United States Album Sales Hit New Low

Well, it’s offical. Album sales here in the United States have again fallen to a new weekly low. In the week ending January 12, 2014, only 4.25 million albums were sold according to Nielsen SoundScan , which began tracking music sales in 1991.

The previous SoundScan-era low was set just last year in the week ending October 27, 2013, when just 4.49 million albums were sold.

The highest sales in a single week was in late December of 2000, which is probably known as the height of CD sales, when 45.4 million albums were sold in the week ending December 24.

To put that figure in perspective, in all of 2013, there were 289.41 million albums sold. But in 2000, there were 785.14 million albums sold.

It is normal to see low sales in January every year, due to the market getting back on track after the Christmas shopping season, and because there are only a few new major albums to drive sales.

Sales didnt hit below the 5 million mark until 2010 in the week ending May 30, when sales were at 4.98 million.

In 2010, there were a total of four weeks with under 5 million in sales. In 2011, that number shrunk to just two weeks, but then stepped back up to three weeks in 2012.

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