By: Michael Palmer
Music sales are not doing well this year. Sales have been on a slide for years and this year is no different. Compared to last year album sales are down over 9%. Well, maybe you are thinking that maybe single sales are where the artists are really making some money. Actually, no these sales are down around 4% for 2013; but there might be some light at the end of the tunnel. Coming this black Friday we will see new projects from Britney Spears and One Direction. Maybe these megastars can save the day? Oh well I guess we will find out next week.
With the enormous success One Direction has had on Spotify, Billboard is predicting that they will move around a half a million units in the first week. Since release last night they have taken the number one spot on iTunes. So, many are hoping they can help to keep the winning fashion of Justin Timberlake, Eminem and Lady Gaga has started and hopefully finish with a #1 from Britney spears as well. Britney is fighting an uphill battle as her album was leaked and has been stream on iTunes radio for the last week.
The charts are not all bad news though. Eminem has returned to number one this week moving over 120,000 units. He has also had some success from his latest single featuring Rihanna which moved over 241,000 downloads. Rihanna is also seeing success from her latest single, “What Now” which has over 26 million views in the last 12 days, WOW. No wonder she won the icon award this week at the AMA.