Nielsen SoundScan has released its mammoth list of music stats for 2006. Some highlights:
- The High School Musical soundtrack was the year’s No. 1 album, and only had to sell 3.7 million copies to earn the title. Releases from Rascal Flatts, Carrie Underwood, Nickelback, and Justin Timberlake round out the Top 5.
- Genres that took the bigggest drop in album sales from last year include: New Age (-22.7%), Rap (-20.7%), and R&B (-18.4&); Classical (+22.5%) was the biggest gainer. Roll over, Beethoven, and tell Tchaikovsky the news!
- Digital track sales were up 65%; digital album sales a whopping 101%.
- Total album sales were down 4.9 percent.
Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems also released its list of the most-played songs and artists. As PopWatch has noted, the most ubiquitous song was Mary J. Blige’s "Be Without You." As for the most oversaturated artist, that’s Nickelback, which headed a Top 10 list that includes six country artists: Toby Keith, Rascal Flatts, Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney, George Strait, and Keith Urban. No wonder those CMA winners are always thanking country radio.
It’s probably no surprise that Shakira tops the NBDS list of top musicvideo Internet streams with "Hips Don’t Lie" — or that Rihanna and thePussycat Dolls each make that Top 10 list — twice.
Nielsen Mobile offered its list of Top 10 polyphonic ringtones. TheSuper Mario Bros. theme beat out "My Humps" for the top spot. Morecuriously, how did I totally miss the song at No. 4: Bubba Sparxxx’s"Ms. New Booty?"
It’s no wonder that album sales are down- the quality of music has been going downhill for years! You can’t tell the difference between all the new country and pop artists coming out every week.
Album sales are down becuz. Digital album says and legal song downloads are up lol. Apple and its ITUNES is definately killing the music industry haha but I love it. Buying from apple is not only legal, but I feel COOL doing it haha.
The significant drop in hip hop sales seems to confirm Ice-T’s assertion from 10 years ago that Rap is bought mostly by college aged middle class kids, who are all apparently just downloading the tracks now.
the upside? No more crappy rap intros that are pure filler on the albums (you hear me, Redman?)
3.7 million is pretty bad for the top album of the year.
How long will CDs last?
Bootybootybootybooty rockin’ everywhere!
Ah, Bubba. Good times. I’m a li’l sad that he had to pull a Nelly Furtado and commercialize his sound this year (please, go check out his “Deliverance” and her “Folklore”, both released in 2003; both commercial flops. We’ll wait. …See! Weren’t they artistic and brilliant!), but better basic Bubba than no Bubba bumpin’ at all.
my comment is this : the commercial single was discontinued so that albums would sell. NOW digital tracks come out for only 99 cents and they CRUSH album sales into the ground. i know it’s the wave of the future, but i prefer buying a CD over storing it in a little machine i need headphones to listen to. oh i miss the 80′s and 90′s.
I miss 45′s. Those were the days. But I do like downloading only the songs I want to hear.
It’s funny how everyone seems to focus on the decline of album sales when the figures shows that, overall, total music purchases are up over last year. Why is it then that the record industry is complaining when, overall, people are buying more music than ever? Oh right, because people no longer have to needlessly spend $18 for a CD with one or two decent songs, something that makes the record companies a lot of money.
high school musical is sosososo class
I hate High School Musical SO MUCH!!!!!!!!
I HATE ZAC EFRON!!!!
AND ASLEY TISDALE AND VANESSA”Playboy Star” Hudgens
They suck!!1
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