New York, NY – Nielsen SoundScan and Nielsen BDS, the entertainment industry's leading data information systems, reveal 2013 mid-year U.S. music sales figures for the six-month period of Dec. 31, 2012 through June 30, 2013. Nielsen SoundScan measures U.S. point-of-sale of recorded music product. Nielsen BDS tracks U.S. radio airplay and music streams. Both systems power many of the Billboard charts.
For the first six months of 2013, sales of albums and track equivalents were down 4.6% vs. the first six months of 2012. Digital albums are up 6.3 percent and Digital tracks were down 2.3 percent. CD sales declined 14.2 percent and Vinyl LP sales were up 33.5 percent.
“Overall sales are down slightly in the first half of 2013, but there continues to be encouraging growth in digital album sales,” says David Bakula, SVP Nielsen Entertainment. Digital albums now comprise 43 percent of all album sales, up from 38 percent at this time last year. Also, while a small percentage of the overall album sales, Vinyl LPs continue to be an amazing growth story with sales up over 33 percent over last year’s record-setting pace.”
“Streaming continues to be a tremendous growth story with over 50 billion audio and video streams in the first six months of 2013,” continues Bakula. “Not only are we seeing massive volume of streams, but we continue to see growth on a comparable provider basis, with stream volume up 24 percent over the same period last year.”
For the complete release, including sales, record company market share, and top song and record data, click here.
Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence and mobile measurement. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA, and Diemen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.
Scoop Marketing: Anna Loynes
(818) 761-7159, aloynes@solters.com; soundscan@nielsen.com