When I wanted a mix of Violent Femmes, David Bowie w/ Queen and Guns and Roses back in 1997, I had the choice to either purchase the Gross Pointe Blank soundtrack or all the individual albums.

Soundtracks were a great buy 10 years ago because they often included the best works of numerous artists. It allowed you to have a great variety without having to purchase 12 different albums just for one song in particular. But with the advent of iTunes and other places where you can purchase songs individually, soundtracks no longer provide a service that made them unique.

And regarding the "Mamma Mia' soundtrack, I'm sure those sales would have been higher had the soundtrack featured the original ABBA tracks as opposed to those performed by the actors/actresses in the movie. After all, ABBA's last compilation album, released some 15 years ago, hit number one again last year because of the movie's success.

Based on the first part of your article, can't help but wonder if music CDs are dead. That's quite a drop over the past decade.

The last soundtrack I bought was Repo: The Genetic Opera and it's only available through itunes and amazon. The only other soundtrack I was interested in was from the shitty kids movie Igor. It had a great soundtrack, but it was never released. Just the film score.
Before that, the last soundtrack I bought was Garden State and that was a few years ago. Maybe they just don't put as much thought into the songs, or can't afford the good ones anymore.

Movie soundtracks only work for certain movies. Even though the new Transformers probably will put up the highest box office numbers of the year its not a film you see for the music. Honestly I can't remember one song besides linkin park in the first one. No one cars about music in that film.

Soundtracks will survive for films like musicals of course, and also more musical focused films like Once. The last one I bought was for Slumdog Millionaire which had some of the best original music in a movie that I've heard in a long time.

That is the only way they will survive in my opinion: very good original music. If it's not original to the film then people will just download their favorite track off itunes. But there just haven'r been many good original soundtracks with good movies attached to them to make good money recently

Like westerns and film noir, the movie soundtrack is dead until someone comes along and makes a good one and a lot of money. Let's see how the soundtrack to "Nine" sells if it wins some Oscars next year. While itunes has definitely changed the landscape, it's important to remember three more facts: First, more films than ever are being turned in to Broadway musicals. It used to be the other way round. Second, the fastest growing sector of the publishing world is audiobooks, which increasingly come with soundtracks. And third, soundtracks are indispensable to an industry that's overtaken the movie business in revenue.... Computer games. Movie soundtrack sales might be declining but music will always be inherently vital to not only film but theatre, literature, and the cyber arts. The movie soundtrack is not dead. Your figures more accurately reveal the effect of piracy on sales.

There are still a few gems out there... Garden State was mentioned, Juno had a great soundtrack as well... but you're right soundtracks are struggling but there are still great works of movie scores like Clint Mansells work, the score for There Will Be Blood by Johnny Greenwood and I'm stoked to hear the Daft Punk score for Tron.

Remember Crank High Voltage? It may not be that big of a movie, but it's soundtrack by none other than Mike Patton one and only was definitely an attraction. There's a reason to buy it.

Yes Man also had a very good soundtrack (especially the half with the electronic tunes) - it was a highlight of the movie. Also a reason to get it.