10m Online Tracks Unsold In 2008

The point of getting millions of tracks online was supposedly that we wouldn't focus so heavily on purchasing the hollow, reality TV led garbage so which frequently plagues our charts. Sounds good in theory, problem is it doesn't work.

That is the rather depressing news coming out of a new study by Will Page, the chief economist of the MCPS-PRS Alliance, a not-for-profit royalty collection society. His stats are beyond depressing:

• 80 per cent of all revenue in 2008 came from just 52,000 of the 12m tracks available
  
• Only 173,000 of the 1.23m albums available were bought in 2008
  
• 85 per cent of albums didn't sell a single copy all year

""The relative size of the dormant ‘zero sellers' tail was truly jaw-dropping," admitted Page and I agree wholeheartedly. Especially given I tend to hear better music during the music nights of pubs and clubs than the Cowell-infested garbage given its unholy birth on weekend terrestrial TV.

It also shows the so-called 'Long Tail' retailer rule has continued its curse onto the online arena. For those not familiar with the term it argues the most popular 20 per cent of products will account for 80 per cent of sales revenues.

Merry Christmas everyone, I'm off to head butt a snow blower...

Link:
via The Times