007), 1.2 billion (2006), and 1.01 billion (2005)

•Music sales exceeded 62 million during week ending December 27, 2009.

•During 2009, once again more vinyl albums were purchased (2.5 million) than any other year in the history of Nielsen SoundScan (since 1991).

◦Note that similar to a year ago, two out of every three vinyl albums were purchased at an independent music store during the year.



2009 Best Seller Album Factoids:

•Taylor Swift’s Fearless ends the year as the biggest selling album with just more than 3.2 million sales; just more than 100,000 than Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed a Dream (3.1 million). Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed a Dream is the best selling album released in 2009.

•Michael Jackson is the biggest selling artist for 2009 with more than 8.2 million album sales for the year.

◦Taylor Swift comes in as the second biggest selling artist for 2009 with 4.6 million album sales and the second straight year of 4 million or more album sales.

•The Beatles is the biggest selling group for 2009 with 3.3 million album sales.

•Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed a Dream is the best selling Internet album for the year with 405,000 sales as well as the biggest selling album during the “holiday season”.

•Susan Boyle’s I Dreamed a Dream album marks the first time in the history of Nielsen SoundScan that an album release by a debut artist sold more than 500,000 copies in each of its first five weeks of release.
2009 Holiday Season Factoids: (11/15/2009-12/27/2009).

•Overall album sales during the 2009 holiday season were up slightly (0.1%) over 2008, with sales of 80.2 million.

•Album sales during the holiday season accounted for 21% of all album sales for the year.


Top-Ten-Selling Artists Of SoundScan Era (based on album sales from 1991 to January 3, 2010)

1. GARTH BROOKS (68,363,000)
2. THE BEATLES (60,370,000)
3. MARIAH CAREY (52,388,000)
4. METALLICA (52,160,000)
5. CELINE DION (50,933,000)
6. GEORGE STRAIT (41,843,000)
7. TIM MCGRAW (38,677,000)
8. ALAN JACKSON (37,447,000)
9. PINK FLOYD (35,867,000)
10. EMINEM (35,326,000)

Top-Ten-Selling Albums Of SoundScan Era (1991 - January 3, 2010):

1. "Metallica" - METALLICA (15,500,000)
2. "Come On Over" - SHANIA TWAIN (15,487,000)
3. "Jagged Little Pill" - ALANIS MORISSETTE (14,642,000)
4. "Millennium" - BACKSTREET BOYS (12,109,000)
5. "Bodyguard" soundtrack - Various Artists (11,815,000)
6. "Supernatural" - SANTANA (11,687,000)
7. "Beatles 1" - THE BEATLES (11,564,000)
8. "Human Clay" - CREED (11,547,000)
9. "No Strings Attached" - 'N SYNC (11,113,000)
10. "Falling Into You" - CELINE DION (10,781,000)

This Date In Music History-January 7

Birthdays:

Paul Revere - Paul Revere and the Raiders (1937)

Dave Cousins - Strawbs (1945)

Andy Brown - Fortunes (1946)

Rolling Stone founder and editor Jann Wenner (1946)

Kenny Loggins (1948)

Kathy Valentine - Go- Go's (1959)



John Rich - Lonestar (1974)

Rhianna (Robin Hannah Louise Kenny) (1983)


They Are Missed:

The late Eldee Young of Young/Holt Unlimited ("Soulful Strut") and the Ramsey Lewis Trio ("Wade In The Water") was born in 1936.

The late Danny Williams ("White On White") was born in 1942.

Harmonica player Cyril Davies died of leukaemia in 1964 (age 32). Davies was a driving force in the early 60's blues movement forming Blues Incorporated with Alexis Korner.

Bob McFadden ("The Mummy") died of ALS in 2000.

Jon Lee, drummer with Feeder, was found hanged at his Miami home in 2002 (age 33).

Drummer John Guerin died of pneumonia in 2004 (age 64) Worked with Joni Mitchell, Frank Zappa, Linda Rondstadt, Gram Parsons, Todd Rundgren. He also played on the original title tune for the television series Hawaii Five-O.


History:

Charley Patton made his first recordings in 1929.

"Rock Around The Clock" by Bill Haley and his Comets, entered the UK chart for the first time in 1955.



In 1956, production began on the "Rock Around The Clock" movie with Bill Haley.

Harry Belafonte reaches # 5 in 1957 with "Banana Boat (Day-O)."

Gibson introduced the Flying V electric guitar in 1958.

Chubby Checker's "The Twist" returns to #1 in 1962 (the only rock song to do that by the same artist).



In 1964, the Beatles recorded a seven-song appearance for the BBC Radio program Saturday Club. They played "All My Loving," "Money," "The Hippy Hippy Shake," "I Want to Hold Your Hand," "Roll Over Beethoven," "Johnny B. Goode" and "I Wanna Be Your Man." The show was broadcast on February 15, while the Beatles were in the US.

David Gilmour was asked to join Pink Floyd in 1968, briefly making them a five-piece band.

Blind Faith (with Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood) gave their first concert in 1969. It’s free and it was in London’s Hyde Park.

In 1970, neighbors sued Max Yasgur for damages resulting from the Woodstock Festival the previous year (Yasgur owned the farm where the festival was held).

Led Zeppelin fans rioted before a Boston concert in 1975, causing $30,000 in damages and the concert to be cancelled.

Andy Gibb was at #1 on the US singles chart in 1977 with "I Just Want To Be Your Everything," a song written by his Bee Gee brother Barry.

R.E.M. played a Greenpeace Benefit show in 1993 at the 40 watt Club, Athens, Georgia, for 500 people. The show was recorded on a solar powered mobile recording studio.

Oasis started recording their debut album "Definitely Maybe," at Monrow studios in South Wales in 1994.

Pink Floyd was inducted into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1996 by the Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan. David Bowie, the Velvet Underground and Jefferson Airplane are also in.

In 2003, the Beatles Book Monthly closed down after 40 years. Author Sean O'Mahony who set up the magazine in 1963 said there was nothing more to say as the number of things the former Beatles were doing gets less and less as the years go on.

In 2004, Dr. Gilbert Lederman offered to donate a George Harrison autographed guitar to charity. This comes one day after Lederman was sued by Harrison’s estate for coercing the ex-Beatle into signing a guitar on his death-bed. The case was settled when its agreed that the guitar will be disposed of privately. Lederman was treating Harrison who died in November 2001.

In 2006, Gary Glitter was formally charged with committing obscene acts with two girls aged 11 and 12 in Vietnam, the prosecutor in the southern province of Ba Ria Vung Tau said the charges would carry prison terms of three to seven years. Glitter, (Paul Gadd), had been held since November as he tried to flee the country over child sex allegations.

Mary J. Blige was at #1 on the US album chart in 2006 with ‘The Breakthrough’ the R&B singer’s third US #1 album.

In 2010, Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Rolling Stones, The Clash, Pink Floyd, Coldplay and Blur have their album artwork displayed on a set of Royal Mail (U.K.) stamps. The covers include "Zeppelin IV" (aka "Untitled"), "Ziggy Stardust" (David Bowie), "London Calling" (The Clash) and "Let It Bleed" (Rolling Stones), among others.