Putting Vinyl Sales Into Perspective

Vinyl gets a lot of hype these days and you have to admit that it's a great success story. Here's a format that's basically dead in the water that suddenly rises from the ashes to find new popularity. On top of that, it's been growing by about 20% every year for the last 5 years.

That said, below is a chart that puts vinyl sales into perspective. It shows what sales were at their peak, and what they are now on the rebound. Many thanks to Paul Resnikoff at Digital Music News (you should read it).

Who's Buying Music Today vs 10 Years Ago

A recent survey by MusicWatch looked at the demographics of CD and digital music buyers back in 2004 and compared them to 2014. What they found shouldn't be too surprising, because it's almost exactly what you'd expect.

• In 2004, the largest demo of CD buyers was age 36 to 50 at 25% (and it's 26% in 2014).
• In 2014, the largest demographic of CD buyers were age 50+ at almost 35%.

• In 2004, ages 13 to 17 purchased the most digital downloads at 25%, followed by ages 36 to 50 at 24%.
• In 2014, ages 36 to 50 purchase the most at 26%. Ages 18 to 25 was second at 23%.

• Surprisingly enough, both in 2004 and 2014, women purchased more CDs than men by a roughly 5% margin.

• That flipped around for digital music though, as men purchased far more digital music in 2004 by a 60 to 40% margin. Today women buy more than men by 53 to 47%.

Of course, all this may be moot in a few years as both CDs and digital downloads face ever diminished sales. It's still a huge part of the business in terms of revenue, but the writing is on the wall that streaming music will be the dominant distribution method for some time to come unless a new distribution technology is introduced that takes the industry by storm.

Vinyl.org - The Netflix Of Vinyl

Here's an interesting idea that's sort of a cross between a record club and Netflix, but it deals exclusively in vinyl. In fact, it calls itself the "Netflix of vinyl." It's called vnyl.org, and for $15 a month they'll send you a stack of vinyl records tailored to your tastes.

First you choose the category that you're interested in, and the service curates album choices for you and sends you a stack. If you choose to keep any of the records, it will cost you $8 to 12 each. If you don't want them, pre-paid envelopes are provided to send them back.

The site is in invite-only beta mode right now, and while it sounds like a great deal, expect for it to see a lot of scrutiny as an illegal rental model. If you take notice, any vinyl or CD rental services that have popped up in the past have been quickly beaten down for breaking copyright laws.

It's legal to try before you buy, but you can't rent with an option to buy, so just how vnyl.org plays this will have a lot to do with if it succeeds or not.

Still, any service that gets more vinyl into the hands of consumers can only be a good thing for artists, as long as it's legal. Check it out at vnyl.org (check the spelling - it's vinyl without the "i").

Twitch Launches New Free Music Library For Games

Gamers really love Twitch, the leading video platform and community that allows them to broadcast, watch and chat about gaming. Many even consider it the center of the esports industry. That said, it's a huge platform that's somewhat underground unless you're an active gamer.

A big problem that viewers have had is that many times the audio in a gaming video would be muted because of the copyright laws regarding the music. In other words, a video of someone playing a game would violate the music copyright of the game because the video didn't have the rights to play it.

Needless to say, watching a video without the sound isn't remotely the same experience so Twitch has done something about it by making a library of 500 royalty-free songs available to play when that situation occurs.

The library leans towards EDM and features songs from both Skrillex and Steve Aoki's record labels as well as many indie labels. Aoki already has a relationship with Twitch, having performed the platform's first live concert in 2014.

Twitch, which is now owned by Amazon, plans to make music more prominent in the future by adding a new Music category for performances, and has even entered into an agreement with Beatport to host a channel.

YouTube went through a similar a similar problem with its Content ID feature before granting blanket licenses from major labels to video creators, and Twitch now hopes that the library will get around the same problem just as seamlessly.

Muve Acquisition Makes Deezer #2 In Paid US Subscribers

Chances are if you ask a typical music lover if they know about the streaming platform Deezer they’ll reply, “Who?” Even though the French company seems to be the only service to seriously battle Spotify for streaming superiority in Europe, it’s still little known in the North America, although the fact is that it only launched here last September. 

That said, Deezer now becomes the #2 streaming platform in the US in terms of paid subscriptions with its recent acquisition of Muve Music from AT&T subsidiary Cricket for an undisclosed amount. Deezer will now add 2 million new paid subscribers to go along with the users in its Elite tier (although that number is undisclosed as well). As a reference point, Spotify currently has approximately 6 million paid US users.

What’s interesting is that Deezer actually seems to have a real market strategy in place, as opposed to most of its competitors. Muve now becomes the service’s entry-level tier at $6 per month, which is far enough below most other platform’s usual $9.95 to make a difference to a potential subscriber. If a customer wants talk radio or podcasts, the company offers a free app from Stitcher, other recent acquisition. Finally, Deezer offers high-resolution audio with its up-market $19.99 Elite tier, a distinct feature not found on most other platforms.

While Spotify has increased its paid subscriber base substantially in the last six months, much of that can be attributed to huge discounts in all of its paid tiers. Many analysts feel that its $0.99 Holiday promotion had the biggest impact on its subscriber surge, and wonder how sustainable those subscriber numbers actually are after the trial period has ended. A bigger question might be how many of them might be willing to try Deezer and if the difference between the services is sufficient enough to make a user want to jump from one to the other. Read more on Forbes.

Only 1 In 4 Spotify Users Pay

Spotify is growing and it now has more than 60 million subscribers, but how many of those actually pay? It turns out that about 25% are paying subscribers, bringing the figure to around 15 million, which was a substantial increase over the previous year. What's more, that's still a lot better than Pandora, which runs at about a 10 to 1 paying subscriber ratio.

That said, Spotify has been running discounted deals for the better part of that time period, so basically no one is paying "retail" for their subscription. The big question is, what will happen when the prices go back to normal?

The other major looming question is, what will happen when Apple's Beats service is reloaded and launched this year, along with YouTube's Music Key? Will the increased competition stunt Spotify's growth?

If I had to wager on it, I'd say that all of those concerns will factor into a tougher year for the platform in 2015.

Here's a infographic from Statista that shows Spotify's recent growth.

You will find more statistics at Statista

Releasing An Album On Dead Formats

It's been quit the thing to do in recent years to release an album on a format that was dead and gone. For a while that was vinyl, then 8-track was the thing to do. No one would be able to play it, but it was good for the PR value.

But how about release an album in just about every format ever used? That's what British musician Trevor Jackson did with his new Format album, making it available in no less than 12 different delivery formats.

Format is available in three sizes of vinyl (12, 10 and 7 inch), CD and mini-CD, reel to reel, USB stick, cassette, VHS, MiniDisc, DAT and 8 track. If none of those work for you, it'll also be available digitally in March.

It'll be interesting to see how many of each format is actually sold (my bet is that VHS and DAT will be the least), but it will be even more interesting to find out just how many of those buyers actually played the thing.

The album is being released by Jackson's label The Vinyl Factory, and actually doesn't have any new material, since it's made up of remastered and re-edited tracks from his previous records.

This might seem like just a PR stunt, but it got us talking about it, so it worked. That said, it still has a way to go to compete with OK Go's DNA album, which was literally released as organic DNA.

A New Twist On Social Concert Apps

There are apps to help you find concerts, there are social apps, and there are dating apps. Most of them cross over a bit, bit they all stay in their particular specialization. So what if you want to go on a date with someone in a low pressure environment? If that's you, then meet Wego Concerts, which arranges a date at a concert you'll both enjoy.

Fans connect to the free services through their Facebook page, and the app then probes your iTunes library to create a musical profile of you to make recommendations to concerts that you'd probably like to see. You have the ability to edit your playlists before anyone else sees them (which can be handy if you're a closet Justin Bieber fan), then you set your dating preferences - male/female, age, etc.

At that point you're able to browse through a range of people in your area with similar musical tastes. Users seeking dates have a heart surround by a pair of headphones so they can be easily identified, but you can look for other like-minded people to share the concert experience as well with no dating in mind.

One interesting thing that the app developers have found is that the romantic connection is deeper if the act they see together isn't that well known.

I'm not sure how they're monetizing this app, but anything that helps people go to shows can only be a good thing.

Rock Still Leads In Music Consumption

While it seems like a country and pop world when you listen to the radio, it's a completely different planet when it comes to total music consumption across all delivery platforms, according to a study by Nielsen Music. The study selected the top musical genres looking at albums, track equivalent albums (downloads) and streaming equivalent albums. This is what was found:

1. Rock - 29%
2. R&B/ Hip Hop - 17.2%
3. Pop - 14.9%
4. Country - 11.2%
5. Dance/EDM - 3.4%
6. Christian/Gospel - 3.1%
7. Holiday/Seasonal - 2.6%
8. Latin - 2.6%
9. Jazz - 1.4%
10. Classical - 1.4%
11. Children - 1%

When it comes to actual album sales, Rock had a commanding lead over the next closest genre with 33.2% over R&B/Hip Hop's 13.9%.

This goes to show that consumers of the Rock genre are used to buying albums and are still most comfortable consuming their music that way. That said, Rock consumers have embraced streaming as well at 24.7%, just behind R&B/Hip Hop's 28.5% and ahead of Pop at 21.1%.

While Rock may not have any artists in the top 10 of almost any overall sales chart, as a whole, the genre is still vibrant. In fact, since it no longer relies on a few huge sellers to prop up the numbers, it might actually be healthier than many of the other seemingly more popular genres.

Most Music Discovery Still Comes From Radio

While we're increasingly living in a streaming world, radio is still our go-to source when it comes to discovering new music, according to the latest study from Nielsen Music. 51% of Americans still discover most of the new music they listen to via radio, even though on-demand streaming increased by a whopping 54% last year to over 164 billion streams.

The study also found that 243 million people age 12 and over tune into radio every week, which is 91% of the population within the top 250 markets. Of that, 23% listen in the car, while 16% listen to the radio at work.

What are the top radio formats? No surprises here, according tot he survey.

1. Pop Contemporary Hits Radio (CHR) - 12.3%
2. Country - 9.8%
3. Hot Adult Contemporary (AC) - 7.1%
4. Rhythmic Contemporary Hit Radio - 6.7%
5. Adult Contemporary - 5.9%
6. Urban Contemporary - 5.8%
7. Mexican Regional - 5.2%
8. Alternative - 5.0%
9. Classic Rock - 3.9%
10. News Talk Information  - 3.5%

Of these 10 formats, Country Music grew the most significantly in the first half of last year, especially for listeners in the 18 to 34 age group.

It appears that radio is very music like the music business in that its demise is consistently predicted, yet it never seems to go away. Just like the music business, it continues to evolve and roll with the times.

Neil Young’s Pono Finally Launches, But Will Anyone Care?

Noted music artist Neil Young’s pet audio project Pono Music finally launched with a big sendoff at this year’s CES show, complete with a website full of high-resolution downloads and an unusually shaped player that will be in the stores on Monday. That’s all well and good, but will there actually be a market for the offerings? 

It’s difficult to start a new music service these days, and Young should get props for following through on such a laudable idea. Anyone who creates music on a high level (especially music using real instruments and players) hates to hear what happens to it after most audio compression algorithms that are in use today get hold of it. So much of the emotional impact that the artist lived with during recording is drained from it as frequencies are literally stripped away in order to decrease the file size. 

That said, artist’s have traditionally always had a complaint about the final distribution package sold to the public, whether it be vinyl records, cassettes, CDs, downloads or streaming. It just never sounds the same as in the studio, although many will tell you that the current state of digital music distribution is the worst it’s ever been in that regard.

The fact that Young has followed his heart and tried to do something about this is very cool. The problem is, Pono the company seems to be selling the ecosystem as a mass consumer product when there’s about zero chance it will be received that way. Here’s why.

1. It’s now a streaming music world, but Pono Music is a download service. No doubt that when Young first conceptualized Pono downloads sounded like a good idea. However, in 2015 there’s no sign that fans will come rushing back to the format any time soon when they’re just discovering that they can have millions of songs at their fingertips for anywhere from zero to 10 bucks a month via streaming. Which brings us to…

2. It’s expensive. First you have to buy the Pono music player at $399, which is far more than the majority of music consumers want to pay considering that their phone has become their playback device of choice. There’s also a lot of player competition on the market for less money (check out the FiiO series of players). Not only that, then you have to buy the music that you want to listen to from the Pono store and it’s not cheap (anywhere from $18 to $25 for an album and $1.99 a song). Considering that you can purchase the same album for $7 on Google Play, the cost of the extra audio quality will be a non-starter for many. See more on Forbes.

Albums Don't Sell Anymore, Unless They do

The 2014 sales figures are in and album sales have dropped another 11%. If you look at that figure you'd think that the album as a concept is done for, except that there are 3 examples that shows that the right album by the the right artist can still sell even in this Music 4.0 age of streaming. For instance:

1. Up until November there wasn't a single million selling album by an artist (the Frozen soundtrack aside) and none were even close. Taylor Swift then released her 1989 album and sold more than 3.6 million copies in less than 2 months. Sam Smith's In The Lonely Hour also edged above 1 million at the last minute.

2. Adele's 21, which was released in 2011, went on to sell more copies in 2014 than releases by Mariah Carrey, Sia, or Skrillex. The total sales now exceed 30 million units, which many said would never happen again.

3. The best selling compilation album of 2014 was one that was released 30 years ago! It was Bob Marley and The Wailer's Legend.

Also interesting was the fact that 41% of all albums were digital downloads last year, the same as 2013.

What this goes to show is that there are fans who will still buy music if it touches them in just the right way. Unfortunately, just as in the rest of music's history, no one can predict what they way is as it's a constantly moving target.