# Classical Music Marketing & Sales Numbers



## DuncanW (Aug 19, 2018)

I've loved "classical" (in the broad sense) music for decades, not that I possess either the passion or wealth of knowledge and musical insight that many on this forum do.

Having bought very little in recent years, in the past 2 months I've discovered whats happening with large, budget, box sets. For a small outlay I've added three sets containing nearly 160 cds to my collection. One of them, Claudio Abbado Complete Berliner Philharmoniker on DG, was acquired for me for Fathers Day through the on-line arm of a major Australian retailer at a significantly reduced pre-release price. I assumed it would not be long before the price would increase by a fair amount, but was surprised in the past week to find the set has completely disappeared from their site.

This has got me wondering about the sales and marketing of classical music in general:

Are purchasers of classical music still more likely to buy music on CD rather than through digital download or streaming? I'm nearly 57 and still consider myself relatively young, but I would much rather have something I can hold and, barring accident or loss, still have sitting on my shelves in decades time, even if my day-to-day enjoyment of its contents is on a digital device.

How many copies of a CD release do most labels expect to sell on average? I realise it would be many more for artists who are well known and therefore well marketed, but what about "the rest"?
What is behind the budget box set - is it to compete with the digital/streaming revolution? Is to breathe some "sales life" back into titles that may have stalled in terms of individual sales? I note that most of the individual discs in my box sets can still be bought through Amazon but, at the price, who'd bother?

How limited is a "limited edition" box set? A local independent record retailer here in Canberra suggested to me some of these box sets may only have a production run of 500 or so. That would explain why a retailer the size of JBHiFi has a title disappear of its site after only a few weeks. (I suppose as a large retailer they get a small allocation from Universal Music and, once that allocation is sold, they aren't getting any more). I assume Australia is also a relatively small market for classical sales which limits things further.

What is the current trend and for the years immediately ahead - are sales heading down/staying steady/going up? Is vinyl having an impact.

Apologies if this topic has been covered elsewhere.

Cheers,
Duncan


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

So much here.

I, too, prefer the physical CD. Despite all the wonderful things said about downloading, Spotify and other online services, I want the physical item in my hand. That's how I listen to 99.999% of my music. But world-wide, listening online through music services is quite popular. 

I don't know how you would find out about cd sales, but I do recall the owner of Naxos once saying that some cds sell only 2000-3000 world-wide! Think about that. That's a vanishingly small number. What's really annoying is to find super budget boxes of cds that I payed full price for, albeit years ago. I look at this way: I love this music and want to support the producers and performers however I can. 

I used to fear for the future of classical recording, but no more. At all the big labels (DG, EMI, BMG, etc) there seems to be at least some people interested in keeping the music available. The smaller ones (Chandos, Hyperion, CPO) keep a steady stream of new products coming out.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Hi Duncan. I have no idea. A few years ago I de-accessioned about a thousand vinyl LPs as my contribution to keeping the house from exploding, and downloaded hundreds of hours of music onto my iPod -- but I miss them.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

CD sales in general are declining. They are less than 11% of what they were 10 years ago.
FWIW, I think Classical buyers are more likely to prefer CDs and SACDs—and perhaps Blu Rays- than they are to accept streaming as their only source. Many of us will dabble with streaming but still prefer CDs, lps, and other physical media. Classical music lovers single handedly kept SACDs afloat for years. We may wind up doing the same thing with Red Book CDs


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Here are a couple of links, from the RIAA and Nielsen, that cover the recorded music scene, classical music's position (small!), and so forth.

http://www.riaa.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/RIAA-Year-End-2017-News-and-Notes.pdf

https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports/2018/2017-music-us-year-end-report.html


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