BUSINESS BRIEFING
Online sales boost music industry
July 8, 2006
U.S. album sales were down 4.2 percent in the first half of the year, but sales of music downloaded online soared 77 percent. Despite rampant music piracy, overall sales of albums, singles, music videos and digital music totaled 564 million units, a 23 percent increase over the same six-month period last year.
Total sales of albums across different formats – CDs, digital albums, cassette and others – stood at 270.6 million between Jan. 2 and July 2, a decline of 4.2 percent compared with 282.6 million in the same period last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Nearly 281 million digital singles were purchased through July 2, compared to 158.8 million in the same time frame last year. More than 14 million full-album downloads were purchased in the first six months of this year, more than double the 6.5 million bought in the first half of 2005.
On-line music store caters to religious market
By Steve Woodward
NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE
July 8, 2006
Imagine rap lyrics without the F-bomb.
Or acid rock lyrics without sex.
Or reggae lyrics without drugs.
Howard Rachinski imagined it all last year, when his then-10-year-old son began to get interested in music.
Although Apple's iTunes and other commercial music-download sites offered plenty of Christian and other inoffensive songs and albums, Rachinski wanted something that catered exclusively to religious people like himself and his family.
So he and his colleagues created Portland, Ore.-based SongTouch, an online music store much like iTunes – but without a single “Parental Advisory” label among its 220,000 religious, inspirational and classical titles.
“Our core target market,” Rachinski says, “is people with Judeo-Christian values or faith not wanting to compromise that faith.”
Today, tens of thousands of SongTouch customers are legally downloading 99-cent copies of such songs as Carrie Underwood's “Jesus, Take the Wheel,” Casting Crowns' “Lifesong” and Tobymac's “Catchafire (Whoopsi-Daisy).”
SongTouch (www.songtouch.com) offers 27 musical genres, from Americana to Southern gospel, plus spoken-word performances. This week's top-selling song was Mark Harris' gospel song “Find Your Wings.” The top-selling album, at $9.99, was country singer Alan Jackson's collection of old hymns called “Precious Memories.”
The Web site also offers news and features about artists, a monthly video show on Christian entertainers, upcoming music releases and customer polls.
SongTouch already is drawing attention in the entertainment world. The Web site is the only online Christian store that Microsoft has built into its system of exclusive partner stores in Windows Media Player 10. Grammy winner Amy Grant, one of Christian music's top stars, wants to record spots advertising the site. Point of Grace, a Grammy-nominated Christian singing group, asked SongTouch to feature its music video.
Christian music is about 6 percent to 7 percent of all music downloads now, Rachinski says, but he expects the category to grow exponentially.
“I have no personal animosity against Eminem or Madonna,” the 55-year-old Rachinski says, “but some people want a safe place to go.”
