AKB48, Arashi increase year-end single CD sales for the first time in 5 years

Oricon revealed their “2010 Yearly Market Report” on the 13th, which summarized the total sales for all music units in 2010. While the amount of total CDs and DVDs sold in 2010 actually decreased from the year before, the report does suggest that the immense popularity of idol groups AKB48 and Arashi did have a positive effect on the individual sales categories.

To start, Oricon’s report revealed that the total sales in the overall music industry equalled￥332.24 billion (approximately $4 billion USD). Unfortunately, while the figure looks impressive at first glance, it’s a grim statistic for industry representatives – 2010’s stats have continued the gradual decline of overall sales for the fourth year in a row.

However, the sales for single CDs was actually higher this year than the sales figures from 2009. The statistic brings a bit of hope, as it’s been five years since the single CD sales figure was higher than the previous year’s. An analysis done by Oricon’s market staff reported that Arashi and AKB48 contributed the most to this boost in CD sales. AKB48 had a total of 5 singles in the ‘Top 50 Year-End Single Ranking’ of the year, while Arashi had 6 – both groups dominated the ‘Top 10′.

Arashi ended up being the top selling artist of the year, followed by Tohoshinki, AKB48, EXILE and Ikimonogakari respectively. Analysts concluded that the singles in the ‘Top 100′ ranking increased the sales figures of CDs for 2010 overall.

With that said, what about music DVDS?

Oricon reports that DVDs have also marked its best sales record yet since 2004, when the company started printing their “Yearly Market Report”. Again, the boost in statistics is attributed to Arashi, as their live DVD “ARASHI Anniversary Tour 5×10” (released in April 2010) marked the sales of ￥4.56 billion. It was the first time a music DVD has sold over ￥4 billion.

Check out the figures below from Oricon’s “2010 Yearly Market Report”.

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> Statistic Breakdown:
[Type] [Number of copies sold (Compared to the year 2009)] : [Total Sales (Compared to the year 2009)]

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Single CDs: 40,089,900 copies sold (107.1%) : ￥53.09 billion (107.8%)
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Albums: 73,392,800 copies sold (90%) : ￥214.99 billion (88.2%)
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Music DVDs: 11,089,700 copies sold (104.3%) : ￥64.16 billion (110.5%)
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Total: 124,572,300 copies (96.1%) : ￥332.24 billion (94.6%)

Overall, 2010 made 3.9% less in sales volumes, and 5.4% less in profits from 2009.

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Source: Oricon style, Mainichi, Oricon 1 + 2