Digital Song Sales Hit Seven-Year Low

Janet Jackson and Beyonce may not have any trouble moving music digitally but it appears that their sales have done little to stop sales of digital music reaching a seven-year low.

Bad news below…

15.6 million songs were sold on digital retailers last week.

Alas, this figure marks the lowest the industry has seen in seven years according to Nielsen Sound Scan.

Unfortunately, digital sales dip and streaming figures rise thanks to releases launched by the likes of Taylor Swift, The Weeknd and Janet Jackson whose new single ‘No Sleeep’ helped streaming figures reach the 6.6 billion mark in the same week.

Billboard adds:

The week ending Aug. 27 was the largest week for combined on-demand audio and video streams ever, with 6.6 billion. The most-streamed song of that week was Silento’s “Watch Me,” with 22.3 million.

And, year-to-date, total on-demand streams stand at 191.4 billion — up 100 percent compared to the same time frame a year ago (95.8 billion through the week ending Aug. 24, 2014).

The top–selling song of the Aug. 27 tracking week was R. City’s “Locked Away,” featuring Adam Levine, which sold 92,000. That’s the smallest sum for the week’s top–selling download in almost nine years, since the frame ending Dec. 17, 2006, when Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable” shifted 88,000. “Locked Away” also marks the first time that the week’s top seller fell below 100,000 downloads since the week ending Jan. 14, 2007 (when, again, “Irreplaceable” was tops, with 98,000).

That isn’t all.

For, album sales have also taken a tumble. In July LP sales slipped and fell to the 3.71 million mark thanks to a quiet year which is yet to see any of Pop’s major contenders unleash new material and lift sales to higher ground.

Could forthcoming releases from the likes of Rihanna, Ed Sheeran and Adele turn things around?

Weigh in below…