Surprise of the Day: People Still Buying (Some) Music [MediaMemo]
The music industry’s decline has been so prolonged that this now qualifies as a man bites dog story: Sony (SNE) says its music sales actually went up, just a bit, in the last quarter.
The conglomerate’s music division doesn’t represent much more than a footnote in its overall financial picture, but in the last quarter, it was at least a positive footnote. Sales were up 2 percent — 7 percent if you cancel out currency fluctuations — and operating profits were up 8.2 percent.
Hard to argue that this uptick will be sustainable, though. Sony says the boost came from a couple individual success stories that will be hard to repeat, for obvious reasons: People bought lots of copies of the soundtrack to “This Is It”, the Michael Jackson concert movie, as well as the debut album from cultural oddity/viral video favorite Susan Boyle.
Looking for more traditional music business news? I can oblige: Music industry types tell me that they’re freaked out that physical sales could take yet another steep tumble this year, if retailers like Wal-Mart (WMT) and Best Buy (BBY) shrink the tiny amount floorspace they devote to CDs yet again. And they’re also worried that digital sales are finally flattening out.
