3. Finding Record Sales Information
General
Music Industry Research Guide - Harvard Business School - Baker Library: Includes Billboard Buyer's Guide (record labels, publishers), Trade Journals, Associations and Organizations, and Statistics and Analysis. The latter includes RIAA sales statistics, National Association of Recording Merchandisers, and other recording industry sales statistics. [Note: Harvard users; some resources only available to HBS users].
--Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA, nothing under 5,000 sales tracked): See Marketing and Consumer trends, very current.
--Statistical Abstracts (very broad level): Left menu, Information and Communications / Motion Picture and Sound Recordings Industries.Performer or album-specific
Much recording industry information regarding sales is proprietary and difficult to find in any detail. An effective way to find some of this information is in books about jazz history, performer-related biographies, bibliographies and discographies (Sections 2, 7, 8).
Billboard (Harvard users): Obtain via this link or by journal title search in E-Research or Hollis. Contains chart data (based on sales). Indexed in Music Index and RILM; some full text via Academic Search Premier, Business Source Complete, LexisNexis Academic, and Proquest ABI/Inform (click title link).
Older issues available on microfilm in Loeb Music Library, Isham Memorial Library (call number 3212.527.9.1), and numerous other library locations on campus.
Periodical indexes (newer sources) :
Academic Search Premiere (Harvard users)
Music Index (Harvard Users):
Using expert search, try sample subject terms (also see Subject List):
RECORDING INDUSTRY Statistics
RECORDING INDUSTRY United States
COLTRANE, JOHN WILLIAM (Trane) (1926-1967)
COLTRANE, JOHN WILLIAM (Trane) (1926-1967) Discographies
ZORN, JOHN
Insert Periodical titles such as Billboard and year (note online begins in 1976)
Print sources (historical information):
Billboard: Historical charts section on official website.
Music Index (print, 1949-2007, Aldrich Room, Call Number ML118 .M84).
Joel Whitburn's Billboard chart compilations: In HOLLIS try an author search on "Whitburn, Joel" or keyword "Billboard". For example:
The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits
Joel Whitburn's Top R&B Singles, 1942-1995
Visit the Aldrich Reading Room in Loeb Music Library for a selection of key sources. Also the Baker Library has historical print sources such as:
The Recording Industry in Numbers. London: IFPI, -2005.
Baker Business; Stacks -- Serials; Call Number: 7067240
Record Retailing Yearbook. New York: M & N Harrison, [1946]
Baker Business; Historical Collections -- Baker Old Class; Call Number: SVSK R31
Hung, Michele and Esteban Garcia Morencos, ed and comp. World Record Sales, 1969-1990: A Statistical History of the World Recording Industry. London: IFPI, 1990.
Baker Business; Stacks -- LC Books; Call Number: HD9697.P562 W67 1990
Try similar keyword or subject searches in:
International Index to Music Periodicals (Harvard users)
JSTOR Music (Harvard users)
and other music periodical databases
