US album sales have hit an all time low this week, despite the aid of albums spawned by Justin Timberlake, Bruno Mars and Pop Princess Rihanna.
An unsettling story below…
Much to the dismay of the industry, the last five consecutive weeks have marked the longest period of time in which it has seen album sales fail to reach the 5 million mark.
Unfortunately, this week marked the ninth consecutive week this has happened, despite the continued chart wins scored by Justin Timberlake‘s ‘The 20/20 Experience‘ and Bruno Mars’ ‘Unorthodox Jukebox’, albums which served to boost sales in the market upon their respective releases.
“The industry had been flirting with the under five million unit album sales weeks since 2010 when, for the week-ending May 30, it dipped beneath that floor for the first time with 4.98 million scans. In 2010, the industry had four weeks under 5 million units, while there were two weeks under that floor in 2011, and three weeks in 2012.
This year already, there are nine weeks under the 5 million units album sales mark, with the last five weeks marking the longest consecutive period the industry has gone without scanning more than 5 million units.”
Sure to pick up upon the November 11th release of Lady GaGa‘s third studio album ‘ARTPOP‘, consumer interest in albums-or the lack of it- has seen some analysts cite digital streaming as the problem’s route cause, with streaming figures rising as sales decline.
In adding to this, a poor release schedule may also be to blame for the all time low, with the likes of GaGa, Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez and Katy Perry opting out of summer releases and instead eyeing the fourth quarter to drop their new projects.
Alas, this new record comes as international sales of a number US releases continue to soar- with Rihanna’s ‘Unapologetic’ well over the 3 million worldwide mark , as Pink’s ‘The Truth About Love’ bests her with 4,627,000 sold since September 14th 2012.
So, let us know…