Album Sales Continue To Decline Slightly Because Of An Accelerating Drop In CD Sales, But Digital Track

             Album sales continue to decline slightly because of an accelerating drop in CD sales, but digital track passed the billion-unit mark for the first time in the first nine months of 2012

U.S. album sales are down 4.4% to 218.4 million units for the first nine months of the year, fueled by CD sales dropping to 129.7 million units from 151.6 million units in the corresponding period last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan. While digital album sales are up 15.3% to 85.5 million units, the 11.3 million-unit gain from last year's tally at the nine month point is only about half of the 21.9 million unit decline in CDs. Like digital, vinyl is also up dramatically -- a 16.3% increase to 3.2 million units from 2.7 million units. But it's still only about 1.5% of total U.S. album sales.

Continue Reading

The Atlantic Plumbing building at 8th and V is getting torn down and built back up again by The JBG Companies. They've retained architect Morris Adjmi from New York City to build not only a 310-unit apartment building at that site (the orange building with a criss-cross design), but also a smaller 65-unit building pictured at the foreground of the rendering. The smaller building might go condo or rental, but the big building will definitely be rentals on top with a ground floor presence that is sure to excite the people who who frequent the 9:30 Club right next door. One section of the ground floor will be devoted to a six-screen indie movie theater and another part is reserved for art studios that will likely be subsidized (so artists can actually afford them). There is also some extra space for more retail that could possibly include a bar or restaurant. All that is to be decided, but for now, let's dig into what they know for sure.

"It is very large," says architect Morris Adjmi of the 310-unit building, "and we tried to be really careful about creating something that had a very human scale on the ground. We're going to reclaim the bricks [from The Atlantic Plumbing building] to use on the ground level. That makes sense for a lot of reasons, one it is good to recycle and it is something that was of the site, but also the scale of the bricks and the size of them really work at the ground level."

Continue Reading

Those who left,

Left us a lesson.

                 Today marks the 30th anniversary of a musical format many of us grew up with: the compact disc. It's been three decades since the first CD went on sale in Japan. The shiny discs came to dominate music industry sales, but their popularity has faded in the digital age they helped unleash. The CD is just the latest musical format to rise and fall in roughly the same 30-year cycle.

Compact discs had been pressed before 1982, but the first CD to officially go on sale was Billy Joel's 52nd Street.

The CD was supposed to have the last word when it came to convenience and sound quality. And for a while, it did. The CD dominated record sales for more than two decades — from the late 1980s until just last year, when sales of digital tracks finally surpassed those of physical albums. It's a cycle that has played out many times in the history of the music industry, with remarkable consistency.

Continue Reading

               The big news dropped right before Thanksgiving. From Red Palace’s facebook page:

Red Palace: Fare-thee-well.

After almost seven years the Red Palace will sadly close it’s doors at the end of the year. The current ownership is changing, and with that change comes new ideas for the future.

Red Palace had it’s beginnings in The Red & The Black and The Palace of Wonders. The Red & The Black a quirky little live music venue. The Palace of Wonders a Vaudevillian entertainment bar replete with sideshow oddities. Loving neighbors from the beginning it seemed only natural when they were joined in 2010 to become the Red Palace.

We would like to thank the H street community, businesses and the many talented artists and entertainers we’ve had the pleasure of hosting. We especially want to thank our patrons and our fantastic staff for making it a great place to be, and truly one-of-a-kind.

We love H Street, and feel privileged to be a part of the community. Join us over the next several weeks for a show, a drink and a bite to eat as we say farewell. Don’t miss our “Ball Drop” New Year’s Eve. It will be a party to be remembered.

Continue Reading