NEW YORK (Billboard) – It's shaping up to be a disappointing holiday season for U.S. music retailers.
New releases from Kanye West and Guns N' Roses underperformed during the Thanksgiving-boosted week ended November 30 , with the former moving 450,000 copies and the latter selling 261,000 units, according to Nielsen SoundScan. West's last album opened to 957,000 copies a year ago, and the first Guns album in 17 years was accompanied by massive hype.
While merchants report that sales on Black Friday were fair, they say that sales during the rest of the post-Thanksgiving weekend declined dramatically from the same period last year, reporting that comparable-store sales declined anywhere from 5% to 21%. They also note that sales remained weak immediately following the holiday weekend.
Nielsen SoundScan data show that the slide in recorded-music sales during the last two weeks of November outpaced the decline recorded year to date. Album sales during the two weeks ending November 30 fell 17.4% from a year earlier to 21.7 million units, compared with a 13.6% year-to-date decline in album sales to 370 million units.
"There is some truth to the theory that CDs will die off soon, and all the indicators are bad for our business," says Rand Foster, owner of indie retailer Fingerprints in Long Beach, Calif. "Unfortunately, the record industry has convinced people they shouldn't want the core product. I'm trying to stay positive, but it's not always easy."
But some retailers are cautiously optimistic that business will improve as Christmas approaches.
"For us, it is closer to the holiday -- when people start getting their lists together and stock at chain locations starts to dwindle -- that we get super busy," says Todd Robinson, president of the Indianapolis store Luna.
Other stores say that an older client base is likely to take them through the season.
"Thank God working adults don't know how to download music," says Jim McGuinn, owner of Hot Poop in Walla Walla, Wash., pointing out that his biggest sellers have been Enya, Il Divo and the album "Two Men With the Blues" by Wynton Marsalis and Willie Nelson.
Reuters/Billboard
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