Figure it out

Some useful facts to have to hand in the Counting The Notes [pdf] report, produced by the National Music Council.

Most significantly, if confirms our belief that the fall in total sales of albums is as much caused by a drop in per unit retail price as people not buying records - in 1999, the average cost of a CD was £11.99. In 2001, it was £10.77. Losing an average £1.22 off retail price would knock a third of a million quid off the take of a platinum selling album. You don't have to be Michael Maths to see that is going to have a major impact on the total value of sales.


In other numeric data, the BPI have announced that UK music sales increased in the third quarter of the year - oddly, this hasn't picked up much comment; certainly nothing like as much as the storm last quarter when sales fell. (You might remember the press reporting that Music Downloads Threaten To Kill Artists With Hunger; Satanic MP3 Spells End For Record Shops, and so on). Now it turns out things weren't actually that bad at all, and compared with same period last year, an extra three million albums were being put in the wrong places in the racks of record stores around the nation.

Singles fell sharply compared with the same time last year, but we suspect that's got more to do with Hear'Say last time round than anything.