After months of speculation, The New York Times has announced a plan to charge  for digital subscriptions. In a letter sent to readers, the publication said, “Today marks a significant transition…[one] we hope you will see as an investment in The Times, one that will strengthen our ability to provide high-quality journalism to readers around the world and on any platform. The change will primarily affect those who are heavy consumers of the content on our Web site and on mobile applications.”
The changes began for Canadian readers today (3/17) and are expected to impact U.S. readers and the rest of the world on March 28. Home delivery subscribers will continue to receive full access across print, computer, smartphone and tablet platforms. For those who are not paid print subscribers, here’s how the rules will work.

• On NYTimes.com, you can view 20 articles each month at no charge (including slide shows, videos and other features). After 20 articles, we will ask you to become a digital subscriber, with full access to our site.
• On our smartphone and tablet apps, the Top News section will remain free of charge. For access to all other sections within the apps, we will ask you to become a digital subscriber.
• The Times is offering three digital subscription packages that allow you to choose from a variety of devices (computer, smartphone, tablet). More information about these plans is available at nytimes.com/access.
• Again, all New York Times home delivery subscribers will receive free access to NYTimes.com and to all content on our apps. If you are a home delivery subscriber, go to homedelivery.nytimes.com to sign up for free access.
• Readers who come to Times articles through links from search, blogs and social media like Facebook and Twitter will be able to read those articles, even if they have reached their monthly reading limit. For some search engines, users will have a daily limit of free links to Times articles.
• The home page at NYTimes.com and all section fronts will remain free to browse for all users at all times.

Access to web and smartphone app is $15 every four weeks. Web and tablet app is $20 every four weeks and Access across all apps and web is $35 every four weeks.
“Our decision to begin charging for digital access will result in another source of revenue, strengthening our ability to continue to invest in the journalism and digital innovation on which our readers have come to depend,” said New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. “This move will enhance The Times’s position as a source of trustworthy news, information and high-quality opinion for many years to come.”
Newspapers, not unlike the music industry have been suffering as they grapple with how to monetize in the digital era. At first, newspapers and other news sites believed that high traffic would create advertising demand that would make up for lost subscription revenue and print advertising. Unfortunately, that has not worked in most cases. Similarly, in the music industry digital download sales have not made up for the loss in physical sales.
The New York Times paywall will be a closely watched experiment by many other journalistic endeavors who will be carefully measuring if consumers are willing to pay for news and stories.

Like a giant cruise ship returning home from the party, the music industry is slow to alter its direction (or perceptions). For decades we have been judging weekly sales based upon album units. But fair-minded industry observers are beginning to feel the impact from digital singles. This effect is becoming more pronounced because while singles improve, album sales have fallen. A few years ago a No. 1 country debut album might expect to easily top 100,0000 units as it marched out of the box and into consumer’s hands. But now expectations are lower. Even 50k units can be enough to earn the No. 1 position on the Current country Top 75 album sales chart.
Country Albums: This week, for example, Sara Evans rules the roost with her Stronger debut posting sales of over 55k units. Jason Aldean is No. 2 with almost 23k units this week.
Country Tracks: Evans’ “A Little Bit Stronger” downloaded over 45k units for a No. 4 showing. Aldean, however, has five tracks showing on the Top 100 country digital chart. Including “Don’t You Wanna Stay,” his duet with Kelly Clarkson (47k units), he shows a total of almost 76k units.
Now let’s compare the retail value of the above examples plus a few more, derived the same way:
Evans
55k albums X $9.99=$550,000
45k singles X $1.29=$58,000
Aldean
23k albums X $9.99=$230,000
76k singles X $1.29=$98,000
Thompson Square
12k albums X $9.99=$120,000
54k singles X $1.29=$70,000
Taylor Swift
16k albums X $9.99=$160,000
63k singles X $1.29=$81,000
Lady Gaga
20k albums (various) X $9.99=$200,000
231k singles X $1.29= $298,000
Yes, album sales mostly outweigh single sales in dollar value, but the gap, which swings widest during debut album weeks (see Evans) is starting to close. This week Lady Gaga proves the point that single sales are gaining on album sales (see above numbers). Moving forward, a combined value chart would be especially prescient in revealing what is truly happening at music sales cash registers. The methodology, considering specially-priced packages and such could be a bit cumbersome, but even if the above basic retail values were used across all units, its value would be undeniable.
Factually Focused
For the week ended 3-13-11 country album sales are down 13.7% YTD. Digital album sales continue to grow however, now totaling 19.8% of total country album sales for 2011. (Last year they were about 15% YTD at this time.)
In addition to Sara Evans’ No. 1 debut, Kenny Rogers released a Cracker Barrel special that took No. 8 honors with over 12.5k units. The other Top 10 players remain the usual suspects. Aaron Lewis, who debuted last week at No. 1, has slipped back to No. 4 on the the chart and his unit sales dropped about 53% to below 18k—not a bad showing considering it is quite normal to fall back 50-63% in the second week.
The remainder of the Top Ten shapes up like this: Jason Aldean (No. 2, 22k+); Lady Antebellum (No. 3, 18k+); Rascal Flatts (No. 5, 16k+); Taylor Swift (No. 6, 16k+); Zac Brown Band (No. 7, 15k+); Thompson Square (No. 9, 12k+); and The Band Perry (No. 10, 9k+).
Upcoming country album releases are still light, no heavyweight product is scheduled through the end of April.