Thanks to Gaga, Adele, music business finally improves in 2011
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Among musicians, "flat" is a word you don't want to hear. But to the industry, flat is truly music to everyone's ears.
Soundscan's sales year doesn't end until January 1, but current year-to-year comparisons have album sales for 2011 ahead of comparable 2010 business.
Year-to-date sales through Dec. 25, 2011: 322.86 million (Weekly sales: 15.08 million)
Year-to-date sales through Dec. 26, 2010: 319.01 million (Weekly sales: 15.08 million)
Year-to-date sales through Dec. 26, 2010: 319.01 million (Weekly sales: 15.08 million)
OK, it's only by a whisker of 1 percent. But it is welcome news in an industry where album sales for 2010 were down 13 percent from 2009. And prior to that they'd been down an average of 8 percent every year through the 2000s, suggesting an incredible shrinking music business.
This year reversed the trend, but there is a cloud buried in the silver lining: the success stories of 2011 will not be easy to replicate.
The year's two biggest albums were Adele's "21" and Michael Buble's "Christmas" -- and even the most copycat-prone execs aren't foolish enough to start looking for pleasingly plump Englishwomen or Sinatra-bred carolers to sign.
Regardless of how applicable the lessons might be, here's our look back at what worked and what didn't in 2011:
NEW COUNTRY VS. OLD(ER) COUNTRY:
It used to be that country was the genre most hospitable to mid-career artists. Tell that to Martina McBride, who's sold a mere 119,000 in 10 weeks. Toby Keith is down to No. 28 after just eight weeks, with an OK 266,000 tally, the kind of number he used to do in just his opening week.
So who's barnstorming down the dirt road? Country's new guard of guys. Jason Aldean's "My Kinda Party," a late 2010 release, has racked up a 2.2 million total, and it moved back up to No. 16 in the week prior to Christmas. No other album that's been out more than a year has anywhere near that ongoing momentum.
For second-tier success stories, check out Eric Church at 504,000 units, Luke Bryan at 580,000 with his latest, the Zac Brown Band adding 720,000 to their 2010 album's total -- and Scotty McCreery, putting an end to the recent "Idol" curse with 748,000 and counting.
One female-fronted group broke through the wall of dudes: the Band Perry added 666,000 to the 998,000 total for their debut album, which will be well over a million by year's end -- capitalizing on their 3.5 million-selling single, "If I Die Young," the funeral song of the millennium.
Top 200 Albums of 2011
Billboard.com has compiled their list of the Top 200 Albums of 2011. Adele’s 21 released Feb 22, 2011 was named the No. 1 album of the year. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), "21" has sold over five million units in the United States alone and it was the "Billboard 200 Album of the Year," since it surpassed the sales of Taylor Swift's Speak Now and Lady Gaga's Born This Way, leaving them in second and third place respectively.
Regarding country music artists Taylor Swift’s SPEAK NOW album came in at # 2.
Jason Aldean and MY KINDA PARTY was at # 4.
Rascal Flatts with NOTHING LIKE THIS album took the # 17 position and Lady Antebellum’s Grammy Winning Album NEED YOU NOW came in at No. 19. Other country albums to appear in its Top 50 were:
Zac Brown Band’s YOU GET WHAT YOU GIVE ( #23), Lady Antebellum’s OWN THE NIGHT ( #25), The Band Perry’s self-titled debut (#30), Sugarland with THE INCREDIBLE MACHINE ( #33), Keith Urban’s GET CLOSER (# 36), Kenny Chesney’s album HEMINGWAY’S WHISKEY (#42) and Brad Paisley’s THIS IS COUNTRY MUSIC made the list at # 46
Top 50 Bluegrass Albums of 2011
Billboard.com has released their list of the Top 50 Bluegrass Albums of 2011. Albums were ranked by sales data as compiled by Nielsen SoundScan. Alison Krauss & Union Station have the Top Bluegrass Album of the year with PAPER AIRPLANE.
1. Paper Airplane – Alison Krauss & Union Station
2. Rare Bird Alert – Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon
3. Up On The Ridge – Dierks Bentley
4. The Goat Rodeo Sessions – Yo-Yo Ma/Stuart Duncan/Edgar Meyer/Chris Thile
5. Follow Me Down – Sarah Jarosz
6. The Grascals and Friends: Country Classics With A Bluegrass Spin – The Grascals
7. Palomino – Trampled By Turtles
8. Bright Morning Stars – The Wailin’ Jennys
9. Genuine Negro Jigs – Carolina
10. Best of Bluegrass – Steve Ivey
11. Antifogmatic – Punch Brothers
12. City of Refuge
13. Christmas – The Isaacs
14. Sleep With One Eye Open – Chris Thile & Michael Daves
15. Reckless – The SteelDrivers
16. Daybreak – Sierra Hull
17. Dailey & Vincent Sing The Statler Brothers – Dailey & Vincent
18. The Isaacs Naturally: An Almost A Cappella Collection – The Isaacs
19. Taken – Rhonda Vincent
20. Country Hits Bluegrass Style – Ricky Skaggs
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