iTunes - could the bubble be bursting?
It is not uncommon knowledge that the number of CDs sold has diminished and therefore the demand for CD replication is lower than 5 years ago! Many within the music industry blamed the digital download age as the reason and firmly pointed the finger at download sites as the reason for drops in revenue. 2003 saw the launch of iTunes and since then it has steadily grown and of courses taken a large chunk of sales away from the CD format but now things seem to be changing again!
Since the days of rock and roll, the music industry has seen huge volume sales of product. Singles sold in the millions and albums higher quantities still but as a rule the singles sales did not produce huge profits, unlike the album sales. This was never considered an issue as the main role of the single has always been to promote the album anyway therefore generating larger profit margin (when you think purely on manufacturing costs of the product, there is little difference between the cost of producing a CD single to an album but there is a big difference in the selling price).
So now CD volume has dropped due to download sites such as iTunes but what actual market have they replaced? Well the singles market mainly as it is these CD sales that have almost disappeared but why should that matter if albums are still high in demand and it is these that generate the profit? Well unfortunately iTunes have always allowed the customer to download individual tracks regardless if promoted as a single or if from an album. This breaks up the album as a product and could probably reduce overal revenue. Basically this makes the entire market place a singles market which is not really what the music industry needs and if the truth be known, the artists themselves would not want. An album to an artist is an entire story of that time period for them and to break it up defeats the point.
Because of this, many labels and artists have removed products from iTunes - acts such as The Eagles, The Beatles, AC/DC to name a few have never licensed their material for sale via iTunes and their CD sales have consistantly grown. Modern artists now such as Estelle and Kid Rock have also taken their products from the e-shelf of iTunes in an effort to sell their product in its entirety as intended.
Digital Disc Duplication USA has for a long time believed the requirement for CD replication is still strong and such moves show not only that artists want to sell their products on CD but the consumers still want to buy them! AND in increasing numbers! The loss of CD singles is only a volume number - the popularity of the CD has never really been in question.
Give your fans the product they still want - contact Digital Disc Duplication USA for a quote on CD replication and add to the artwork Made in America!