What’s the global distribution of specialty label CD sales?

[Bayesian 1,364]

This is a question I hope a few folks at our beloved specialty labels might be willing to answer: What proportion of CD sales are mailed to U.S. addresses, and what proportions are mailed to other countries or continents?

 

I know a substantial share of any release is often bulk-shipped to fellow music retailers like MBR and I suppose those should be excluded from the question, since they aren’t end-user destinations. But for the shipments that go directly to customers’ homes, I surely can’t be the only one who’s curious for curiosity’s sake.

[Marian Schedenig 8,210]

41 minutes ago, Bayesian said:

I know a substantial share of any release is often bulk-shipped to fellow music retailers like MBR and I suppose those should be excluded from the question, since they aren’t end-user destinations. But for the shipments that go directly to customers’ homes, I surely can’t be the only one who’s curious for curiosity’s sake.

 

Wouldn't those be maybe the most relevant non-US sales though? I know I'm not the only one who has pretty much stopped ordering directly at the labels, because shipping and tax handling have just become too expensive. Non-US retailers are probably responsible for a significant share of the non-US sales, and excluding them would probably skew the results (if what you're interested in is the international distribution of buyers). Of course, for release that haven't sold out, you would have to find a way to count actually *sold* copies vs those still stock at retailers.

[Bayesian 1,364]

2 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

Wouldn't those be maybe the most relevant non-US sales though? I know I'm not the only one who has pretty much stopped ordering directly at the labels, because shipping and tax handling have just become too expensive. Non-US retailers are probably responsible for a significant share of the non-US sales, and excluding them would probably skew the results (if what you're interested in is the international distribution of buyers). Of course, for release that haven't sold out, you would have to find a way to count actually *sold* copies vs those still stock at retailers.

Yeah, that’s a good point. So then we’d need to have someone at MBR and SAE to chime in here. Which probably makes the question more trouble to answer than it’s worth, considering the need to add proportions from different points-of-sale. Plus the answer would surely vary from one release to the next, so would the answer be based on calendar year aggregate sales maybe?

 

Well, I’ll be delighted if this thread draws any replies from the labels, but I won’t hold my breath. They have far better things to do anyhow than compile answers to trivial questions like this!

 

 

[Marian Schedenig 8,210]

I imagine it could be answered at least for releases that have sold out, as you don't need to take leftover stock into account. That would however introduce its own bias: What do the sold out editions have in common vs those that haven't sold out, and does that account for a difference in international distribution?