Overall album sales (in every genre) hit an all time low in 2010.

Can't say the news surprises me, yet people try to say that hip-hop this decade is better than it was in the 80's? GTFOH with that bullshit!!

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/amplifier/70991/2010-album-sales-way-worse-than-2009-album-sales/

Well, in the 80's music didn't have downloaders...duh? smh

Only 13 albums TOTAL went plat in 2010. TOTAL!!! That's pathetic. Keep in mind that paid digital downloads (i.e. iTunes) count towards sales as well. Of those 13, I believe only 2 of those are hip-hop albums (Recovery and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy).

And you cannot blame illegal downloads for that shit because they've been around for years.

The problem is that music as a whole just isn't as good overall as it used to be. If anything, the piss poor quality of today's music is the reason for illegal downloading. That's the reason why I do it, and most of my friends and family try before they buy nowadays as well.

And this whole "underground movement" is wack because a lot of these underground artists don't even have their fucking albums available in stores for their fans to buy. So that's another reason for lack of sales.

Anyway you slice it, the 80's>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>The 2000's, and it ain't even fucking close.

While quality plays a role no doubt the majority has to fall on the times we live in.

These days with the internet soooooooooooooooooooooo much music and entertainment is a mouse click away. And this younger generation are use to fast access everything. And they never had to buy music so why buy now? Its hard to tell someone to pay for something they can get for free. Its that simple.

Downloading is killing sales.

KJ Styles wrote:

Only 13 albums TOTAL went plat in 2010. TOTAL!!! That's pathetic. Keep in mind that paid digital downloads (i.e. iTunes) count towards sales as well. Of those 13, I believe only 2 of those are hip-hop albums (Recovery and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy).

And you cannot blame illegal downloads for that shit because they've been around for years.

The problem is that music as a whole just isn't as good overall as it used to be. If anything, the piss poor quality of today's music is the reason for illegal downloading. That's the reason why I do it, and most of my friends and family try before they buy nowadays as well.

And this whole "underground movement" is wack because a lot of these underground artists don't even have their fucking albums available in stores for their fans to buy. So that's another reason for lack of sales.

Anyway you slice it, the 80's>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>The 2000's, and it ain't even fucking close.

Stop speaking garbage. There aren't any record stores left. Back in da day you had Sam Goody,Camelot, WareHouse Music and a slew of others that are defunct. People for the most part have to go to BestBuy or those Superstores to cop a copy. WalMart and Target have a limited selection and sometime only carry the edited version. BestBuy's selection is not all that great and its getting narrower every year. Theres still mom & pop music stores and KARMA here and there. The thing is with those superstores and BB one can easily be distracted . They could walk through those automated doors with their mind set on buying music but may be detered into copping a new X-Box game of computer software that happens to be on sale and put off buying that album for next time. As Scarface said: Illegal downloads and CD burning has killed the game. Sure this elements been around for years but its a growing cancer. As the years go by more and more ppl are downloading. I didn't start downloading intil 2007. On top of that you have so much file sharing applications on the net it make it easy as hell to download. Megaupload,Filestube,Rapusshare, mediafire ect

Also theres too many fuckin' albums out today. The underground's main fault is having too much product to cop. People are talking about top 25 rap albums of 2010, shit back in day there only be like 25 rap albums that came out a year. As ahighschooler during the golden age of rap I was able to keep track of every album worth, I even stepped out my comfort zone to cope stuff by Rap-A-Lot. I was even able to experiment with blind buys like Blood Of Abraham and Brotha LynchHung. I remember copping Broth LH Season Of The Sickness, I thought that album was so wack I flossed my teeth with it for fun. But Brotha LH wouldn't mind cause I bought the album. In today's climate nobody's gonna gamble with nothing they never heard of They wouldn't even gamble on an artist an artist they like w/o atleast hearing samples. Back in the day anything with from Def Jam or the Wu logo on it I copped w/o question. I even copped albums by groups that put out wack singles!

Now imagine just tryna keep up wuith albums in your comfort zones nowadays simply by copping physical LPs. Man, record stores wouldn't even have enough rack space to hold all the stuff. Hell, Killah Priest comes out with like 2 albums a year. As a kid with limited income Ive copped everything by the WU, Brand Nubian, Ice Cube, NbyN, Poor rightoues Teachers, Def Squad,ect. Also with the arrival of CDs it made things sweeter. I was copping CDs of rappers shit I already had on cassette. And bootleggers didn't have the technology to burn Cds for awhile Funny how it took this technology over 15 years to find the public. And when you lost your album, you went to cop it again.

In 98' I was out of the college dorms and had an apartment, and car note. i was still able to scrap change to cop my favorite artist. Killah priest-heavy Mental, Gangstar-MOT, Cocoa Brovas-Rude Awakening, Cappadonna-The Pillage,Busta Rhymes-When disaster Strikes, Das Efx-Generation Efx, Pete Rock-Soul Brotha, . All these album I remember copping in 98 within' weeks of their release. Easy to keep track of new releases. Now its not. Too many albums.

Great points Trotter. There are to many albums. Artist have to keep up with the short attention span of your average listener. So you damn near really have to drop as many albums and songs as you can to stay even semi relevant. God forbid you want to take your time to craft an album. Shit folks would consider you old and you just dropped an album 2yrs prior.

TicNitty706 wrote:

Great points Trotter. There are to many albums. Artist have to keep up with the short attention span of your average listener. So you damn near really have to drop as many albums and songs as you can to stay even semi relevant. God forbid you want to take your time to craft an album. Shit folks would consider you old and you just dropped an album 2yrs prior.

Also, with the technology available today, you can practically make a full length album in a weekend. Back in the day, an artist was good to drop 1 album per year. Now it's like 2 or 3 per year for some.

Jack of Spades wrote:

TicNitty706 wrote:

Great points Trotter. There are to many albums. Artist have to keep up with the short attention span of your average listener. So you damn near really have to drop as many albums and songs as you can to stay even semi relevant. God forbid you want to take your time to craft an album. Shit folks would consider you old and you just dropped an album 2yrs prior.

Also, with the technology available today, you can practically make a full length album in a weekend. Back in the day, an artist was good to drop 1 album per year. Now it's like 2 or 3 per year for some.

which actually hurts sales, leads to shittier music often times, and annoys fans such as myself. I like an album every 2 years tbh, more than that is kinda overkill IMO

People are still going to demand music so the question is who will come up with a formula that will make it profitable?

Or the industry will have to accept shrinkage as the new reality. Trim the weak artists and work with the heaters.

Or actually diversify the soundscape and release their death grip over the radio air waves. Or create viable internet radio that's free and not break people's balls to get pay fees. The hot radio station will survive.

TheHazardous wrote:

Or actually diversify the soundscape and release their death grip over the radio air waves. Or create viable internet radio that's free and not break people's balls to get pay fees. The hot radio station will survive.

LET PEOPLE HEAR THE FUCKIN MUSIC!! I been saying that shit forever. If they would play all different kinds of shit on the radio, the general public could finally see beyond the Waynes and Solja Boys and consider spending their money on some other names. People are retarded. They think if something is on the radio it must be good. That is what they think is hot and popular and that is what they will pay for. If there were more acts with actual talent and diversity getting exposure, people would almost automatically spend money on them, even if only because of the illusion of celebrity that exposure creates.

Wanduras wrote:

TheHazardous wrote:

Or actually diversify the soundscape and release their death grip over the radio air waves. Or create viable internet radio that's free and not break people's balls to get pay fees. The hot radio station will survive.

LET PEOPLE HEAR THE FUCKIN MUSIC!! I been saying that shit forever. If they would play all different kinds of shit on the radio, the general public could finally see beyond the Waynes and Solja Boys and consider spending their money on some other names. People are retarded. They think if something is on the radio it must be good. That is what they think is hot and popular and that is what they will pay for. If there were more acts with actual talent and diversity getting exposure, people would almost automatically spend money on them, even if only because of the illusion of celebrity that exposure creates.

Perfection. I have been saying that for some time now. Like Peterson said if the powers that be would loosen their grips on radio and video media rap may show vital signs.

It's funny how things come full circle. I remember having these conversations 20 years ago.

The more heads that have touched the music...the more the music is going to SUCK...and you can apply this to anything..


the more teams that join the NFL/NBA/MLB/NHL...the more watered down of a product you are going to get.....this is plain and very simple....dudes that would have never had the opportunity to become pro's are now going to get a shot because the need is there because of those extra teams...someone has to fill those slots...so those tickets will sell in these new areas....so that T.V. revenue can increase tenfold......which leads to new sportscasters and new sports shows which would have never seen the light of day if not for expansion....

expansion is not a good thing except in the pockets of those new owners in those new areas...as far as the actual product..the shit becomes watered down and loses it's luster from the "good ol days"....

samething with the realty shows..(it started with The Real World and has now expanded to include The Jersey Shore, Brett Michaels and a bunch of other bullshit)

this can be applied to hip-hop too.....once it expanded beyond the NYC boundaries and too many other heads from other areas began touching it, that's when it got fucked up IMO......there are other artists from other areas that have contributed mightly to the dopeness scope of hip-hop but there are also too many examples of others who should have never picked this as a career move but did so due to the ease of entrance into the game and expansion of the game....


expansion has been the worst thing that has ever happened to hip-hop IMO....and I thank Run-D.M.C. for this occurring...of no fault of their own of course

back then when they were rocking the mic, anything they accomplished was looked at as a beautiful thing for hip-hop because they shown such an incredible light on an artform that wasn't seen as such...hip-hop was looked at as a fad...a passing moment in time....no talent having black and spanish kids from the NYC ghettos that stole music from previous artists in the form of sampling....it was looked at as just being loud and rebellious......

but Run-D.M.C. is the group that changed everything and made the others accept it and respect it...and in the process they introduced it to a bunch of heads that now saw it as a money making tool.....which of course led to the original expansion of the game and began the downward spiral to where it is in 2011......do your homework on this and you'll see what I mean mane!


I miss those days that Trotter was referring to when he said there was like 25 hip-hop albums in a year.....because if there was 25 in a year then that would mean 25 extremely dope adventures....not like today when there is 50,000 hip-hop albums released and about 43,000 of them are below average, and about 5,000 more are about average, and of the other 2,000 that maybe left there are maybe about 25 gems in those anyway...which brings you back to the original number any damn way...

fire a bunch of these so called "artists" and let's get back to the business of making hip-hop an artform once again...it's lost it's way...it needs guidance....let's get it back to being an artform and fire all the Wade Phillips out the game...the public are the ones who have to demand this but we already know they are too damn brain washed to let that happen....MONEY rules....plain and simple...and the record companies can't afford a revival of good/great hip-hop music because then that would be a bad thang for the $game$....lol

Your expansion theory has some valid points. Things do get watered down when you have more supply than demand if you will. But I see it as a double edged sword. Without expansion or more hip hop artists to choose from we would really be fucked. Think about it, then the industry would really be able to control who we listen too. But with the underground and the internet having a real good synergy we can choose our own dopeness.

I admit the large number of garbage that makes it way to the radio's play list has detered a lot of people from buying music. People are like "Today's music suck so why bother?" They are automatically turned off, they may even shut down on music they may even like. Take me for instance, I discriminate against anything popular that gets major airplay and advertisement. I wasn't always this way. Now if the radio played more stuff like GhostFace Killah, Blackalicious, The Roots I wouldn't hate the mainstream so much. Id be willing to give rappers like The Game and Drake a chance if radio played more variety of rappers. But since the radio completely shuts down on my favorite artist I just shut down on everything being played on the radio. I feel if the radio played more variety than people will have faith in music again. But if radio and BET only give shine to Lil Wayne, Drake, Jay-Z.50cent, and Emenim than pop-boppers will only be drawn to these artist, and these artist ain't enough to keep hip hop vibrant and alive.

Also the mainstream has figured out a way to control the listener. As a kid whether a rapper was on the radio or not didn't make a bit of difference for me or my friends. Today these kids only su[pport rappers big in the mainstream. They are dumb as hell. Back in the day Ice Cube said TURN OFF THE RADIO. That there had us jaded on the radio but we still liked it when the radio played what we like. Nowadays rappers are clamoring for a radio hit.