American Classic Recordings

Greetings in the name of the Lord.

Since its founding in 2006, American Classic Recordings (ACR) has released 17 albums--and a total of 53 songs. Of these albums and songs, most (15 albums and 37 songs) are sold exclusively through the ACR account at CD Baby, which tracks sales for us. Any sales made through CD Baby (or affiliated organizations such as itunes) automatically go to the Nielsen Soundscan system.

The total revenues from all this activity are modest--not enough to cover expenses for any of the projects yet.

However, the good news is that people are listening to and in many cases buying our music.

Digital Sales

Every single song that we have released (not counting the very newest from mid-2009, which are not yet fully posted) has been streamed at least once (someone has listened to it on Napster and Rhapsody), and most have been streamed multiple times. This means only fractions of pennies, but it also means our inspirational words are reaching hearts and minds.

Only 30 of the songs ACR has released are now available on itunes. (It takes a while for songs to post). But most of them have received at least one paid download on either itunes or CD Baby. The most popular, in order of paid downloads, are as follows:

His Eye is on the Sparrow
Let Us Break Bread Together
Car Wash
Break the Yoke
I Gotta Dawg in the Back of My Truck
Texas
Liberty
Holy Spirit
Je Retaime
Write the Vision
Rappin with God
What a Friend We Have in Jesus
He is Great
My Red Ribbons and Bows
Father's Creation
You Made My Life
Maybe
When I Look to You
Gettin Right with the Man

That's 19 songs out of 30, which is most of the songs (63 percent). And mind you, some have not been out very long. The number of downloads is higher for songs that have been out longer.

Let's look at a single year--2008. During that year, we were still getting off the ground. We had 30 songs available for download. Of those, 11, or 37 percent, got at least one paid download during that year. In a study of music downloads conducted in early 2009 by the MCPS-PRS Alliance, a nonprofit royalty collection agency (the global equivalent of BMI or ASCAP), researchers learned that of 13 million songs available for download in 2008, only 3 million got a download. In other words, only 23 percent got downloaded; 77 percent did not get a single download.



Physical Album Sales (Not Digital)

As for album sales, we are doing relatively well here also. Of the 15 albums we have released on CD Baby, four are too new to have any sales --in fact, their pages aren't even up, as CD Baby is experiencing delays because of its website overhaul. But of the 11 that have been available for sale, 7 have sold at least one. The selling albums, in order of popularity, are as follows:

We Thank You
When I Look to You (a new release but selling very well)
My Country
Day of Praise
Car Wash
My Red Ribbons and Bows
Texas

Seven albums out of 11 means 64 percent of available albums selling at least one.

Again, let's look at a single year: 2008. In 2008, we had 10 albums available for sale. Of these, 3 sold in physical album form--that's 33 percent. Again, it seems that we are doing better than the global benchmark. According to the MCPS-PRS Alliance, of 1.23 million albums available for sale in 2008, only 173,00 sold--that's less than 15 percent.

If you are a musician and your track is not getting downloaded and your album is not getting purchased, do not be discouraged. Have heart. This is the norm. If on the other hand, you get a download or an album sale, rejoice, you are beating the odds. Praise the Lord! For encouragement, please read Brother Freddie Johnson's reflections at the bottom of the ACR home page.

God Bless You. Keep singing His praises!

Alexandra