Troubling CD sales figures

Some recent sales figures are sobering.

Many BWW members wonder why some shows - particularly revivals (which were previously recorded by their ORIGINAL original cast) and jukebox shows (where the songs are better done by the original artists.)

Record labels understand one thing only: sales.

Last week SPAMALOT sold less that 10,000 units. And it was the best selling cast album of the week! (2nd place goes to LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA with just over 5,000 copies sold.)

ALTAR BOYZ sold just over 500 copies. LITTLE WOMEN barely 1,000.

DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS to date has sold 10,000 copies (not including all the giveaways.)

These, needless to say, are not spectacular numbers.

My question to BWW members is...which of the new scores have you purchased and which ones did you bypass, and WHY did you NOT buy the titles you decided not to get? Was it because you could get free copies from friends or online? Was it because you didn't like a score?

I don't get it. We have a group of dedicated theatre fans here and our collective buying must have more of an impact than this.

What are you buying or not buying... and why?

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I bought all the new Broadway CDs this year and was just having trouble trying to figure out what to buy next... alter boyz it is...

I bought recently (recently being the past month):

Spamalot
Marie Christine
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
The Light in the Piazza

So I'm doing my part and NEVER burn Cast Recordings. We have to few being sold to afford that.

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Sad thing is we eac need to but 10 copies of each cast album just to make the kind of sales figures needed.

In an article in the New York Times on Cast recordings it was estimated that to break even a cast album needs to sell 200,000 copies. At this rate it will take a long long time for these recordings to break even.

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recently bought...

thoroughly modern millie
spamalot
little women
the producers
the light in the piazza
dirty rotten scoundrels

and i never download illegally. it's poopy!

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I bought:

Little Women
Light in the Piazza
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

I wonder how the new Charity recording will do.

Considering it has a big star on it, and her TV/Film fans will obviously want to hear her as Charity.

If you buy from iTunes would that be considered when counting total units sold? I assume it would, but I don't know for sure.

intresting topic, i say. i couldn't remember the last cast recording i bought, so i went to my amazon history. turns out i haven't bought any cast recordings in 2005. i got DRS free, of course. why haven't i purchased? because there is always someone who can get it for me free. i bummed off my sister: Piazza, Spelling Bee, Pacific Overtures (revival), Hair (concert). the thing is, there haven't been shows that i've felt compelled to spend 15 bucks on. actually, i haven't bought a CD legitimetly in quite a few years. i buy copy and resell, or download. is it wrong? yeah. maybe i shouldn't do it. but i get music however i can get it, as fast as i can get it. sometimes that means stealing. but useally it means the shows are interesting enough to pay for (except piazza and spelling bee, which i would have purchesed if they hadn't have been given to me).
does that shed any light at all on the issue?

Where did you find out about this? Is there a site where you can see how meny albums have been sold of a certin artists(Bway recordinfs and such)?

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The reason why these sales are low is because most people, myself included, don't just waste money on albums they never heard a single song from whether it's a broadway show or musician so most people only buy recordings if they see the show. It ruins the fantasy and excitement of the show if you listen to the whole cast album before you see it. Anyways, when do shows ever sell tons of copies in one week. It takes shows a long time to rack up sales. Anyways, most of these shows music sucks unless you see it live on stage.

I know it can take years for soem cast albums to reach profitability. As longs as they continue selling 5 and 10 thousand a week, SPAMALOT and PIAZZA seem on track for being succesful, but at 500 units a week ALTAR BOYZ probably not.

The sales figures were based on a posting to the Cast Album group from one of the members who got the figures from Soundscan.

The news isn't all bad: SPAMALOT has sold 60,000 units in just over 5 weeks of release. And WICKED is still selling well for Decca closing in on the 400,000 mark.

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I buy cast recordings for every show I see, with the exception of chitty because it doesn't have one technically, the songs are cute but not much more, and it costs more money than the average cast recording because it is a transfer...If there was one with the Broadway original cast I would buy it in a second...

Older cast recordings I tend to get from the library and stick on my Ipod...and usually the only time I buy a new cast recording without seeing the show is when I know I won't be able to see it(if its closing or I'm really broke), but thats not too often...

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