music sales

It's Columbus Day here in the US so that means a day off for me.

This article in the Toronto Star examines the increasingly rocky relationship between the country music community and the Republican Party.

• Handleman shareholders have approved the company's liquidation and dissolution. Due to the downturn of physical music sales, the company decided earlier this year to get out of the music distribution business. It sold its Canadian operation to Anderson Merchandisers, its Artist to Market Distribution to Eurpac and its European operation to grocery giant Tesco.

National retailer Circuit City reported a horrible Q2 yesterday. Net sales dropped 9.6% and comp store sales dropped 13.3%. The net loss was $239 million on net sales of $2.39 billion.

Today's music industry is often one step forward, one or two steps back. As progress is made in new formats, products and services, revenue is lost in the abandonment of older formats and products. With unlimited mobile music services on the horizon, now is the time to ponder their impact.

Universal is the "is the next surprise for our investors," said the head of Universal Music Group's parent company. And he meant a good surprise.

The above chart shows the percent increase/decrease in album sales in each week of 2008 versus the same week in 2007. It's obvious most of the curve is below zero, but the thing I have seen lately is that the trend is upward in the second half of the year.

Borders issued its Q2 2008 earnings release today. For the quarter ended August 2, the company had a loss of $2.6 million on revenue of $758.5 million.

Entertainment retailers are having mixed success in lessening their dependence on CD sales. Hastings reported lower earnings earlier this week. Its comp revenue was up 0.6% and gains in other product categories helped make up for an 11.7% slide in music sales.

• Trans World posted a $19.2 million loss in the second quarter ended August 2. The retail company's attempts to increase non-music sales to hold off music declines are not yet bearing fruit. Comp sales fell 7% and total sales (the company operated 173 fewer stores) dropped 19%. (The Business Review)