We at Music Times have been fairly grim when reporting album sales for 2014. As you know by now, only one album, released during this year has gone platinum (Taylor Swift's 1989) and only a few more titles threaten to crack one million before 2015 strikes. Frankly, things in the UK seem even worse. Last week featured the highest sales week for a debut thus far during 2014 as Now 89 sold 283,000 copies. The record-holder before Now 89? Now 88 sold 182,000 copies during its first week when it came out during June, according to NME.
Some of our more attentive readers may have noticed the high "number" on the hits compilation. After all, isn't the most recent version of the series Now 52? Not quite. Now is actually a company that was founded in the UK during 1983, meaning they're quite a few volumes ahead of the United States, and seemingly far more in love with the concept as well.
Sure, Now does great in the States but the last debut stateside sold a mere 103,000 copies, nowhere near the totals sold week one in the UK. Also consider that UK numbers shouldn't be considered on the same level as U.S. sales due to the wide gap in population size. More noteworthy is that U.S. album sales, albeit down from years past, are still focused more on individual performers than compilations such as Now. Swift was obviously the biggest debut in the U.S. this year, followed by One Direction's 387,000 week for Four and Coldplay's Ghost Stories was the third highest. It's interesting to note that One Direction and Coldplay, despite being native acts to the region, couldn't surpass the sales of a current hits compilation. Coldplay was the fourth highest debut in the UK this year, topped only by Now and Ed Sheeran.
So what does it matter? Higher focus on hits packages could indicate less money going toward supporting artists themselves. Consider a group such as Nico & Vinz. While they make a decent amount off of a hit single such as "Am I Wrong," the act still hopes that those who enjoy the track will buy the rest of the album. When collections such as Now come into play, listeners can buy those sets, which result in a small payout to every artist involved but ultimately fewer artists get the additional income from whole album sales.
Does this mean album sales are tanking any worse in the UK than in the U.S.? Maybe not but keep an eye out.
