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From: "Mark" <markcr31uk@bluenospamyonder.co.uk>
Newsgroups: alt.music
Subject: UK Pop Single Sales On The Decline
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Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2004 22:01:08 -0000
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UK Pop single sales on the decline
THE future of the pop single is looking bleak, as latest figures
showed (UK) sales reaching their lowest level since the charts began
35 years ago.
Only 400,000 singles were bought in the week to 25 January, one half
of the figure that was sold over the same period in 2000. Just ten
singles managed sales greater than 10,000 over the week, compared
with 28 five years earlier.
Overall, singles sales are 14 per cent down on last year. Last week,
All This Time by Pop Idol winner Michelle McManus sold just 35,040
copies to secure a third week at No1.
The fortunes of the single contrast strongly with that of the album,
sales of which have reached new heights as radio stations rely
increasingly on tracks sourced from them to fill air time. Music
industry figures have blamed low single sales on the lack of major
releases in the past fortnight, but others have pointed to different
factors. Matt Phillips, of the British Phonographic Industry,
said: "Downloads and ring tones are engaging young consumers a lot
more, and they have traditionally been the market for singles sales.
Another big factor is price. If you can pick up an album for below
In an echo of the early 1970s, when progressive rock and heavy metal
bands eschewed the singles charts, some artists have achieved success
without releasing any songs in the format. Jazz star Jamie Cullum has
sold almost 600,000 copies of his album, Twenty-something, without
issuing a single.
But Alan Jones, a chart consultant with industry magazine Music Week,
claims the single may be down, but it is not out. "It is all
cyclical," he said. "Although people look back on the 1960s as a
halcyon period, the most singles sold [in a year] in that decade was
48 million. Yet in 2002, the total singles sale was more than 50
million."
CRAIG BROWN
Monday, 2nd February 2004
The Scotsman
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