US sales of physical CD’s plummeted 20% in the first three months of the year as downloading of songs continued to knock the underpinnings from record studio revenues.

89 million CD’s were sold from the start of the year through March 18 as compared with 112 million CD’s sold during the same period in 2006, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Sales of individual songs in digital format on the Internet rose from 242 million tracks during those months last year to 288 million this year, according to SoundScan.

Consumers are sending a message to artists that “while you may have put a lot of thought into the sequence of the album, I only like these three songs,” said digital music industry analyst Michael McGuire of Gartner Research.

“It comes back to consumers being in complete control of their media experience, and that is not going backwards,” Gartner told AFP while discussing the drop in album sales and the rise in single-song track purchases.

“This is a tough business being a record label because they have to find new sources of revenue.”

Album sales continue to decline and singles continue to rise. This is a product issue. Artist’s need to make sure they are offering a complete product with more than one single. I still can’t comprehend why major and indie labels allow product to hit the shelves with one single. KOAR will say this again and again…consumers will not purchase music until there is something worth to buy. Nickelback ain’t complaining with 5 million sales, Kelly Clarkson ain’t complaining, Carrie Underwood isn’t moaning, and Daughtry isn’t crying. You can’t contribute ALL this success to American Idol since the TV show has peddled plenty of STIFFs.

HIT Songs that are carried by HIT artists’ will sell records. This is a fact. Now stop hiring bloggers and new media monkeys to peddle more crap and spend some time finding artists that can write hits.