how many coppies does the average dnb vinyl sell?

i remember my old college lecturer saying the average dance record only sells around 1000-2000 copies, is this true with dnb?

Id say he was right on the "average" part... for general dance sales

Maybe on a top yearly 10 track of course a hell of a lot more.

Patchie-C said:

i remember my old college lecturer saying the average dance record only sells around 1000-2000 copies, is this true with dnb?

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yep tru altho now it is harder to shift units due to a rise in mp3 and cd format sales.

Mp3 is a great way to get heard

think DIllinja said he found it hard to move more than 500/ 600 on some interview.

i know 'distorted minds & mc foxy - ouch' sold 5000 copies and i would now consider that to be a farily average track. other than that i really dont know

I think dnb sells more than a lot of other dance music genres, I think we're all "into" the whole vinyl thing a lot more than other genres, in my (incredibly) humble opinion, for what it counts...

The MP3 thing has been going for over 10 years now, even with the relative proliferation of peer to peer, I still don't see how that's affected sales _that_ much if you look at it fairly (the people in far-away countries who are dnb fans wouldn't buy the vinyl from UK shops anyway as shipping costs 2, 3, 4 times the cost of one vinyl anyway, and they might have to pay import tax on it too, so for them MP3 is the only way to listen), there are those who just collect MP3s of the music, but they wouldn't buy vinyl anyway because they have no intentions on becoming a DJ and therefore have no real reason to fork out £5 for two tracks, maybe compilation albums but not much else). Avoiding the CDJ argument, the people who solely play out MP3s, especially those from peer to peer, unscrupulously, are doing nothing but kill the scene they're trying to 'support', but even then I don't think there's _that_ many people, because the hardware costs that much more again, and you don't have that kudos factor of owning decks.


I'd love to hear longtime record labels weigh in with some facts, figures and statistics on this.

how much of the retail price actually gets into the artists pocket?

Alba said:

how much of the retail price actually gets into the artists pocket?

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i think i read somewhere that out of a £6 record, £3 goes to the shop, £1.20 goes to the artist and the other £1.80 goes to record label, cost of production/packaging etc. not a whole lot when you think about it

xen said:

The MP3 thing has been going for over 10 years now, even with the relative proliferation of peer to peer, I still don't see how that's affected sales _that_ much...

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thats not what ive heard, i read an interview with noisia saying that record sales are still plummeting because of the mp3. its true in the entire music buisness, and specially drum and bass.
i mean id like you to be right. i wouldnt like very much to see drum and bass reduced to an internet phenomenon

logikz said:

i mean id like you to be right. i wouldnt like very much to see drum and bass reduced to an internet phenomenon

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Yep, I cant think of anything worse or more detatched from the roots of the scene, and thats hard to say considering all the advantages the net actually offers.

logikz said:

thats not what ive heard, i read an interview with noisia saying that record sales are still plummeting because of the mp3. its true in the entire music buisness, and specially drum and bass.
i mean id like you to be right. i wouldnt like very much to see drum and bass reduced to an internet phenomenon

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I doubt there's proof behind this. I don't buy many tunes because too many of them are shit.
I think it applies more to pop music than dnb

Patchie-C said:

i remember my old college lecturer saying the average dance record only sells around 1000-2000 copies, is this true with dnb?

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Probably less for Drum n bass in the uk, although I'm not sure about overseas sales.

average dnb tune on a small label might sell around 2000 copies worldwide

huge tunes.. anthems, 15,000 worldwide, easily

Serum said:

I doubt there's proof behind this. I don't buy many tunes because too many of them are shit.
I think it applies more to pop music than dnb

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theres really no need to proove it mark, because, who buys the cow when you can get the milk for free.

logikz said:

theres really no need to proove it mark, because, who buys the cow when you can get the milk for free.

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What's to say the people that download would buy the tune anyway?
Tape packs affected vinyl sales in the same way for dnb before mp3s were about, artists got fuck all for those!

its a safe bet these people would spend alot more money buying music if it wasnt free.

Its a funny thing, many many other styles of music are available to listen to 'free', whether it be internet or regular radio. dNb is a bit harder than that, in Aust anyway.
And I admit, when I had a serious downturn in the amount of vinyl I was buying I did start downloading more DJ sets, but I have never fileshared and swapped tunes like that.
Why do people listen to music ... some just want jungle that's mixed into a set they can turn on and do the housework to, others want tunes they can mix (vinyl or high quality mp3) ...
In the early-mid 90s if I wanted jungle outside a club environs, I had to go and buy a mixtape from the local store, usually (always) mixed and distributed without proper authorisation/licensing. If I hadnt been able to this at the time (and thousands like me) you can bet your ass this music would not be the worldwide phenom, it is now.

how many records do you have to sell to break even usually?

mesh said:

In the early-mid 90s if I wanted jungle outside a club environs, I had to go and buy a mixtape from the local store, usually (always) mixed and distributed without proper authorisation/licensing. If I hadnt been able to this at the time (and thousands like me) you can bet your ass this music would not be the worldwide phenom, it is now.

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fuckin good point old chap!

patchie doesnt wipe his bum after he poos