Business Buzz: Music Sales See Small Rise In 2012

The increase is the first since ’99, no doubt a relief to music execs

Have you stopped buying bootlegs from “Ray-Ray the CD Man” in front of the supermarket? If so, you might have helped the music industry break its 12-year losing streak last year. The “music biz” posted a 0.3 percent rise in record sales and other trade related revenues in 2012. That’s a total of $16.5 billion dollars, according to figures released Tuesday by the International Federal of the Phonographic Industry. It’s the first sales increase since 1999, when sales peaked at $28.6 billion. Record companies’ digital sales (read: iTunes) rose about 9 percent over sales in 2011 to $5.6 billion. Who were the artists at the top of that sales surge? Well, they weren’t “urban.” Singer Adele’s “21” was the biggest selling album of 2012, with 8.3 million sold, adding to the 18.1 million she sold in 2011. Taylor Swift came in second, while British boyband One Direction took third and fourth. U.S. singer Lana Del Rey rounded out the top five. This makes you question the metrics of success for artists like Beyonce, Drake and Rihanna, no? (Reuters)

[SUBSCRIBE TO LOOP 21 RSS FEED]