2009’s 5 Salient Events In the Music Industry

2009 can be described as a successful year to the music industry. The unit sales rose up by 1.54 billion in 2009 which is a 2.1 percent increase from 2008 after years of lost revenue.

According to a report released by the Niesen SoundScan at the end of 2009, approximately 40 percent of those unit sales were digital. Meanwhile 38 percent is the rate in 2008. This was due to the increasing number of consumers who come to music today through MP3 players and computers.

Here are 5 reasons which bring the recording industry such encouraging record:

1. Michael Jackson's death made his music eternal.

This talented singer was considered as a tabloid singer resulting in his slip in music sales. Before his death in June 2009, Jackson is not listed on Nielsen SoundScan's bestsellers. However, since the famous singer's pass-away, his albums were sold with over eight million copies. This record made Jackson the biggest-selling artist for the year.

2.The famous band Beatles come back to music market.

This four-member boy-band which broke up in 1970 were 2009's biggest-selling band with album sales record of 3.3 million. With album "Beatles 1", this band also stood at the top selling album of the decade. About 12 million is the number of copies sold for this album. This collection also made the Beatles the second-selling artist of the decade after Rapper Eminem with 30 million units.

3. Country music is the most popular music wave.

Despite its forth-biggest selling category in terms of album sales, country music and its stars still controlled the music trend during the last 10 years. In the top 10 most-played artists of the decade, 8 were stars of the country music. In 2009, album of the young country star Taylor Swift "Fearless" was the highest-selling collection.

4.Starbucks plays an important role in music retail.

In 2009, with the effort to save music retail of some non-traditional outlets such as Starbucks and CVS, slack in Tower Records and Virgin Megastores outlets were sped up. With 110 million copies sold, Starbucks and CVS achieved an all-time record in 2009.

5. Vinyl continuously be used

In the mid-1990s, vinyl records were first phased for CDs. At that time, people, and especially music listeners, thought these were also the 8-track tapes. However, thanks to the effort of some responsible enthusiasts, in 2009 vinyl sales rose to 33 percent from 2008. This number was considered as an all-time sales record for the format.

Mark Guarino is a familiar writer of music industry. He has investigated the reasons for the rise in Music Industry in 2009. The above 5 reasons are mostly approved by music analysts.