Music

2014 is the first year with no platinum albums

by Mark Teo

Yes, we know that 2014 isn’t over yet—we have three more months until 2015. Yes, we know that album sales—and sales of everything, really—spike by Christmas. (Plus, Taylor Swift and One Direction both have sure-blockbuster late-2014 albums coming.) But it doesn’t change the fact that, in terms of sales, this year might rank as one of the worst years the music industry’s seen in years. Or ever.

That statement might sound extreme, but it’s also not surprising. Despite the resurgence of the LP, and the fact that Jack White singlehandedly broke vinyl album sales last summer, overall album sales have been declining—compounded by the fact that no single artist’s album has sold 1 million copies this year. Not Jay-Z. Not Beyonce. Not Lorde. No one.

Let’s put that into perspective. Lou Bega has a platinum record. So, too, does James Blunt, thanks to “You’re Beautiful.” By this time in 2013, according to Forbes, five different CDs had sold one million copies (Justin Timberlake’s comeback LP The 20/20 Experience leading the charge).

Still, that figure comes with an asterisk: One album has gone platinum since January, and that’s the Frozen soundtrack, which was released in November 2013. (Which is exactly why you’ll see children rebooting “Let It Go” into epic tales of pooping. But we digress.)

There are, of course, plenty of reasons why sales are declining. Yes, there’s the spectre of illegal downloading, but it’s also fair to assume that many of us aren’t buying music because we subscribe to streaming services like Spotify or Rdio—which also have a hard time turning a profit. Then, there’s the fact that we’re listening to music differently—instead of purchasing albums, we’re moving towards a single-based economy.

On that front, too, there’s more bad news: Digital singles sales have dropped nearly 14 per cent from this time last year, even if Pharrell’s “Happy” moved a massive 6.2 million units.

But back to the real sad story: Albums. Maybe 2014’s just been a rough year for music period—last year, a full five albums went platinum. And many of this year’s top sellers, it turns out, actually came out in 2013: Beyoncé’s self-titled album is this year’s top seller, but it came out in the fall of 2013. Lorde’s Pure Heroine, the second-best selling album of the years with 754,000 records sold, was released September 2013. Thankfully, Coldplay’s Ghost Stories, released in May of 2014, clocks in as the fifth-best selling album.

Sad? You bet. Considering the top two selling albums were created in 2013, they’re already widely owned—and there’s the possibility that, in 2014, no single artist’s album will go platinum. But to the ailing music industry, there’s still hope: Vinyl record sales are up nearly 50 per cent since last year. The only problem? Only 6 million LPs were sold this year. Sigh. [H/T Forbes]