Happy New Year Everyone!

I am writing to you for the first time as the new Executive Director of CIMS, and I cannot tell you how honored I am to be typing this message.

First of all, as this week’s chart is the official passing of the torch, I would like to give a big thanks to Michael Bunnell for all of his years of service to this organization. I had the pleasure of working with Michael for his entire tenure as Director and we truly appreciate all of his hard work and diligence. Thank you, Michael! If you need to find him, he still has a kick ass record store in Boise, ID that remains a proud member of CIMS.

Next we have the CIMS year-end wrap. I think it goes without saying that 2019 was a tough one. With major supply chain problems that presented major hurdles for everyone on all sides of our business, we all found ourselves having to work both smarter AND harder.

I polled the CIMS stores to see how this December compared to 2018, so let’s see the compiled results:

How did your December 2019 fare overall compared to December 2018?

Answers ranged from a negative 16.3% to a high of 12% up, overall average being up 2%

How did your vinyl sales fare in December 2019 compared to December 2018?

Range of down 15% to a high of 21% up with an average growth of 7%

How did CD sales in December 2019 compare to December 2018?

Overall there was a drop in CD sales the average being a drop of about 13%

Any product lines or genres that stuck out as big winners for the holiday season and all year?

Socks still rule. Other big sellers included: Stickers, Turntables, Vinyl Accessories, Toys, Candles, Classic Rock Vinyl, Dishtowels and who knew… oven mitts!

How did vinyl fare in 2019 compared to last year?

Average overall growth of 7.3%

How did CD sales fare for the year compared to last?

The average sales were down 7.64%

Were there any contributing or diminishing factors that affected sales at Christmas and throughout the year?

The most frequent response where was the obvious one- DSD issues.

Other factors included:
Shorter shopping season- fewer days between Black Friday and Christams
The weather- milder winter for the most part helped sales
Lack of big titles

In a perfect world of music retail, what would change?

The overall most consistent response was the plea for distribution issues to be rectified

Other responses included:
CD and Vinyl release coinciding with digital allowing all formats to be treated equally.
Lower LP prices
CD Sales would make a strong comeback

In summary, we are still seeing a decline of CD sales, but vinyl is still growing. Most stores overall had a good year. The number one question I have heard from the stores and the one I am asking myself is: “How much better could the holiday and the year overall have been if we were not battling the issues of getting product onto the shelves?” I guess that would be the number one new year’s resolution for 2020.

Despite the issues at hand, I want to thank everyone that has worked with CIMS and/or ThinkIndie this year. We truly value these relationships and your continued support!

Finally, to anyone here that does not know that much about me, let’s change that. For a little background, this is my 16th year with CIMS/ThinkIndie Distribution. I have been the general manager for both companies for the past 11 years and I am looking forward to taking on this new role and stepping into this new era of our organization. Music is my passion and I am committed to this group. From now on, you will be hearing from me weekly with news from the front lines, but please feel free to reach out at my contact info below. I want to hear from you!

Andrea Paschal
Executive Director
Coalition of Independent Music Stores
ThinkIndie Distribution
3738 4th Terrace North
Birmingham, AL 35222
Phone: 205.595.1932 x.208
Fax: 205.595.1938
Email : andrea@cimsmusic.com
cimsmusic.com
#cimsmusic

Here are the charts.