Vital Times For Music As 2013 Sales Hit Record Low

2014 is shaping up as an “extremely important” year for the Australian music industry as new figures show that 2013 was a record low for recorded music sales.

THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY AND SALES GRAPH BELOW

The Australian Recording Industry Association [ARIA] have this morning released their wholesale figures for 2013. They paint a grim picture, with a sales slump having undone the resurgence of 2012 and 2011. The wholesale total of $351,619,000 is the lowest since digital sales were first recorded in 2005.

The figure is disappointingly down on 2012's $389,134,000, which was an increase on 2011 as the industry had finally appeared to rebound after years of turmoil in the digital age. But while digital sales did improve in 2013 – to the point where they overtook physical sales for the first time $192,262,000 to $159,357,000 – they were not able to buck the trend of dwindling physical sales.

“2014 is set to be an extremely important year for our industry,” said ARIA Chairman as Sony Music's Australasian boss Denis Handlin, who argued that copyright protection was a key factor in the future of the industry.

“As our industry continues to embrace the digital landscape, it is increasingly important that we have the business and rights protection environment in place to support our local artists and record labels, which make such a valuable contribution to our country's cultural identity and creative economy.”

ARIA CEO Dan Rosen said that industry needs to continue to look to new models of distribution.

“The way that music is discovered and enjoyed by fans continues to evolve, and as the industry continues to transform itself, the sales trajectory will not always be a straight line,” he said.

“We have seen in other territories around the world that as streaming services gain momentum, strong market growth has followed. It is an exciting time, as Australian music fans are consuming more music than ever before with an ever-expanding range of options to access music – whether it is streaming music, digital downloads or visiting the local record store.”

The only physical product to grow in 2013 was vinyl albums, of which 137,658 were sold at a value of $2,839,822, up 53.31% from 2012. But the vinyl news wasn't all good, vinyl singles were down to 87,098 at a dollar value of $362,904. That's less than half of 2012's quantity sold and 32.77% percent down on the dollar value.

The figures do, of course, only apply to recorded music sales and don't take into account other income streams for artists and labels, such as touring and direct-to-fan marketing.

THE GOOD

• Digital music products now make up 54.7 percent of the total market

• Digital album sales grew 7.88%

• Streaming revenue doubled to $20.9 million (5.9% of the market)

• Vinyl album sales up 77%

THE BAD

• Record low for wholesale figures since digital music was recorded in 2005

• Vinyl albums the only physical product to grow

• Digital tracks down 3.13%

• Overall 11.68% drop in sales compared to 2012

THE UGLY

• The steadying of 2011 and resurgence of 2012 have been undone

• Only digital albums grew, digital singles uncharacteristically fell

• Digital sales yet to make up for drop in physical sales

• CD albums – long the industry's staple – down 26.74 percent in monetary value

Wholesale figures since 2005. Republished with the permission of ARIA. Click for larger image.