Mic check looking for the Press you're needed in aisle 1-100

With the start of the ramp-up for fall and holiday sales the story still unfolding is the inability of digital to take away market share from physical sales.   There's a number of reason why this is happening; However the issue at hand today is the continued obsession by the press to cover only the digital side of music.

The lack of focused journalize and technical analysis keeps one of the US's best industries in check. 

The shear amount of press that Digital music get's vs physical on the market share alone shows something is amiss.  If 56 precent of the sales are physical why is digital covered at twice the rate of it's market share.   Or! perhaps worse is the complete lack of coverage in the US Press about our top culture export (Entertainment)  should be another sign.  Sadly the only story I've found about physical is from overseas.

"While HMV saw declines across both video and gaming, it held its value for physical music, helped by new releases including English Graffiti by The Vaccines and How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, the third album from Florence and the Machine. With the re-launch of its online store in June 2015, HMV now has access to the 3.8 million shoppers who purchased physical music and video in this way in the last quarter, which should improve its performance. "  Author Fiona Keenan

How does the USA compete if we're not even in the game or the chosen market to be in pays in cents. It makes no sense.  Yet, that is the state of the art for today knowing the wrong data and acting in the wrong markets. 

DCMadeMusic.com

Physical music sales where almost 57% of sales last week; Yet still reported as bygone product.

Yet! here we are in the dog days of August and looking at the National Sales report from Nielsen Soundscan that shows of the 3,753,000 units sold 2,150,000 where in physical format for the weekending 08/06.   Now this has happened without and huge releases coming out or a major event like a Jackson Family Tour meanwhile the major of the press in music, was about anything, but physical music.

For anyone thinking that last week was just a blip in the total of digital albums (or equivalent - whatever that really means) sold for the year being 63,205,0000 of the 137,165.000 or 44 percent of your marketplace. Here's the funny part . There's  really one business that can convince all of the new entrants and most of the existing ones to concentrate all of their efforts into the purple part of the pie, aka the smallest part and that's the New Record Business.

Now for those that like profits, it seems the Majors, Sony UNI WEA still concentrate on BOTH and that's why they make billions of dollars and the rest are fighting over pennies almost like being the crustless bread that no one really buys.  Speaking of BuyingThis it was this time last year when the bottom fell out on digital sales and I wonder if this is another signal that same trend will repeat.  Lastly, will this holiday's music catalogs be filled with physical music goodies? I hope so...

  Stupid quotes for the past...

“Keep up the artist awareness and don’t get caught in the common trap of signing both physical and digital distribution deals with the same company.” written by Selenna Nieva, Valleyarm

Why is this Stupid in the Next blog......

PS Come Sept Walmart will be sporting a lot of vinyl.  Read it here first.....

Merry Holidays for those of you with Physical Releases

So here's the years top numbers total units sold

BUSINESS CONDITIONS
Album(000)				YTD
Total:				247,143
Digital:				102,982

A bit of simple math shows that of the majority sold it wasn't digital it was ????? Physical Goods at 14,416,1000 items sold (often in Brick and mortar stores) with a lot of Amazon, which is opening it's 1st  music store in NYC. 

I will say that we have one more week left and Digital Music can really turn it around and make all those tech founders rich........ Cuz it sure ain't doing anything for the artists. 

For any city planners that have happened to have stumbled upon this blog if the plan for you cities music doesn't include getting it made physically, closer to home the better, and distributed out of the boundaries of your wonderful town then you're missing the biggest opportunity and IMHO the current failing of our economy -- We're entertaining our economy to death. 

In the words of Jeffery Immelt, CEO General Electric "The United Sates should have 3 priorities; Become a country that is good at manufacturing and exports"* does the 3rd matter?

Detroit Economic Club June, 2nd 2009. 

Now in order to export it you have to make it physical and that means CDs, Cassettes, Vinyl records the old fashion stuff, that was going to go away.  Well it didn't and that really a good thing

So this Holiday I hope the you BuyIndieSupportLocals.org and get ready for more of this in 2015 cuz it's the newest fad and getting a City Music Deal will be part of it.

Physical is now back to 60 percent who's talking about it?

So conspiracy theories are proclaiming the TaylorSwiff effect is sweeping the nations,  Ok I'm not really sure anyone is saying that however, I do know that few are talking about last weeks Soundscan numbers you know the ones that have Physical now back near 60 percent of the markets.

Here's a spreadsheet that I run to help me and hopefully readers of this blog see the numbers as they relate to the overall market.  Being an economist by education I'm well aware of the market basket manipulation of numbers and feel all too often that reports on our industry are really personal feelings about it from journalist.  Let's face it covering the numbers is not as much fun as being a fan, err I mean object journalist's or worse someone reject by the old temple keepers and now has a keyboard to grind, I'd say ax however they sucked at guitar players too so didn't want to mix that metaphor in back there.

The numbers and shakira hips --they are what they are and anyone not talking about this is missing the punch line.  New Music Biz same as the old music biz.  Now kids it's time to go get a physical distribution deal; so you can at least have a chance to get into the real money of music.

Content ain't King when anyone can make it, Distribution is Everything or King.

BTW witness a great BAT mitzvah and by far Taylor Swift was the dominate music choice of the nite so many there is something to the #TSrulestheworld stuff.