Atlantic Digital Revenues Exceed CD Sales

Atlantic has become the first record label to report digital sales moving ahead of the sale of CDs.

It’s a sign of the changing times. Atlantic Records has said that its digital sales exceeded physical CD sales in the 12 months that ended on the 30th September, the Guardian reported.

Now part of the Warner Group, 51% of Atlantic’s revenues came from digital sales during the year, figures helped by its merger with the Elektra label in 2004.

Atlantic’s chairman and chief executive, Craig Kallman, said:

"It was really important to educate artists about how we had to change the thinking on the release cycle and the type of products we were releasing,” and noted that "some fans only want to buy the physical disc, some only want to buy a ringtone and a T-shirt, others just want a concert ticket, others want to buy a digital album. Everybody wants something different now … we need to offer them whatever they want, whenever they want."

Among the best-performing digital artists were Death Cab for Cutie, Jason Mraz and hip-hop stars Flo Rida and TI.

So far no other label has had digital sales surpass digital sales, but it’s only a matter of time.