US digital track sales decline 2.3% in 2013 – Nielsen SoundScan mid-year report

The figures from the latest Nielsen Soundscan mid-year report are in and have shown that digital track sales are declining in the US whilst digital album sales continue to grow, albeit at a slower rate than previously.

For the year to date as of June 2013, figures show a 2.3% drop to 682.2 million units compared to 698 million in H1 2012.

Track sales declined 1.34% in Q1 to 356.5 million. In Q2 the decline more than doubled to 3.3%, with track sales totaling 325.7 million units this year compared to 336.7 million in Q2 2012.

Big digital track sellers for 2013 stacked up as below:

51 songs with over 1 million sales (compared to 47 songs in 2012)
13 songs at over 2 million sales
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ Thrift Shop (featuring Wanz) lead with 5.6 million sales

Million-sellers in the albums market are more sparse, with Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience the only LP to surpass the milestone with 2.04 million units, although Bruno Mars’s Unorthodox Jukebox is likely to reach the figure soon.

Adele was 2012’s only million milestone-surpassing act as 21 achieved 3.7million units.

Overall album market sales declined (moreso in Q2 – 6.4% – than Q1 – 4.9%) but digital albums sales continued to grow, albeit at a slower rate.

Album sales figures have accumulated as below:

Album sales down 5.6% decreased to 142 million united (compared to 150.5million in mid-2012)
Digital album sales increased 6.3% year-on-year to 60.8m units in the first half of 2013
15 albums at more than 500,000 units (compared to 11 in 2012)
Catalogue sales fell 20 million to 366.7million

Label marketshare was led by Universal with 37.6% in albums and equibvalents albums (equalling 10 tracks), followed by Sony and Warner. The share of Indies dropped from 12.7% to 12.1%

Sources: Billboard & Music Week