Pop Music Sales Plummet As Top 10 Sells Around 300K Copies Total

[Jesus Malverde]

Pop, pop pop music. Everyone used to want pop music. But now, not so much. With very little new product, and nothing at all from name acts. the pop sales of CDs last week was dismal. The top 10 sold a total of around 320,000 copies– and a third of those were “Frozen” soundtracks. The rest was pretty much a loss, with everything from number 20 down selling fewer than 10,000 copies each– all the way to number 50, by some act called Schoolboy Q. They sold 5,545 copies– that’s not enough to buy lunch at their school.

This week’s new releases didn’t amount to much. Next week, May 13th, gives us Michael Jackson’s “Xscape” album. All eyes will be on that release. If Jackson doesn’t knock “Frozen” off, there will be a lot of sobbing. Coldplay comes on Monday the 19th, and Mariah Carey is set for May 27th.

Read More: http://www.showbiz411.com/2014/05/06/pop-music-sales-plummet-as-top-10-sells-around-300k-copies-total

http://www.billboard.com/charts/pop-songs

Reflecting the death of radio to online streaming. Next up the boob tube.

[al_liberal]

1. Corporate bean counters.

They spent all of their time and money perfecting songs and artists that could churn out songs that rated from 2-4 on the 1-5 scale. They bought up radio stations all across the country and fired the local DJs. They played music from some corporate headquarters located in Anytown USA. They told the on air personalities to play the shitty 2-4 songs in heavy rotation on their shitty corporate radio stations 24/7. And they sat back and looked at their revenue stream and wondered why nobody was listening. By that time, everyone had iPods and stopped giving a shit about the radio.

Just another example of what our corporate overlords decided we "needed".

[WorseBeforeBetter]

2. I'm so thankful to live in an area with 3 decent college radio stations,

NPR, and a listener-supported classical station. And to have had access to WHFS in DC back in the glory days.

That pop crap makes my ears bleed. And everyone get off my lawn.

[RainDog]

4. ditto

only one college station, one community station that plays local musicians, plus national and international music, plus local news reporting (that has won state awards for reporting), a GBLT news program, programs for seniors, by seniors, for high school students, by high school students, Spanish-language programs, plus things like Democracy Now!, FAIR's news program... the NPR station is here as well (and also plays local music - b/c some local musicians are national, too.

I have no idea what popular music is - and don't care.

What is dying, sadly, is live music. People don't have the money to go out and hear live music. Luckily we still have a lot of that where I live, but it's often labors of love - even for grammy winners (in jazz or classical.)

[WorseBeforeBetter]

10. A couple of coworkers were whining about how expensive their...

Katy Perry tickets were, but I kept my mouth shut, thinking that is the LAST thing I would spend my money on. We have a number of small venues in my area, and excellent festivals, so I'm thankful for that.

‘World of Bluegrass’ hits a grand slam in its first year in Raleigh

The Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival of Music & Dance

Thankfully, they're not too expensive.

[RainDog]

13. well

I'm tempted to go see these guys - don't know if they're on big time radio stations or not, but I luv retro soul.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

16. Interesting.

I'll have to give them more of a listen. I've been on a mountain music kick for a while (never thought I'd say that!)...

http://songofthemountains.org/new/

and get sucked into watching the show on PBS whenever it's on. NC blows politically, but we have great music and I'm thankful for UNC-TV!

[RainDog]

20. not into mountain music at all

though I've listened to a lot of it in the past - but just not my thing. the local station plays bluegrass all morning, so I have to get out my cds.

This is more to my tastes these days - but I actually like all kinds of music - just not country/bluegrass so much b/c I grew up in Nashville. I also love SKA and calypso... lol. island mountain music?

[Jesus Malverde]

6. If you have internet access you have access to thousands of streams

of great programming. You are not limited to your local area, thats yesterdays paradigm.

Applications like tunein change the world.

http://tunein.com/

[RainDog]

7. Local/Global is the paradigm

Corporate radio stations don't feature local news stories.

There's a big difference - and being part of a community is important. (Tho I do listen do shows on the BBC sometimes, and listen to friends in other places when they're on their local stations playing in the studio.)

[WorseBeforeBetter]

12. Please. I'm very happy supporting my local stations.

I hear good music, the stations provide employment, and it feels like a community.

I do stream occasionally, depending on what I'm in the mood for.

[Le Taz Hot]

11. We have NPR and a GREAT college station

here. The college station plays a lot of jazz (which I LOVE), Armenian music early Saturday morning, great blues later on on Saturdays and some really eclectic 1960's stuff on Friday evenings. Every now and then I tool around to the other stations and find rap (I hate rap), "Classic rock" (it's the shit we didn't listen to back in the 1970's), country, religious and Mexican music. I always end up back at KFSR.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

14. "More than a feeeeeeeling..."

Ah, the 70's!

[kelliekat44]

3. That's because most people like real music that has a melody and a message. nt

[JI7]

5. i'm hoping it's because of things like the internet and people getting access to better music

and maybe these record deals will start to go to those with real talent and radio will play the better music also.

[951-Riverside]

8. ClearChannel is killing the music industry.

Who is going to want to buy a song that they've heard 20 times a day on various Clear Channel stations.

If you live in a clear channel market you'll probably hear Lorde's Team, Flo Rida's Wild Ones or Katy Perry's Dark Horse if you turn on the radio right now.

[Jesus Malverde]

9. Good catch...nt

[yawnmaster]

17. When hasn't radio always done that to the top 40? I don't think it is any different now. eom

[Fumesucker]

15. I haven't owned a radio in years and years

Since I don't have a car any more don't even have a car radio either.

[Spider Jerusalem]

18. Michael Jackson? Coldplay? Mariah Carey?

"music industry pins hopes on middle-aged consumers". That sounds like a sustainable business model.

[Skip Intro]

19. Or maybe most current music sucks.

I can't remember the last time I heard a good new original song on the radio. Well, yeah I can. That Avenged Sevenfold "Nightmare" song was pretty killer, but that was hard rock, not pop, and hard rock has rarely ruled the charts.

Today's pop music is just recycled sludge, like most current broadcast tv.

[Bjorn Against]

23. There is actually a lot of great new music out there, you just have to seek it out

The radio does not play most of the good new music, they give us pop fluff and then wonder why we don't go out and buy it. There are great new bands out there, a band like The Winery Dogs would be huge if they were able to get radio airplay but the media conglomerates seem to think we would rather listen to crap like Robin Thicke and Nickleback instead of real talent like this...

[hobbit709]

21. No talent autotune hacks

[Jesus Malverde]

22. I do think autotune has something to do with it.

Kinda sounds plastic after a while.