November Audio Sales Skyrocket

Sales of audio products during November posted the largest monthly increase since August 1994, with total revenues for the month reaching $901 million, representing a 16 percent increase over last year's figures. November's remarkable sales brought total year-to-date sales to $7.5 billion (2 percent ahead of the same period last year).November saw growth across all four audio sectors, with the most dramatic increases in audio systems and aftermarket autosound. Total sales of audio systems grew by 29 percent, to a level of $271 million. All of the major audio systems products (compact systems, rack systems and home-theater-in-a-box) posted significant gains during the month. Compact systems, however, performed strongest, increasing by 32 percent to revenues of $231 million. In the year to date, total revenues for compact systems have grown by 5 percent, to a level of more than $1.9 billion.As has been the case throughout the year, aftermarket autosound performed spectacularly in November, growing by more than 25 percent to almost $177 million during the month. Contributing to the success were double-digit sales gains posted by car speakers, in-dash CD players, CD changers and power amps.November also saw a resurgence in the sales of portable audio products - the single largest contributor to total audio products, with year-to-date revenues of $2.2 billion. Sales of portable audio products grew by 10 percent over last November, fueled largely by the success of headset CD players, which increased by 19 percent. Other portable audio products showing increases were home radios and analog tape recorders, which posted gains of 15 percent and 18 percent respectively.Finally, sales of separate home components grew by one percent in November, to $149 million. The exciting element of separate home component sales is the trend towards purchases of surround sound equipment. Well over 70 percent of total receiver revenues in November came from sales of Dolby Digital 5.1 channel surround sound receivers. These receivers enable consumers to turn traditional two-channel home stereos into multi-channel audio environments for home theater and/or surround audio applications.

Source: Consumer Electronics Association (CEA)