Jazz sales on the rise...

[brownie]

From Reuters:

Upbeat Jazz Sales Lift Music Business Blues

By Jeffrey Goldfarb, European Media Correspondent

MONTREUX, Switzerland (Reuters) - Jamie Cullum, the 24-year-old British jazz phenomenon, careers around the stage, smacking the Steinway piano's spruce frame for rhythm almost as often as his fingers tap the ivory keys for melody.

Cullum's irreverent and enthusiastic treatment of jazz includes a recording of Jimi Hendrix's "Wind Cries Mary" and convincing 1,200 fans at the vaunted Montreux Jazz Festival to stand for his rendition of the show tune "I Could Have Danced All Night."

Cullum has helped boost sales of jazz, one of the few bright sectors for the music industry, which has suffered from overall declining sales and illegal downloading. Jazz, whose other recent successes include vocalists Norah Jones (news), Michael Buble and Diana Krall, bucks both those industry trends.

"Playing the Montreux Jazz Festival is something I thought would happen 10 years from now," Cullum told the crowd, which included Universal Music International Chief Executive Jorgen Larsen, a music industry veteran lured to the 38-year-old festival for the first time to see his company's rising star.

By selling more than 1 million copies of "Twentysomething" in Europe alone, most of them in the UK, Cullum catapulted quickly to the same stage once occupied by legends Miles Davis and Charles Mingus. The music industry for the first time in years is counting more heavily on jazz, and musicians like Cullum, for bottom-line success.

MUSIC TO THEIR EARS

Although it represents only about 3.5 percent of total U.S. compact disc album sales, jazz is the only type of music to have posted gains in each of the last three years, and in four of the last five, according to research firm Nielsen SoundScan.

In the UK, retailer HMV has seen jazz sales rise 15 percent in the first half of this year from the same time a year ago, said Rudy Osorio, HMV's manager for specialties and classical music.

He attributes the gains to TV appearances by Cullum, Katie Melua (news) and others, and cut-rate pricing on jazz albums like those from Blue Note, which has enabled shoppers to buy John Coltrane and Cassandra Wilson albums for 4.99 pounds ($9.27).

"There's an understanding that you have to get people interested to dip into a genre without breaking the bank," Osorio said. "If you can pick up a decent jazz album for five pounds, that helps."

Jazz listeners also offer music companies hope because they are the most likely group to pay for what they find online. Jazz sales account for about 2 percent of all the music sold worldwide, but represent about 10 percent of legal downloads, industry executives said.

Those statistics are even more promising when considering that the bulk of jazz's massive catalog of historic performances have yet to be made available online and that the most popular download services have only just launched in Europe, where jazz music historically has sold well.

"If you look at it broadly, it's evolving," Chris Roberts, president of Universal Music's international classics and jazz unit, said of online music sales.

"We're in that middle period where it hasn't taken complete root in how people buy music," he said. "The proof will be in two to three years."

ALL THAT JAZZ

The typical jazz album, of course, sells fewer than 5,000 copies, and 20,000 is considered a big success, far lower expectations than for a pop album. At the same time, production costs are also much lower, with a two-day jazz recording session and follow-up production costing roughly $30,000.

The relative marketing costs for a jazz album mirror those of a pop album -- about 15 percent of sales. These days, however, jazz can be used to sell non-jazz albums.

 

"Jazz is being used as a marketing term," said Adam Sieff, Sony Music's director of jazz for UK and Europe. "An awful lot of records that aren't really jazz records are being called that because it's an opportunity to have a loose association with something that's become slightly hip again."

Even Norah Jones, whose "Come Away With Me" has sold more than 18 million copies worldwide, won eight Grammy Awards and propelled the jazz category, had her second album, "Feels Like Home," classified as pop rather than jazz for sales measurement purposes.

The hope still remains in the music industry that younger buyers seeking out Norah Jones and Jamie Cullum albums will try instrumental jazz, such as trumpeter Wynton Marsalis or the late pianist Bill Evans, although there is little evidence they have.

"I think the gulf between vocal jazz and instrumental jazz is still vast," Sieff said. "I don't think (the vocalists) are bringing people into the fold."

Osorio, the HMV manager, doesn't expect much of the crossover appeal either, but a little might be enough, he said.

"Even if it's only a 1 percent conversion rate of someone who might try another CD," Osorio said, "you're looking at pretty significant numbers for what's a pretty small genre."

[wesbed]

From Reuters:

Jazz listeners also offer music companies hope because they are the most likely group to pay for what they find online. Jazz sales account for about 2 percent of all the music sold worldwide, but represent about 10 percent of legal downloads, industry executives said.

This speaks for me. When I hear jazz that I like, I want the real thing, not an MP3, not a copy (without the liner notes and the cover). I want the genuine article with the with information about the song writer, the times, the pictures, the dates, etcetera.

As usual, a quality product sells itself.

[king ubu]

Well, this is slightly good news, guys! We're slightly hip! (But who's that Buble guy?)

ubu

[LAL]

Well, this is slightly good news, guys! We're slightly hip! (But who's that Buble guy?)

ubu

Based on 2-3 songs, he appears to be a pop/standards singer.

His rendition of Stevie Wonder's For Once in My Life is being played to death (every few hours) on my local Lite & Easy channel.

[king ubu]

Well, this is slightly good news, guys! We're slightly hip! (But who's that Buble guy?)

ubu 

Based on 2-3 songs, he appears to be a pop/standards singer.

His rendition of Stevie Wonder's For Once in My Life is being played to death (every few hours) on my local Lite & Easy channel.

You know, I'm resistent to radio, unless it's jazz live broadcasts... I can even be in a room with a radio playing, but I usually remember NOTHING... (and the Buble guy sounds too good to be played here, anyway, all we get is cheapo pop and dance shit...)

[marcoliv]

here in Rio radios are playing indefinitely his version of a Lou Ralws classic....poor Lou.....

Edited July 20, 2004 by marcoliv

[Dan Gould]

here in Rio radios are playing indefinitely his version of a Lou Ralws classic....poor Lou.....

And which classic would that be? The Budweisser song?

[Man with the Golden Arm]

From Reuters:

Cullum's irreverent and enthusiastic treatment of jazz includes a recording of Jimi Hendrix's "Wind Cries Mary"

Here I thought this guy was a crackpot. Whatever I've heard of him makes me turn the box off as fast as I can. Now do you think he puts up some quotes from "Madmoiselle Mabry" as well, or was it the other way around??

[7/4]

Sounds like good news...

[Christiern]

If jazz sales are on the rise, it may merely be due to the ever broadening application of that term. There is a lot of crap that passes for "jazz" these days.

[catesta]

If jazz sales are on the rise, it may merely be due to the ever broadening application of that term. There is a lot of crap that passes for "jazz" these days.

Good point.

[Hardbopjazz]

If jazz sales are on the rise, it may merely be due to the ever broadening application of that term. There is a lot of crap that passes for "jazz" these days.

True, Boarders by me has Yanni in the jazz session.

[brownie]

If jazz sales are on the rise, it may merely be due to the ever broadening application of that term. There is a lot of crap that passes for "jazz" these days.

That sure goes for the jazz records market. And it goes even more to many of the socalled jazz festival nowadays. Many of them now list a couple of jazz musicians and a horde of very slightly jazz-affiliated genres musicians but still continue to present the whole lot under the 'Jazz Festival' banner!

[BruceH]

"JAZZ---it's sales have gone from microscopic to to very tiny!"

[danasgoodstuff]

The phrase "clutching at straws" suddenlt comes to mind...

[JSngry]

Take out Norah & Krall from the mix and what have you got?

[7/4]

Take out Norah & Krall from the mix and what have you got?

smooth jazz?

[Tjazz]

Take out Norah & Krall from the mix and what have you got?

and all those re-issues and remasters

[Phil Meloy]

Also found this article on the net....

Jazz Sales Up Again in 2003

Norah Jones Debut Tops 5 Million Units

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 1—Sales of jazz albums increased for the second year in a row, while overall CD sales decreased in 2003, according to information released Wednesday by Neilsen SoundScan, the entertainment industry’s data information system that tracks point-of-purchase sales of recorded music product.

Norah Jones’ Come Away With Me topped 5 million units in 2003. According to SoundScan, 23,060,000 jazz albums were sold in the past year, a 1.8 percent increase over the 22,642,000 sold in 2002. Overall sales of CD albums dropped by about two percent from 2002, to 635.8 million units. Jazz albums represented over 3.6 percent of total music sales during 2003, up from under 3.5 percent the previous year. Blue Note’s all time top-selling release, Norah Jones' debut crossover CD Come Away With Me was the second best selling album of 2003, with 5,137,468 units sold. Jazz, Latin, and Alternative genres each saw sales increases in 2003, while all other categories dropped. Sales of classical albums dropped by 12.4 percent from 2002.