RIAA: Music Sales Resume Decline In '05
By Joseph Palenchar -- TWICE, 4/10/2006
WASHINGTON — Retail-level music industry sales resumed their 21st century pattern of decline in 2005, and not even a near tripling of digital download revenue could offset the industry's loss, Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) statistics show.
Industry sales slipped 0.6 percent to $12.27 billion, putting them well below their 1999 peak of $14.59 billion. Industry sales have fallen every year beginning in 2000, except for 2004 when sales rose 4.1 percent.
The 2005 decline would have been slightly greater if the RIAA hadn't for the first time included sales of cellular phone ringtones and ringback tones, subscription-download revenues, music-video downloads and digital sales through retail kiosks. Their combined 2005 revenues came to $576 million.
Here's a breakdown of music-industry sales by segment:
Physical media: Dollar sales of CDs, DualDiscs, vinyl and multi-channel music formats fell 7.9 percent to $11.2 billion.
Digital music downloads: Revenues from single song and album downloads grew about 174.5 percent to $503.6 million. The figure includes a modest $4.7 billion in music-video downloads and kiosk sales not tracked in 2004.
Ringtones and ringbacks: Sales of 170 million ringtones and ringbacks generated $421.6 million in consumer sales. Sales weren't tracked in 2004.
Subscription-downloads: In 2005, 1.3 million consumers subscribed to subscription-download services, generating $149.2 million in revenue for download services.
SACD, DVD-Audio: Combined unit sales remained below sales of vinyl LP/EP albums but maintained their advantage in dollar volume. Unit sales fell 9 percent to 1 million, and dollar volume slipped 8 percent to $21.2 million. Unit sales of vinyl LP/EPs slipped to 1.02 million from 1.36 million, and dollar volume fell from $19.3 million, to $14.2 million.
| 2005 | 2004 | YoY% | |
| CD Albums | |||
| Units | 705.4 | 766.9 | -8.0% |
| Dollars | $10,520.20 | $11,446.50 | -8.1% |
| Downloaded Tracks | |||
| Units | 366.9 | 139.4 | 163.3% |
| Dollars | $363.30 | $138.00 | 163.3% |
| Downloaded Albums | |||
| Units | 13.6 | 4.6 | 198.5% |
| Dollars | $135.70 | $45.50 | 198.5% |
| Vinyl LP/EP | |||
| Units | 1.02 | 1.3 | -25.0% |
| Dollars | $14.20 | $19.20 | -26.2% |
| Music Video | |||
| Units | 33.8 | 32.7 | 3.2% |
| Dollars | $602.20 | $607.20 | -0.8% |
| DVD-Audio** | |||
| Units | 0.5 | 0.35 | 31.8% |
| Dollars | $11.20 | $6.40 | 72.2% |
| SACD | |||
| Units | 0.5 | 0.8 | -40.5% |
| Dollars | $10 | $16.60 | -39.9% |
| Kiosk Downloads | |||
| Units | 0.7 | NA | NA |
| Dollars | $1 | NA | NA |
| Downloaded Music Videos | |||
| Units | 1.9 | NA | NA |
| Dollars | $3.70 | NA | NA |
| Cellular ringtones, ringbacks | |||
| Units | 170 | NA | NA |
| Dollars | $421.60 | NA | NA |
| Subscription Download Svcs | |||
| Units | 1.3 | NA | NA |
| Dollars | $149.20 | NA | NA |
| Total Dollars*** | $12,269.50 | $12,338.10 | -0.60% |
| *Wholesale-level unit shipments after returns. Dollar
value based on suggested retail price. Includes special markets, such as clubs and mail order. **Includes DualDiscs, which are not broken out separately by RIAA. *** Includes segments not appearing in table, including CD singles, cassette singles, vinyl singles. Source: Recording Industry Association of America ©TWICE 2006 |
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