Monday, January 26, 2015

Even In Music It's The Top 1%

1 percent artists image
Most streaming and download music services have more than 20 million songs available, which should be more than enough for any one lifetime of music discovery. But music discovery isn't something that most people seem to be interested in, at least according to the numbers quoted in an article on The Atlantic.
  • First of all, the top 1% of bands and solo artists now earn 80% of all the revenue from recorded music. That's pretty depressing.
  • But it gets worse. The 10 most popular songs accounted to almost 2% of all streams in both 2013 and 2014. That means that 1 in ever 50 to 60 streams on Spotify, Soundcloud or YouTube will be a top 10 song.
  • A typical listening session is around 3 1/2 hours, but no matter how musically cutting-edge you are, there will still be at least one top 10 song in the playlist.
The fact of the matter is that some people love to discover new music, but most people don't actively take the time to do so and would rather be spoon fed by radio or some other passive service. That means that social buzz means more than ever to a new artist. You can make new music, but the world isn't going to beat a path to your door to hear it.

1 comment:

Scott said...

I don't listen to the radio like when I was younger, and I've not yet gotten into streaming, so my music discovery has been pretty low for a long time. However, I think that as I get older, I just don't want to spend a ton of time searching for and discovering new music that I might like. Good music makes itself known even 5,10,20 years after it came out, so I don't see much point in keeping up with the latest and greatest new acts - I'll become aware of the good stuff eventually. At the end of last last, I reviewed a few "top albums of 2014" lists, downloaded about 10-20 albums, and really liked only a few of those. When those artists come to town, I go see them.

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