Sales in a spin
From: By Kathy McCabe
December 30, 2005
2005: A year in review » IT was very, very quiet on Christmas Day, a silence only punctuated by the screams of kids in backyard pools.
Where was the cacophony of new CDs being flogged from home stereos?
Instead of Il Divo fighting Bernard Fanning for airtime on your parents' player, there was only the occasional burst of musical bliss in the neighbourhood.
If there was ever a sign that local record companies are in a bit of strife, it was that notable silence on the weekend and this week's ARIA charts.
The week after Christmas should have shown a flurry of activity on the top 50 albums as shoppers grabbed those last-minute stocking stuffers.
Instead, the top 10 albums stayed pretty much the same with the exception of Idol winner, Kate DeAraugo, whose debut opus, A Place I've Never Been dropped 12 places to Number 22.
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And there were only four "bullet" performers - Patrizio Buanne's The Italian, Nickelback's All The Right Reasons, Coldplay's X & Y and the pleasantly surprising Rogue Trader's Here Come The Drums - when there should have been at least a dozen albums that were leapfrogging their way into the upper echelons of the chart.
Like most entertainment-based industries, the music folk were crossing everything for a bumper Christmas quarter to counteract a drop in total music sales of more than 7 per cent for the first half of 2005.
"Disappointing first half figures, but strong release schedule to buoy second half" was the optimistic headline on ARIA's report of the worrying decline in September.
Those big releases just didn't happen, with the exception of Human Nature's Reach Out, which caught everyone - including their own record label - by huge surprise.
Major artists including Robbie Williams, Madonna and Eminem all released records in the past couple of months, there just wasn't enough big-name, good-quality music to spearhead a much-needed retail for music.
And it is obvious the sales growth spurred by Australian Idol in the past two years is over.
It would be very easy to blame downloading, illegal file-sharing and copying for the continuing fall in sales of albums, singles and DVDs. Certainly the digital delivery of music has had a significant impact on the value and volume of CD sales.
But that analysis ignores the fact that music has never permeated our everyday lives to such an all-consuming extent.
People hear music more than they ever have whether it is via television sports or drama, in shops, bars, restaurants, on hold or, of course, in lifts.
While the delivery systems for music have evolved and expanded, the record industry has stuck to its outdated business model for about five years too long and sales are drying up.
Apple's Steve Jobs recently levelled caustic criticism at the major labels, claiming that their greed in reaping the benefits of downloading had forced the company to raise the prices on its iTunes service.
Of course the labels scoffed at such a suggestion.
There is no doubt the way labels and artists deliver their music to the consumer has to undergo radical and immediate change for all parties to benefit.
The smart artists will develop their own online delivery systems via their own websites to reap the benefits of their creative endeavours - and communicate with their fans - directly
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