Pachter: Music decline caused flat September sales in US

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has pinned flat September sales in the US on the decline of the music genre in general.

"We expected far higher sales for the month, as we succumbed to much of the hype surrounding the relatively high-profile launches of The Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5," he said.

"We had expected the former to sell 1.3 million units, and thought that sales of the disc would drive sales of older Rock Band bundles; instead, the game sold fewer than half our estimate, and overall sales came in at $73 million, well below our $140 million estimate.

"Similarly, we thought that the giveaway of a voucher for Guitar Hero Van Halen would have great appeal, and would drive Guitar Hero 5 sales. The game sold fewer than our 700,000 unit estimate, and overall Guitar Hero sales were only $43 million, well below our $75 million unit estimate," he added.

He also said that Activision's music games sales could be down as much as 25 per cent on last year.

As shown in the NPD this week, US sales we up only 5 percent over last year.

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