2002 Holiday Season Leaves Retailers Out In The Cold

The music industry is finishing out a tough year with one of its worst holiday seasons ever. U.S. album sales for the period from Nov. 18 to Dec. 22 totalled 112.9 million units, down 15.2% from last year's 133.1 million units, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

In the week before Christmas, 42 titles scanned more than 100,000 units, vs. 52 titles in the same period last year. Total sales for the pre-Christmas week this year were 33 million, down 18.9% from 40.7 million last year.

Randy Davidson, chairman of Value Central Entertainment, the chain created by the merger of Central South and Value Music, says it was a "slow, slow Christmas"--and this is one of the more positive assessments from retailers polled by Bulletin. One merchant termed the holiday season a "borderline disaster"; others say the only things that saved the season were DVDs and other non-music product.

David Lang, who runs the 19-unit, South Plainsfield, N.J.-based CD World, says price was the determining factor this year. "If it wasn't on sale, they didn't buy it," he says. "I have never seen music and prerecorded entertainment buyers as price-conscious as they were this year, when a dollar made a difference."

Gus Joanadis, who owns the Sound City store in Queens, N.Y., says, "I only did 'Christmas' business in the last five days before Christmas. Before that, it was normal." At Sound City, Nas' "God's Son" (Ill Will/Columbia) was the best-selling title.

Mike Dreese, CEO of Brighton, Mass.-based Newbury Comics, says his chain was down 8% for the month of December, and CD album sales were down about 18% on a comparable-store basis during that period. He says Norah Jones was "the big surprise" for the chain, coming in at No. 1 for the season; it was followed by albums by Avril Lavigne and Jennifer Lopez. "I don't know what happened to the rock'n'rollers," says Dreese. "Maybe they are all disc-burning now."