We're Shopping

Back from a great xmas trip to the US - with some mild jet lag that sees me up at 5am. But more on that later ...

On my marathon journey home I noticed an article in The Times on music sales revenue, which is reportedly down 32% from five years ago. This is mainly attributed to deflation, as bigger retailers (like supermarkets) discount their product. According to the report, the volume of music has actually increased - although album sales are down 5.6%, single sales are up 36% due to the availability of solitary track downloads.

So despite the industry's insistence that piracy is killing music sales, it is clear that people are still buying - they are just being more selective with their choices, possibly by shopping down the long tail.

This comes with the news that hideous UK retailer Zavvi (or what-ever-happened-to-Virgin?) has gone into administration. We'll have to see if they find a buyer and bounce back - but it doesn't bode well for high street music retail. We're left with HMV and a handful of Fopp locations ... 

The question remains - why shop in these stores? With the internet making infinite choice available - in best case scenario, direct from the artist or label, thus bypassing the tedious middle man - why bother with high street stores at all? Bargain bins, limited choice, having to sift through Akon albums - surely we have evolved passed all this?

Image by roughdrft on Flickr.