Album sales fell to a historic low this past week, i always think about this, i don't understand why the industry is not doing something else, i mean, they need to give something extra so people can be interested on buying music instead of downloading for free.

One idea is to give free merchandising, for example T-shirt+Album = $15

Or give a free ticket for a concert if you buy the album.

I'm sure album sales would be so much better.

What do you think?

.99 cents deals.

Instead of doing things like this the music industry is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to pursue those who illegally download. This is why we can't have nice things. Also the fact that many albums are filled with songs that are subpar material compared to the singles.

Reduce album prices & make streaming albums more lucrative

Oh & well if you count EPs, more EPs. I remember a Billboard editor or something mentioned more EPs/mini albums w/ the way things are going.

Maybe they should just make albums cheaper?

Put more effort in to albums. Look at how South Korea reinvigorated their album sales thanks to smart packaging and weekly music competitions that pit fanbases against each other.

Make Downloading Albums $5-$8 and make physical albums more lucrative with special inserts and deals.

reduce the price of albums and get companies to pay to put product placement/adverts in the album booklet?

Sometimes i buy albums and you get some sh***y digipak and the booklet with no lyrics

That would be terrible. Crashing one part of the industry would be way too risky.

Have lead singles available to buy on their own when first released but make them album only once the album is released until a couple weeks later. Might somewhat help.

More EPs:

• Less costs
• No fillers
• Cheaper to sell
• Convenient solution for singles-oriented artists (a large portion of the artists)

I've always said they should include little tickets or passes in a select number of albums to meet the artist when they come around and tour. Even though it would still be a longshot, people would buy the physical albums anyway for a chance. Just like lottery tickets. Or, as someone else said, include a concert ticket voucher in a few thousand albums. That way you're promoting the tour and the album at once.

I think they need to make the price of a single/album a bit more drastic.

Make the album like 7$ for 14 songs, but 1.29 per song. That way by the time someone likes like 3/4 of your songs they'll just buy the alberm anyway not to waste their $$$ign$$$

The whole structure of the music business needs to change. They should lower the price of singles to .99c in the US. That will drastically help singles sales imo. Since everything seems to be moving toward a streaming-centric approach, I don't think album sales will ever be massive like they were in the 90s. Labels and companies might re-structure streaming and how much we pay and how much artists and labels get.

Multiple album covers for people with a relatively big fanbase.

It worked with AKB48.