Buying music “singles” in the stores throughout the late 90s into the early 2000s was out of fashion and a model that didn’t work for the music business. In the 1950s and 1960s – the sales of singles powered the music industry into the glamorous arena that produced many one hit wonders. In the mid to late 90s, MP3’s circulated the Internet which allowed people to digitize an album and send single files to friends and peers. What we didn’t predict was how big the single business could be in just a few years time… it’s back.
According to Nielsen SoundScan, Atlanta rap group, D4L’s single “Laffy Taffy” shattered the one-week sales record for a digital single, with over 175,000 copies sold. One week. Previously, if we were to purchase a single in the store such as Virgin, that CD would have virtually the same packaging of a full album. Thus, the CD is selling at a reduced rate (as it only has 1 song on it) but the manufacturing cost is expensive…. Which means that the margins were slim. Today, Laffy Tappy, though digitally distributed has fantastic margins since there was no physical manufacturing costs. The only costs associated with a digital single are: production, marketing & promotion, bandwidth and maybe a few others, but it’s typically much less than a store bought single.
Lifehouse, a Southern California rock band, has sold 887,000 digital copies of its hit single "You and Me" -- and just 770,000 copies of the album that includes the single. D4L, whose album "Down for Life" has sold 304,000 copies -- a paltry number compared with the strong sales of "Laffy Taffy." Downloads of singles even outsold CDs in the U.S.-- 19.9 million digital tracks but just 16.8 million albums, according to Nielsen SoundScan in 2005.
Check the ringtone #'s on Laffy Taffy and you will be even more blown away
Posted by: Tim | February 11, 2006 at 01:22 PM