Here's a scary, sad story...

[mbhaub]

Maybe it is a miracle that we do get new classical recordings. Read this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/29/AR2010012904193.html

[TerraEpon]

I have a REALLY REALLY hard time believing those numbers are that low, unless the charts only track Wal Marts and Best Buys. Supposedly stuff like the Mahler cycle with Tilson Thomas sold into the ten thousands.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I don't find these figures remarkable at all. In fact, I'm surprised the sales are as high as they are. Don't forget they are sales per WEEK. So if a disk sells 500 a week, it has sold 26,000 copies in a year. That represents an income for the record company of about £55,000 (yes, the producer gets only about £2 of the final disk price on a full price disk).
On the downside, for our sort of music, Olympia told me that their recording of Zarebski's Piano Quintet sold about 600 copies worldwide during the whole time it was available! So it didn't even cover its costs.

[Mark Thomas]

One small label I know reckons that if it sells 1400 of an orchestral CD in its first year then it's a success. 2000 qualifies for champagne.