This year’s race for the Christmas No 1 single could be the biggest digital battle yet. At the point of last Christmas, more than 90% of the UK’s music singles were downloaded in mp3 format and sales now regularly exceed 1.5 million downloads a week. The number of music downloads sold in the UK in the final week of 2007 was double the total of 12 months earlier reaching 2.95 million downloads in just seven days. This year the Christmas single market is fierce ranging from the yet to be decided X Factor Winner, to Peter Kay’s Geraldine’s charity single for the NSPCC fighting for the festive crown.
With music retail records possibly set to be smashed, will CD singles sales hold their own against mp3 singles downloads? It is looking unlikely.
The combination of the struggling economic climate, and online shopping set to be more popular than ever this year, means that the cheaper alternative of downloading mp3 singles is the obvious choice when purchasing Christmas singles. Customers are looking to save money wherever they can, and so Amazon’s recent entry into mp3 retail comes at an opportune moment to influence the battle for the Christmas number one and establish themselves in the market itself. Amazon is offering mp3 singles from 59p a track and albums from just £3, prices that either equal or undercut iTunes, and this could be a factor that influences a customer’s purchase decision; one that may be altered from trade-offs between purchasing CDs or mp3s, to between purchasing mp3s from iTunes or Amazon.
With Christmas singles losing their jingle almost immediately after the big festive 25th itself, instantly available downloads are more likely to appeal to the Christmas single buying audience who can own the track in minutes without having to leave the house or wait for delivery. The novelty factor of many of this year’s are also bound to shift purchases to downloads. These singles are often seen as more of a Christmas humorous tradition than a serious attempt for the number one spot, with such novelty comes a use-by date which questions if the wese’ worth of play time is worth spending £1.99 or just £0.59. In the economic state at the moment the decision seems to be a no-brainer that even the gigantic 2.5% cut in VAT won’t affect.
Reuters reported that the online ‘Mega Monday’ sales had risen 14% this year on 2007, and that Monday was only the third-biggest day this year in terms of traffic to retail websites, suggesting shoppers are researching thoroughly before completing a purchase. The forage for the cheapest possible price of a product looks set to boost online mp3 singles sales further. Of course the CD singles will still sell, especially at this time of year, but Internet and the iPod began the demise of the CD singles market a few years back, and 2009 may be the year where we see them completely taken off the shelves.
So who will be number one this year? ‘Little Drummer Boy’ by Sir Terry Wogan & Aled Jones is currently sitting at number five in the Amazon Charts today, with Leona back the top spot with ‘Run’, but Fairytale of New York is creeping up at number 14, so maybe it will be an oldie!
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