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.
September 10, 2020 – US Ecommerce Sales Grew by Nearly a Third in Q2
Under stay-at-home orders, US consumers shopped heavily online, as expected: In Q2 2020, US retail ecommerce sales grew by almost a third (31.8%) from the previous quarter, or 44.5% year over year, per the US Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce (DOC). That’s $211.51 billion in Q2 2020, up from $160.41 billion in Q1 2020. This strong ecommerce growth wasn’t enough to offset losses from brick-and-mortar store closures, however, as total retail sales dropped 3.9% from the prior quarter.... Read More
September 9, 2020 – How Working From Home is Shaping Consumer’s Power of Choice
Nielsen has been tracking the impact of digital connectivity on media consumption for quite some time, as many Americans have come to enjoy the freedoms that come with accessing what they want when they want it. Now, with many Americans shifting from working in traditional offices to working at home, we’re seeing the power of choice play out in how they manage the balance between living and working in the same place. Read more from Nielsen.... Read More
September 8, 2020 – Why Companies Are Buying Up the Rights To Thousands Of Songs
There those within the music industry — artists, especially — who believe technology has devalued music to the point where it’s worth almost nothing. Royalties from the sales of things like compact discs have dropped to almost nothing while streaming pays a pittance of what physical music used to provide. But a lucky few are making more money than they ever thought possible, thanks to a burgeoning gold rush where a couple of forward-looking companies are gobbling up massive amounts of intellectual property.... Read More
September 3, 2020 – Discogs Mid-Year Marketplace Analysis and Database Highlights: Music Sales in 2020
In January, we could not predict the global COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on small businesses. However, the data in the Discogs Mid-Year Marketplace Analysis and Database Highlights 2020 proves that music fans are resilient, active, and enthusiastic. Growth in global physical sales in the Marketplace is up 29.69% compared to the first half of 2019. With a 33.72% increase, vinyl sales have once again crossed a landmark milestone. To put that in perspective, this means that over 5.8 million records were sold between January and June.... Read More
September 2, 2020 – To Test Spread of Coronavirus, These Scientists Put on a Concert
The German pop singer Tim Bendzko was trying his best to energize the crowd at Quarterback Immobilien Arena here on Saturday morning. Flanked by band members and backup singers, he bounced across a stage at the indoor concert and sports venue, thrusting his microphone toward about 1,400 tightly packed audience members, prompting them to sing along. The response was a muffled hum — unsurprising, given that the audience members were wearing masks and sitting in sweltering heat.... Read More
September 1, 2020 – MusicWatch Report: Music Livestreams Net Larger Audience Than Podcasts Through COVID-19 Pandemic
MusicWatch has released a series of comprehensive reports covering the music livestream landscape, measuring the audience for the newly prominent format and how time spent watching livestreams compared to that of other music and audio formats, among other metrics. According to MusicWatch’s data, music livestreams have been watched by over 110 million people age 13+ in the U.S. — a larger audience than those who listen to podcasts, CDs or song downloads. In the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic,... Read More
September 1, 2020 – What The Billboard Top Money Makers Chart Tells Us About Today’s Music Business
It’s always interesting to read an estimation of what top music artists earn, but any such chart is just that – an estimation. That being said, people with knowledge of typical income streams and label and publishing deals can make a reasonable guess of what an artist actually earns from year to year. Is that guess off by any amount? Probably, but we’ll never know for sure. That said, Billboard does a pretty good job of determining what a superstar music artist netted during any given time period.... Read More
August 26, 2020 – More Than Dialed In: Audio is a Co-Worker Remote Employees Can Rely On
Radio is such a ubiquitous commute companion that when many Americans were asked to work from home earlier this year due to COVID-19, the industry wondered how Americans would listen. In 2020 audio entertainment remains a fixture of American life. Radio—and innovations like the digital music streaming services—have helped launch podcasts into the limelight, drive discovery to new music, entertain us and keep us up to date on the latest news, both local and national. So when the pandemic kept consumers in the confines of their respective homes,... Read More
August 20, 2020 – Majority of US Shoppers Will Turn to Digital for Holiday Shopping Needs This Year
Many consumers’ shopping behaviors have moved online in recent months, and that trend is likely to continue through the holiday shopping season. According to May 2020 data from daVinci Payments, 71% of US adults said they planned to do more than half of their holiday shopping digitally this year. Younger consumers—particularly millennials ages 26 to 38—were more likely to shop this way, though older cohorts weren’t too far behind. Six in 10 respondents ages 56 and older planned to do more than half of their holiday shopping online in 2020,... Read More
August 19, 2020 – Paid Streaming Grows as Consumers Head Indoors (Again): Five Key Insights From Nielsen Music/MRC Data’s COVID-19 Report
With rising COVID-19 cases across the United States, many Americans are spending more time indoors and leaning on entertainment more than ever for information, connection and comfort. That’s according to the sixth installment of Nielsen Music/MRC Data’s survey series “COVID-19: Tracking the Impact on the Entertainment Landscape,” which also notes an increased interest in music listening, with the highest percentage of survey respondents yet saying they have added a new audio subscription streaming service over the prior two weeks.... Read More
