Massive CD Sales Decline

Sales of CDs in 2018 are almost 100million fewer than in 2008, recent figures have confirmed.

20:56 13 January 2019

The popularity of streaming services for music has resulted in the significant drop of CD sales in the last 10 years. Recent figures reveal that sales of CDs in 2018 are almost 100million fewer than in 2008. The sale of vinyl also began to plateau, with 4.2million records sold.

 

Kim Bayley of the Entertainment Retailers Association said: "Lots of us have changed the way we consume music and film, and more people are streaming from Netflix or Spotify,"

 

"But I think we should remember that [physical music] is almost a £2bn business. Even HMV has sales still of a quarter of a billion pounds, so that's not a small business."

 

Jon Tolley, who runs the independent record shop Banquet Records argues that streaming can co-exist with vinyl and CDs.

 

"I don't buy it that physical music is necessarily competing with streams. We all access music and film on the internet, and that's fine and healthy and valid, but you wouldn't look at the Mona Lisa on your phone and think it's the same thing as going to see it in a gallery."

 

"The reason vinyl sales are at a 25-year high is because people are rejecting this part of modern society where everything is immediate and nothing means anything."