For Immediate Release
July 5, 2012
THE NIELSEN COMPANY & BILLBOARD
2012 MID-YEAR U.S. MUSIC INDUSTRY REPORT
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DIGITAL SALES GAIN– ALBUMS UP 14% – TRACKS UP 6%
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VINYL ALBUMS SALES UP 14%
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NEW YORK – Nielsen SoundScan and Nielsen BDS, the entertainment industry’s data information systems, reveal 2012 mid-year U.S. music sales figures for the 6-month period of January 2, 2012 through July 1, 2012. Nielsen SoundScan measures U.S. unit sales of recorded music product while Nielsen BDS tracks U.S. radio airplay and music streams.
Music sales nearly matched this time last year, down slightly at -0.6% (including albums and track equivalents). Digital Albums are up 14% and Digital Tracks are up 6%. Catalog continues to be a growth driver in 2012, up more than 5% over this time last year.
“Sales trended well in the first half of the year,” said David Bakula, SVP Client Development, Nielsen. “While retail sales continue to face challenges related to broader market trends, digital sales gains are expected to achieve another record-breaking year. The strength in other monetized digital formats, including music streaming services, is equally encouraging.”
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2012 U.S. Mid-Year Sales |
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Note: Track equivalent albums equate ratio of 10 tracks to 1 album.
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Market Share
(Market Share for the Entire Entity Including Distributed Labels)
Total Album Sales
Physical Album Sales
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Current Album Sales*
Digital Album Sales
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Catalog Album Sales*
Digital Track Sales
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Current and Catalog Album Sales
(In Millions)
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Notes:
Current/Catalog Definitions: “current” represents albums 18 months or newer; “catalog” 18 months or older (with some considerations for airplay and billboard chart position). “Deep catalog” is a subset within “catalog”.
Genres: Albums and tracks may appear in more than one genre. Album genres are based on billboard chart eligibility and can differ from the track genre methodology. Not all genres are included in the above tables.
* Includes sales figures tracked by Christian SoundScan.
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Billboard’s Top Sellers & most played/streamed songs Based on Nielsen SoundScan & Nielsen BDS Data |
Total Albums Sales
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Digital Albums Sales
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Digital Songs Sales(Combines All Versions of the Same Song)
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LP/Vinyl Albums Sales(LP/Vinyl Records)
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Catalog Albums Sales(Includes CD, Cassette, LP/Vinyl, Digital Albums)
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Catalog Digital Albums Sales
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BDS Airplay Spins(US Radio Format – In Thousands)
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Streaming Music Plays(Nielsen Streaming Sources – In Millions)
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NOTES: “CATALOG” includes releases that are 18 MONTHS OR OLDER (WITH SOME CONSIDERATIONS FOR AIRPLAY AND BILLBOARD CHART POSITION). Streaming music activity is aggregated from a variety of NIELSEN streaming data SOURCES including: Akoo, Guvera, MediaNet, Rhapsody, Rdio, Slacker, Spotify, Thumbplay, Vevo, Yahoo!, and others. |
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2012 Mid-Year Highlights |
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- Overall music sales (including albums and tracks) are up 4.0% over the same time period last year; Overall albums sales (including albums and track equivalent albums) are nearly flat (-0.6%).
- There have been 91 million CD album sales through the first six months of the year.
- CD album sales account for 61% of all album sales through the first six months compared to 66% in 2011.
- Catalog continues to sell at elevated levels. Catalog album sales are up 5% through the first six months over 2011 and Deep Catalog album sales are up 8% over 2011 – both figures driven primarily by digital sales. Last year Catalog album sales experienced a resurgence, up 9% at 2011 year-end.
- Vinyl album sales continue to see growth with sales up 14% for the first six months compared to 2011.
- Adele’s 21 is the biggest-selling album of the year and best-selling digital album of the year.
- Whitney Houston’s Greatest Hits album is the best-selling overall catalog album & digital catalog album of the year so far, reflecting an overall increase in her album sales following her death in February.
- Sony Music has the biggest total album market share and Universal Music has the biggest digital track market share.
- 47 digital songs have sold at least one million downloads; 15 have sold at least two million digital downloads.
Digital Highlights
- Digital album sales are up 14% through the first six months over 2011 and are on pace to set a new sales record at the end of the year.
- Digital track sales are up 6% over 2011 through the first six months and are on pace to set a new sales record at the end of the year.
- Digital album sales account for 38% of all album purchases through the first half of the year.
- Digital sales represent 57.7% of overall album and track equivalent music sales through the first half of 2012. This is up from 53% the comparable period in 2011.
Best-Seller Highlights
- Adele’s 21 continues to rank as best-selling album, both physically and digitally. 21 experienced the single biggest one-week album sales total in 2012 with 730,000 units sold in the week following the GRAMMY Awards.
- Gotye became one of the developing artist success stories of 2012 with “Somebody I Used To Know”. With 5.5 million digital tracks sold, it’s the best-selling digital song of the year so far and has helped boost album sales to 551,000.
- Lionel Richie’s country-duets Tuskegee is the second highest selling album of the mid-year with 912,000 albums sold to date. Tuskegee has outsold his last three studio albums combined.
- Justin Bieber’s Believe is this year’s biggest debut with 374,000 albums sold in its first week.
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About Nielsen
Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and related properties. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA and Diemen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.
Contact: Anna Loynes, Scoop Marketing, (818) 761-7159, aloynes@solters.com