The Market: Going Like Sixty

Recordings, be they 331 or 45 r.p.m., are going like sixty. According to a study just released by the CBS/Columbia group, annual record sales in the past decade have grown from $250 million to $650 million, new record releases from 6,157 (4,542 singles, 1,615 albums) to 10,662 (7,116 singles, 3,546 albums). Indicative of the nation's taste in music is the breakdown of albums recorded in 1965: pop music, 27% ; rock 'n' roll, 20% ; classical, 19% ; jazz, 9% ; country and western, 7% ; and folk, 4%. The remaining 14% is miscellaneous (religious, children's, etc.).

Radio, which was supposed to die with the advent of TV, is not only alive but kicking—80% of it to the sounds of recorded music. Over the past decade, the number of radios in use in the U.S. has grown from 124 million to 242 million, TV sets from 37 million to 72 million. Radio sales during the same period have outstripped TV, increasing from 14 million sets annually to 23 million, as compared to TV's growth from 7,000,000 to 11 million.

And guess who in recent years has received the most Gold Record awards (one for each $ 1,000,000-plus recording)? On the girl side, it is Barbra Streisand, who has won five; on the flip, or boy side, the winner, with eleven Gold Records, is Mitch Miller.