Music Industry Analysis
Music Biz curates a feed of music industry news articles, business statistics and trend analysis from a variety of media outlets, filtering out the noise to deliver you the actionable insights you need to succeed. Starting in 2024, these articles will be accessible exclusively from Music Biz’s social media feeds.
November 26, 2019 – Music Streaming Is Americans’ Most-Wanted Subscription Service, Says MusicWatch Survey
Consumers’ most-wanted subscription isn’t Amazon Prime or Netflix but rather music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, according to a new survey conducted by MusicWatch. In the online survey, which polled over 1,200 people aged 13-39 who aren’t yet subscribers to any service, MusicWatch posed a hypothetical scenario in which it would offer to pay for a total of three subscriptions, ranging from entertainment to food delivery to personal care. According to the results,... Read More
November 26, 2019 – On-Demand Audio, Video Streams Pass 1 Trillion This Year for First Time in US
For the week ended November 21, US audio and video on-demand streams passed 1 trillion for the first time ever in a calendar year, tallying 1.002 trillion streams so far this year, according to Nielsen Music. At the same time last year, there were 765.2 billion audio and video on-demand streams in the US. “Surpassing 1 trillion on-demand streams in less than a year underscores how fans are continuing to evolve in the way they listen to music,” ... Read More
November 19, 2019 – Hiding Likes on Instagram Could Change Influencer Marketing for the Better, Marketers Say
Instagram has begun hiding ‘likes’ for select users worldwide, expanding a test that could determine whether or not they will be permanently hidden from public view. Instagram’s CEO Adam Mosseri said the experiment will help improve the mental health of users, while some influencers and celebrities have argued that it may reduce engagement and make it harder to attract brands. But some marketers see this test as an opportunity to move away from such vanity metrics,... Read More
November 15, 2019 – NPD Group Profiles the 2019 U.S. Holiday Shopper by Generation
Many Gen Z and Millennial consumers are planning to start their shopping on Black Friday, and Gen X and Baby Boomers are planning on spending the most of all generations on holiday shopping. Each generation’s holiday shopping plan looks different, according to insights from the 2019 Holiday Purchase Intentions Survey from The NPD Group. Understanding the similarities and differences in when, where, how much, and what each consumer group plans to spend on will be critical for marketers navigating 2019 holiday season.... Read More
November 13, 2019 – Three Supply-Side Indicators That Signal the New Music Industry Has Arrived
The CD, Napster and iTunes brought about massive changes in the music industry, but the structure of the industry stayed the same (with the exception of manufacturing and physical distribution). Then came streaming. Truly disruptive? Up until now, one could argue that even streaming hasn’t been disruptive to industry structure in the same way Amazon/Uber/AirBnB have been in their respective sectors. More than a dozen years since the first commercial streaming services came to market, it seems a tipping point has arrived.... Read More
November 11, 2019 – Best-Selling Albums Are Spending Less Time On Top
It sold more than 45 million copies, provided bedroom poster art to countless youngsters and propelled Pink Floyd, then a relatively obscure English rock band, to international stardom. The Dark Side of the Moon has earned countless accolades since its release in 1973. Among its most extraordinary achievements is the time it spent on Billboard’s 200 album chart: 943 weeks, the equivalent of 18 years. Such feats are becoming ever less common, according to a recent paper by Lukas Schneider and Claudius Gros of the Goethe University in Frankfurt.... Read More
November 8, 2019 – Gen Xers, Millennials and Even Some Gen Zs Choose Vinyl and Drive Record Sales Up
Sales data shows that cassettes first surpassed vinyl LP sales in the U.S. in 1983. Then CDs surpassed cassette sales in 1991. At that point, vinyl LPs disappeared from most music stores, remaining only a DJ specialty. They accounted for only 0.8 percent of total music sales. Tim Ford, vice president of purchasing at Sunrise Records, says he recalls feeling forced to buy CDs in the ’90s because they were cheaper than vinyl and more widely available for him as a broke teenager.... Read More
November 8, 2019 – US Holiday Sales to Cross $1 Trillion for First Time
Despite healthy consumer spending overall in 2019, the upcoming holiday season will be affected by economic uncertainty and a shorter timeframe. (This year has six fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas than in 2018.) In a new report, eMarketer forecasts that total U.S. holiday retail sales will climb 3.8% to $1.008 trillion this year: the first-ever trillion-dollar holiday season. Last year saw even less growth, at 2.4%. Cyber Monday is once again expected to be the biggest online shopping day in US history,... Read More
November 5, 2019 – Black Friday: Still the Superhero of the Shopper’s Year?
From humble beginnings some 50 years ago, Black Friday has now become a global retail phenomenon. From Spain to Senegal and from Israel to Iceland, shoppers around the globe now enjoy the November bargain-fest. In 2018, sales on the day around the world were on average 6.6 times greater than a regular Friday. They were highest in Pakistan, where shoppers spent more than 115 times as much as a regular Friday, followed by Hungary (97 times) and Italy (45 times).... Read More
November 4, 2019 – IPSOS: The Brand vs. Performance Media Debate
While it’s true that ecommerce sales can be directly tracked through last-click attribution metrics, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the digital performance media being measured, owns 100% responsibility for the sales. This is a myth across many industries that needs to be broken in order to ensure the long-term health and sustainability of brands. Unfortunately, over the last 5-years these measurement approaches have led organizations to focus on silo-based measurement platforms and in many cases, build silos around the media channels that can be classified as brand vs.... Read More
