Sales of Christian music in the Christian retail channel dropped 2.57% in 2009, according to the Christian Music Trade Association (CMTA). Not including digital sales and focusing solely on brick-and-mortar outlets, sales decreased 4.19% in unit scans in Christian retail stores.

"Neither one of those stats is down dramatically," said Greg Bays, chairman of CMTA, which tracks the sales of Christian music. Bays added that digital music has been the "growth driver," with digital albums rising 37.98% and sales of digital tracks climbing 18.91%.

Last year's top best-sellers were Casting Crowns' Peace on Earth, Casting Crowns and Until the Whole World Hears (all Beach Street Records/Provident-Integrity Distribution); Wow Hits 2010 (Sparrow Records/EMI CMG Distribution); and Chris Tomlin's Hello Love (sixstepsrecords/EMI CMG).

Bays also pointed to "encouraging" signs for 2010, including the sales of TobyMac's newly released Tonight (Forefront Records/EMI CMG), which rose 50% over the artist's last week's street sales and propelled music sales to account for 21 of the top 50 products sold at Christian retail, according to CROSS:SCAN (Christian Retail Official Sales Statistics).

"That shows me two things--a big hit record brings people in, who then buy more music when they're there, and overall, the power of music as a sales driver," he said.

Bays added that retailers can look to strong releases this year from Passion, Newsboys, MercyMe, Jeremy Camp, Michael W. Smith, Point of Grace and Chris Tomlin.

• Prev
• Next