Is the CD in decline?

With the rise in media streaming and mp3 downloads increasing, the question of whether CD sales are declining has been risen, and I'm going to look more into that.

The rise in online purchases and streaming websites such as iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, Pandora and a host of other services has made music more easy to access than ever before. But the music industry’s backbone, the album, isn’t benefiting from the transition.
During the first six months of 2014, only 62.9 million CDs were sold, less than half of 2009′s six-month total of 136.4 million.

While this drop may seem to be as a result of digital outlets becoming increasingly popular, the reality is that digital sales aren’t fully replacing the lost CD sales, leading total album sales to decline.
Since 2009, total album sales have diminished compared with the previous year, excluding 2011, which saw a slight rise (most likely due to Adele’s blockbuster album, 21, which sold 5.82 million copies that year). Without a similar blockbuster on the horizon for 2014, the negative trend is likely to continue. Six months into the year, only one album, the 'Frozen' soundtrack, has crossed 1 million in sales.

• Pharrell Williams had the top-selling digital song of the period with “Happy,” which sold 5.63 million copies and won the most radio airplay of the period with 571,000 spins.
• 42% increase in on-demand audio and video streams
• Digital track sales are down 12.5 percent, from 356.5 million to 312 million.
• Digital album sales went down 14.2 percent, from 32.4 million to 27.8 million.
• CD sales have even higher losses: they’re down 20.5 percent from last year’s first quarter, from 40.1 million units to 31.9 million.
• There were 34.28 billion on-demand song and video streams in the first quarter, up from 25.44 billion streams in the first quarter of 2013.  This is a 34.7 percent rise.
• Billboard's Caulfield said that so far this year, about 44 million digital albums have been sold, compared with 40 million during the same time frame last year. But while digital sales have increased slightly, CD sales have dropped from 147 million last year to 114 million this year for the same time period.

   

Despite this decline, one sector’s growth is on the rise — vinyl. In the first half of 2009, just 1.2 million vinyl albums were sold. However, this figure has jumped to 4 million in the first half of 2014. “Vinyl LP’s 40% increase over last year’s record-setting pace shows interest in buying and consuming music continues to be robust” said David Bakula, senior vice president at Nielsen Entertainment.

I'm not worried about this decline in relation to the sales of my band's album and vinyl record, because the statistics show that the majority of people are still purchasing their music rather than downloading it. Also, vinyl sales are increasing, so I think my idea of releasing a vinyl record will be more successful than I first thought.