Some interesting statistics here. These are for the US only by the way.

Top selling album of 2017: “Reputation” by Taylor Swift with 1.9 million copies sold. The 1.9 mil figure includes physical and digital copies.

Overall, physical and digital download album sales dropped 17.7 percent in 2017 when compared to 2016.

Online streams increased 43% in 2017 when compared to 2016.

Now check this out:

From 2009 through 2017, seven of the year’s top selling albums have either been from Taylor Swift or Adele.

Those two have, so far, remained class acts.

Swift has let loose a bit of well cloaked "inner slut" but prefaced it with an excuse...."Look What You Made Me Do."
The “Reputation” (Release date: November 10, 2017) sales number is remarkable because the number sold was accomplished in 7 weeks at the end of 2017.

Adele's 3rd album," 25" sold 2.3 million copies after three days of availability in the United States.
"25" eventually became the world's best-selling album of the year for 2015 with 7.4 million copies sold in 6 weeks.
(She really kicked Swift's butt on that one.)

Like them of not, they are amazing.

This: "Online streams increased 43% in 2017 when compared to 2016", I believe has the greatest effect on music sales.
Just about every song ever recorded on the planet is available free on youtube, so many people just download them from there.

The streaming music apps are huge Spotify, Pandora etc. My wife and kids don’t buy any music, they just do that. I would imagine that’s typical.
I listen to the same stuff I’ve listened to for 20 years or the radio.

Bingo. The overwhelming percentage of the mainstream market streams their music. They no longer buy physical copies and they don't even buy digital download albums anymore.


It's only the old foggies like us on SimHQ who will still buy the occasional CD or digital download album.

I think music streaming is awesome for younger people who haven't invested in a large tangible music collection, especially compared with those old enough to have purchased the same albums on different formats (replacing LPs with CDs). For me it would make no sense, since I already have what I want to listen to on CD (including burning to lossless archives and MP3s [also some purchased MP3s]).

My older brother (by 5 years) gave his CD collection (much smaller than mine) to his son-in-law and now only streams, both classic and new music. Streaming works for him, same with Netflix and movies, he still anticipates new movies and keeps up with the latest media. I think our personalities are different though, just the fact that he keeps rearranging and repainting his house. By comparison, I never get bored with the same ol' scenery. If I really like something, I guess I like it forever? To me, streaming would also present too many choices. I do better choosing from a limited selection, what is already tried-and-true to my ears (and often very nostalgic, keeping me motivated and in a super good mood).

I still listen to cassette tapes in my 1995 F-150. My kids were making a little fun of the age of the truck when I pulled out my Fleetwood Mac Rumors cassette. I told them to take a look at the date of purchase from 1991. It still plays fine. For Christmas I got Police and Queen tapes. The shipping was more than the tapes cost. They were like $3 or $4 each like new.

I did get that device that sticks in the power outlet in the truck. I can hook up my Sandisk mp3 player or even a USB drive and play mp3s off it. I like to listen to We're Alive, The Byron Chronicles and The Leviathan Chronicles on that.

Great story you have there Chef!!


My wife is only 8 years younger than me but I'll never forget the time we were driving and I was listening to the local classic rock station and I said "awesome! They are playing the entire B side of Abbey Road!".


My wife replied: "B side of what?"

Good stuff, Chef.

I remember installing my first CD head unit in my '89 CRX Si, replacing a Clarion cassette I had installed when my car was new (didn't come with a radio). It was in '90 or '91, a Sony CD for just under $150.00 which was a big deal back then as prices began dropping. Three amps, an active (powered) crossover, high/mid components with a pair of 12" subs, I thought it was the cat's ass in sound!

However, if I ever splurge one day and purchase a like-new '88 Fiero GT, I'll want to add an Alpine cassette (I know the model by looks). It just works for me.

I was too Chef in my 1996 F-150 until about 2011. When I got a new used truck with no extras, just a radio, I went to Best Buys to see if they sold and would install a cassette deck and I just kind of a got a blank stare and then smile saying "no we don't sell those". I guess I should have gone to some place like Highway HiFi so maybe that's a project for the future. Lately I've been attempting to convert a lot of my old cassettes because they are getting older and they've aged roughly from exposure and use. I will still only buy physical music media as long as I can. I am not for digital merchandise. I still buy cassettes and CDs. I also buy record albums from time to time. I bought a new release Mickey Newbury LP a few years ago and I still buy old records sometimes from Goodwill. The first digital music I ever had was when I bought a bunch of Emmylou Harris albums off Amazon. They have a nice feature where they will usually give you a free digital copy of what you just bought. The only digital thing I bought from Amazon were like two Emmlyou Harris Albums that apparently were not being published in any other way anymore. I then promptly put them on CD with a homemade cover based off the original album covers. As much as I still want my computer games on a physical non DRM heavy release, music is even more important to me that it be physical and tangible and something that I own. I made my own piece of furniture to store my CD albums. Music is too important to me to have it relegated and imprisoned in some digital cloud or a hard drive or thumb drive that can be fairly easily lost or corrupted.

I certainly have an appreciation though for the digital release format when it comes to things like playing music off of Pandora Radio or poking around the internet on Youtube to find impossible to find things and to also get exposed to and discover thing's I've not heard before with regards to music, new and old. Those two things have more than once caused me to put something onto a wishlist and to even make a physical purchase.

PM, you gotta expect those kinds of experiential disconnects when you rob the cradle...

LOL

That's unacceptable, PM. Just get her an Abbey Road t-shirt and take her to Beatles tribute shows, that'll straighten her out...

EDIT: That's my finger over the lens, damn iPhone camera, I do it all the time.