In case you're not keeping up with complaints from the industry, record sales are down. Lady Gaga's new album ARTPOP, released last week, only exemplified the problem, selling more than 75 percent fewer copies than her previous record did in its first week. Eminem, the rare success story, outsold nos. 2 through 36 on the Billboard 200 when his Marshall Mathers LP 2 came out two weeks ago.
Numbers from the U.K. are also down overall, but indicate a larger trend: Independent labels are selling rather well in fact. Compared to 2012, indie albums have sold 44 percent better than during the same time last year. Numbers from the Entertainment Retailers Association (A U.K.-based organization), the sales of records in general are down by 1.5 percent.
Could increasing indie sales potentially revive the recording industry? It certainly seems counterintuitive that independent labels would outsell the majors, but it seems to be trending that wear now. Independents are responsible for 26.4 percent of albums bought in the U.K. during 2013. Far from a majority, but still a 5 percent increase from the same number last year. How much potential for growth the independents have remains to be seen.
Part of the reason attributed to the growth of independent labels in the U.K. is the tremendous popularity growth of vinyl records. A study done earlier in the year demonstrated that events such as Record Store Day had pushed vinyl sales across the pond up 100 percent from 2012, doubling in number. A number of big indie releases have also boosted sales, including David Bowie's The Next Day and Queens of The Stone Age's Like Clockwork.
