Forbes: Jordan Passman: You Won't Guess The Best-Selling CD Of 2016

[Frank Forman]

Jordan Passman: You Won't Guess The Best-Selling CD Of 2016
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanpassman/2016/12/12/you-wont-guess-the-best-selling-cd-of-2016/#12c0a40c14db

The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those
of the writer.

The results are in for the best-selling CD of 2016--as you'd expect,
the No. 1 slot went to an artist with a household name, whose music
transcends generations. While this artist is most recognizable
sporting a fancy outfit and wig, he isn't the next Lady Gaga and he's
never been on MTV--in fact, his music is so "old-school" that it
predates all of today's artists' great-great-great-grandparents.

According to [3]Billboard (and without a worldwide album release
tour), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart scored the top-selling CD release of
2016.

Released on Oct. 28, 2016, "Mozart 225: The New Complete Edition" is
a 200-CD box set, featuring every known piece of music ever written
by the prolific composer, totaling to 240 hours of music. The release
was produced by Decca and Deutsche Grammophon in collaboration with
the Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation, and coincided with the 225th
anniversary of Mozart's death. Since it hit the market, sales have
surpassed 1.25 million units according to [4]Billboard (keeping in
mind that this number is based on each individual CD contained within
the box set, which as a whole has sold over 6,250 units). This beats
the biggest records of the year, including Drake's Views, Kanye
West's Life of Pablo and BeyoncГ©'s Lemonade.

While this may be shocking at first glance, it actually makes sense.
We've seen the continued decline of CD sales, hitting a record low of
50 million in sales this year (an 11.6% drop, according to
[5]Billboard). Today, [6]aside from unique music markets like Japan,
most people consume music via streaming services such as Spotify and
Apple Music (streaming a remarkable 208.9 billion songs in 2016). So
while you'd think the hottest artist of 2016 would move the most CDs,
it's clear that the fans of this music are not buyers.

From my perspective, this product had two strategic factors working
in its favor:

1. It was marketed to a demographic that still values and purchases
CDs--the classical music market tends to operate 10-15 years
behind the rest of the industry. So while most of us view our CD
collection as an ancient relic of a time long ago, the compact
disc is still a very common medium in the world of classical and
orchestral music and is the most suitable for this type of
release.
2. It's a novelty item--this is something that you can display in
your home, and that could potentially even appreciate in value as
time goes on (depending on how long it's available for purchase).
While you could easily carry this entire collection on a thumb
drive or upload it to the cloud, there's still a charm and
romanticism in the concept of holding the tangible product,
especially when it's a collection or anthology.

While I'm sure that the overall metrics for music sales will continue
on their current trends, I'm excited to see these types of outliers
and blips on the radar. It keeps us on our toes, and opens our minds
to new types of marketing strategies and initiatives. All of that to
say, don't throw out your CD player just yet...

Jordan Passman is the Founder & CEO of [7]SCORE A SCORE

References

3.
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7597586/giant-mozart-225-box-set-2016s-biggest-selling-cd-release
4.
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7597586/giant-mozart-225-box-set-2016s-biggest-selling-cd-release
5.
http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/7597586/giant-mozart-225-box-set-2016s-biggest-selling-cd-release
6.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanpassman/2016/11/10/spotify-swims-upstream-in-cd-obsessed-japan/
7. http://scoreAscore.com/

[Frank Berger]

Yawn.