No Lady Gaga. No Beyonce. No (new) Adele. No major rap act. And it shows…
Despite top acts like Madonna, Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Frank Ocean, and more managing to score impressive debuts this year, it seems their combined efforts have paled in comparison to a number of old releases.
So much so, reports are now indicating that 2012 has seen – for the first time in U.S. history – albums released before January 1st of this year have outsold new releases in this year…
“So far, 76.6 million catalogue records have been sold this year compared to 73.9 million recent releases.’
Albums like Adele‘s ’21’, Whitney Houston‘s entire catalogue post her untimely death, Guns N’ Roses, and more have seen substantial sales in the past 6 months.
While the year’s most anticipated releases, Madonna and pop acts, Usher and other premium R&B acts, and more have seen their efforts report their worst numbers in years. Ironically, most of whom boast top 10 singles. And, while we are barely beyond the halfway point of the year (with many high profile releases slated for later), the news still comes as a troubling truth.
As the introduction of digital sales has greatly caused the declination of albums (and the rise of singles), we ask:
Is this report a sign of the times? Or just a coincidence?
Your thoughts?