The REAL story on CD sales!

Everyone talks about having a million selling CD...BUT how many actually happen in a typical year. Here is a sample from 1995 (a bit dated but I would bet that most years have similar numbers) There arn't THAT many!  Also note that the average sale for an independent release is only 1363 units. Bottom line is: If you not in the top 5% of sales (or selling your CD's off the bandstand and pocketing the cash without the middleman) it's unlikely that you will see any money.  (depressing isn't it!!!) 

Sales

# of Records

% of Releases

% of Total

One Million

35

0.12%

30%

500,000-I Mil

43

0.15%

14%

250,000-500,000

70

0.24%

12.5%

100,000-250,000

186

0.63%

13.8%

50,000-100,000

205

0.70%

7.0%

25,000--50,000

342

1.16%

5.7%

10,000--25,000

831

2.82%

6.4%

5,000--10,000

1088

3.70%

3.7%

1,000---5,000

4566

15.52%

5.0%

Under 1,000

22063

74.97%

2.0%

Totals

29429

100%

100%

Total number of items logged by Soundscan inlcudes 17,124 new releases for 1995 plus catalog items scanned.

For 1995: The average Major label release sold 9,134 copies.

The average Independent label release sold 1,363 copies

Total Number of releases in 1995: 5,850 Major label (79% of sales)

11,274 Independent (21% of sales)

 


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