CANADIAN MUSIC WEEK 2015: Nielsen Music Canada 2014 Report

 

2014 NIELSEN MUSIC CANADA REPORT
* * ** * * * ** *
Vinyl Albums Post Biggest Overall Sales Total in the SoundScan Era
* * * *
Digital Albums Account for Nearly 40% Total Album Sales
* * * *

Streaming totals surpass 6 Billion in last six months of 2014 Nielsen, the music industry’s leading data information provider today released the 2014 Canada Music Year-End Report for the 12-month period of December 30, 2013 through December 28, 2014.

2014 showed the continued shift to digital markets, with Digital albums now accounting for nearly 40% of all album sales and streaming activity surpassing 6 Billion song streams in the final six months of the year. Another bright spot for the industry is the continued resurgence of Vinyl LPs, which posted the biggest sales total in the SoundScan Era with over 400,000 units.

“With strong demand in digital streaming and record-setting growth in Vinyl, we continue to see music fans showing their diversity in the way they consume music.” says David Bakula, SVP Industry Insights, Nielsen Entertainment. “With over 6 Billion songs streamed in just the last six months of 2014, as well as new services launching this year, music fans continue to enjoy huge amounts of digital music.”
Nielsen provides music research and monitoring services for the entertainment industry. Nielsen’s airplay, sales and streaming data represents music consumers of all ethnicities and languages, and is featured weekly in Billboard’s charts, and is widely cited as the standard for music measurement.

Nielsen Music Canada 2014 Year-End Highlights

• Total Album sales declined for the third straight year, down 5% compared to 2013.
• Digital album sales accounted for 39.3% of total album sales for the year, compared to 39.1% in 2013.
• Vinyl albums posted their biggest overall sales total in the SoundScan era, with a sales increase of 71% over 2013.
• 7 albums sold over 100,000 units in 2014, led by Taylor Swift, compared to 16 albums in 2013.
• One album from a Canadian artist sold over 100,000 units in 2014, Bobby Bazini’s “Where I Belong.”
• Last year R&B and Rap were the only major genres to post sales increases, this year those two genres posted the two biggest sales declines in 2014 over 2013.

Digital Highlights:

• Streaming surpassed 6 Billion songs streamed in the last six months of 2014 (Nielsen began tracking streaming in July, 2014), with 17 songs surpassing 10 Million streams in the final six months of the year.
• Means of consumption differ by musical genres.
  – For example, country comprises 11% of digital downloads but less than 5% of On-Demand streaming.
  – Conversely, R&B/Hip Hop comprises 12% of digital downloads but 21% of On-Demand streaming.
  – Consumption of some smaller genres, such as EDM and Latin, also lean towards On-Demand streaming.
• Digital album sales suffered their first year-over-year decrease since Nielsen Music began tracking digital sales in 2005. Taylor Swift’s “1989” is the year’s highest selling digital album. Imagine Dragons’ “Night Visions,” which sold 100,000 digital albums in 2013, placed in the top ten of highest selling digital albums for the second straight year, while two soundtracks, “Frozen” and “Guardians Of The Galaxy,” placed in the top ten.
• Digital track sales suffered their first year-over-year decrease since Nielsen Music began tracking digital sales.
• The top 200 digital songs reprsented 22.7% of all song purchases in 2014. The top 200 songs accounted for 23.1 million sales in 2014 compared to 28.6 million in 2013.

About Nielsen
Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence and mobile measurement. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA, and Diemen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

For more information, contact: Anna Loynes, aloynes@solters.com