Music sales have been dropping. Even former top sellers have seen a major dip in sales. Pop music divas Mariah Carey and Jennifer Lopez have seen disappointing sales. Carey’s newest Me. I Am Mariah… The Elusive Chanteuse sold just sold 58,000 copies its first week. J-Lo’s A.K.A. just came out and is only expected to sell between 25,000 and 30,000. Even Mary J. Blige is faltering. Most people don’t seem to be showing much interest in her soundtrack to Think Like a Man Too, which is contains exclusively of new music by Blige.
One artist who isn’t having a problem is Pharrell Williams. His single “Happy” has just become one of the best-selling singles of all time as it has exceeded in sales of more than 10 million units worldwide — reaching diamond status, reports Black America Web.
The song, which got major exposure after Williams was interviewed by Oprah, has gotten a ton of accolades, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song.
“Happy” sales were largely digital. In March, the song topped the 4 million mark in digital sales and was the Top Digital Song for the ninth consecutive week, according to Williams’ Neptunes website.
This is evidence of music lovers turning to downloads verses physical copies. “According to Nielsen SoundScan, so far in 2014 through the week ending Feb. 2, a total of 22.99 million albums have been sold. Of that total, 11.18 million were downloads while another 11.10 million were CDs.” reports Billboard.
Still, digital albums have yet to consistently surpass physical album sales, but reports Billboard, 2014 might be the year when that finally happens.
