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.
February 22, 2021 – The NPD Group: Fourth Quarter 2020 U.S. Consumer Spending on Video Game Products Increased 26% While Annual Spend Gained 27% Compared to 2019
According to the Q4 2020 Games Market Dynamics: U.S. report from The NPD Group, overall total consumer spending on video gaming in the U.S. continued to break records, reaching $18.6 billion in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2020 (October – December), an increase of 26% compared to Q4 2019. Full-year U.S. games industry consumer spend across all categories reached $57 billion, a 27% increase versus 2019. Significant Q4 and annual 2020 gains were seen across digital console and PC content,... Read More
February 18, 2021 – Every Dollar Earned by Music Biz Generates Another 50 Cents for US Economy: Study
The U.S. music industry’s total impact on the country’s economy grew to $170 billion in 2018, generating an additional 50 cents of revenue on every dollar earned for adjacent industries such as tourism, hospitality and marketing, according to the RIAA’s new economic impact report. Music industry revenues in 2018 were $113 billion — of which employee earnings were over $88 billion. Directly and indirectly, “total music supported employment” rose from 2.08 billion in 2015 to 2.47 billion in 2018,... Read More
February 17, 2021 – The Sober Rebranding of Rock ‘N’ Roll
Throughout modern music, the mantra “sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll” has been both a catalyzer and a destructor. The cautionary tale practically writes itself: Artist finds purpose in music, sees commercial success, indulges in every substance known to man, falls, bottoms out, loses a career, climbs back out of the darkness through sobriety. That’s the happy-ending version; there are plenty who aren’t as fortunate. Indeed, the 50th anniversaries of the deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison straddle 2020 and 2021.... Read More
February 16, 2021 – (More) Digital Trends for 2021: Subscriptions Will Grow in Importance
This is the third in eMarketer’s series of additional transformative developments that should be on your radar in 2021: It looks likely that apps and other service providers will pursue more varied monetization strategies this year. Traditionally, apps mostly pursued two strategies: in-app purchases and in-app advertising. Over the past couple of years, many developers have combined the two, but we’re increasingly seeing them use subscription-based models, as well as coupons or other incentives for viewing advertising,... Read More
February 11, 2021 – How Covid-19 Is Driving Business Technology Spend In 2021
The survey of U.K. business leaders found that 70% of companies expect their IT spend to grow this year, with 69% planning to launch new digital projects, tools, or initiatives, and 65% intending to invest in a new field of technology, including artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and cybersecurity. Cloud technologies are also on the radar, where 64% of businesses are planning to invest this year. Similar numbers are looking to enhance their customers’ digital experience (68%),... Read More
February 9, 2021 – How U.S. Media Use Will Change in 2021, Virtual Co-Viewing, and Video Games Replacing Music
In a new podcast report, eMarketer junior forecasting analyst Zach Goldner and senior forecasting analyst at Insider Intelligence, Oscar Orozco, discuss how US media use will change in 2021: Are fewer Americans watching TV, which digital devices are being used more, and how much time is spent with TikTok and Disney+? They then talk about how much people are willing to pay for TV streaming, virtually co-viewing digital content, and whether video games have replaced music as the most important aspect of youth culture.... Read More
February 8, 2021 – Seven in 10 US Adults Haven’t Bought Anything Via Social
Many social media platforms have started making measurable gains in social commerce, but according to a June 2020 Bizrate Insights survey conducted for eMarketer, there’s still a ways to go. 70.4% of respondents, the largest share, said they’ve never made a purchase via a social media platform, indicating there’s a lot of opportunity on the table for social platforms to drive up social commerce adoption. Click here to read more from eMarketer.... Read More
January 27, 2021 – Tops of 2020: Nielsen Streaming Unwrapped
2020 has been branded with an assortment of labels and titles, but from a media perspective, it was a truly transitional year for streaming video. With dramatic impacts to traditional staples like live sports, and an anxiety-inducing hyper news cycle alternating between COVID updates and political divisiveness, streaming video provided a much needed escape. While the massive spikes in media usage that sparked streaming enablement into near ubiquity weren’t unexpected given countrywide lockdowns, the aftermath reflects a permanently altered media landscape,... Read More
January 26, 2021 – US In-App Video Ad Spending Will Rebound in 2021, Bolstered by Social Media Advertising
Last year’s pandemic-related advertiser pullback led to an unprecedented slowdown in mobile video ad spend, which had previously been growing rapidly. But as the ad market begins to normalize this year, spending on mobile in-app video advertising in the U.S. will rebound strongly in 2021, growing by 27.6% year over year to reach $18.01 billion, per eMarketer’s newest estimates. That’s up by more than 11 percentage points from the 15.9% growth it saw in 2020. It’s also faster than this year’s 22.2% growth in US mobile web video ad spending,... Read More
December 15, 2020 – Vinyl Album Sales Hit Historic High in U.S. After Black Friday 2020
Shopping and promotions on Black Friday (Nov. 27) helped push vinyl album sales to a historic high in the U.S., according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. In the week of Nov. 27 – Dec. 3, 1.253 million vinyl albums were sold (up 56%) — the largest sales week for the format since Nielsen Music/MRC Data began electronically tracking music sales in 1991. It’s only the second time that weekly vinyl album sales surpassed 1 million in the Nielsen Music/MRC Data era.... Read More
