[net.audio] Audio Stores Closing

nivek@cmu-ri-rover.ARPA (Kevin Dowling) (02/26/85)

Someone recently posted regarding the closing of several audio store chains.

Here are some statistics from the RIAA about sales in the Audio world:

	The number of total records (LP's, EP's Singles, CD's)
shipped from '78 on are
		1978		$2.734   Billion
		1979		$2.411
		1980		$2.560
		1981		$2.598
		1982		$2.208
		1983		$1.975

So there was a peak in 1978 that hasn't been surpassed. And total record
shipments for 1983 were about the level they were in 1976.

Tape sales have climbed continually. The Sum of total Records and tapes has
fluctuated around $3.8 Billion dollars. LP/EP's show the largest drop
from a peak of $2.473 Billion in '78 to 1.69 Billion in '83. I suspect
LP sales will drop even further with the CD beginning to press into
the marketplace.

It's funny to look at how fast the 8-track market has dropped since '78
(a high of $948 million) although in 1983 it still accounted for $28 Million
of prerecorded music shipments.

The consumer electronics charts show some interesting statistics also:

	While total sales in electronics products for consumers has gone
up from $9.12 billion in '78 to over $20 billion in '83 the stats for
Separate Audio Components, Audio Systems, and Portable Tape Equipment
show another story: Factory sales.

Year		Separates	Audio Systems		Portables Tape Equip.
1978		$1.143		$0.748			$1.649
1979		$1.178		$0.748			$1.739 peak
1980		$1.424 peak	$0.801 peak		$1.403
1981		$1.363		$0.720			$1.157
1982		$1.181		$0.573			$0.971 min
1983		$1.283		$0.630			$1.102

There seems to be a rebound on some of the stats but it looks
as though the industry went through a slump in the late 70's early 80's.

Other stats showed the sales of home radios, VCR's, and Color TV's
all rocketing upward. Car Audio seems to have leveled off at about $1.4
billion over the last 4 years. Color TV's alone account for about 25%
of all consumer electronics sales.

I don't think this has explained the closing of the stores that
Dick Dunn mentioned. I suspect the impact of losing 5000 jobs in
the area was probably the largest factor (especially if they
were upscale high-tech jobs)

						nivek

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