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More People Bought Physical CDs and Vinyl Than Songs on iTunes Last Year (bgr.com)
An anonymous reader quotes BGR:
Sales from individual song downloads have unsurprisingly been falling with no end in sight, thanks to the convenience of streaming options like Spotify and Apple Music. A new report, though, makes clear just how few people there are these days who will buy individual digital songs -- there are so few of them, in fact, that they were outnumbered in 2018 by people who went old-school and bought actual compact discs and vinyl records.
According to the Recording Industry Association of America, total download sales in 2018 -- for which iTunes led the pack -- dropped almost 30%, to a little more than $1 billion. Purchases of full album downloads likewise fell, by 25%. To put that in context, download sales represented more than 40% of the music industry's revenue back in 2013. Last year? About 11%.
Meanwhile, that drop in sales has resulted in a lop-sided reality that harkens back to the pre-iTunes days. Sales of physical media including CDs and vinyl, according to the RIAA's new report, were down 23 percent but totaled $1.15 billion, thus edging out digital download sales. Another interesting takeaway from the new report: Music fans bought almost $420 million worth of vinyl in 2018, which Cult of Mac notes in a piece today is almost as much as people spent buying album downloads from iTunes last year.
The RIAA reports that "virtually all the revenue growth" for 2018 came from streaming music platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Tidal, which last year collectively added 1 million new subscribers every single month, and now have a record number of more than 50 million subscribers.
"By the way, don't be fooled into reading something positive about CDs from the title of this post," adds BGR. "While physical media sales were down 23%, CD sales themselves slipped 34% for the year to $698 million. That's the first time CD yearly revenue has come in below $1 billion since 1986."
According to the Recording Industry Association of America, total download sales in 2018 -- for which iTunes led the pack -- dropped almost 30%, to a little more than $1 billion. Purchases of full album downloads likewise fell, by 25%. To put that in context, download sales represented more than 40% of the music industry's revenue back in 2013. Last year? About 11%.
Meanwhile, that drop in sales has resulted in a lop-sided reality that harkens back to the pre-iTunes days. Sales of physical media including CDs and vinyl, according to the RIAA's new report, were down 23 percent but totaled $1.15 billion, thus edging out digital download sales. Another interesting takeaway from the new report: Music fans bought almost $420 million worth of vinyl in 2018, which Cult of Mac notes in a piece today is almost as much as people spent buying album downloads from iTunes last year.
The RIAA reports that "virtually all the revenue growth" for 2018 came from streaming music platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and Tidal, which last year collectively added 1 million new subscribers every single month, and now have a record number of more than 50 million subscribers.
"By the way, don't be fooled into reading something positive about CDs from the title of this post," adds BGR. "While physical media sales were down 23%, CD sales themselves slipped 34% for the year to $698 million. That's the first time CD yearly revenue has come in below $1 billion since 1986."
I spend a tiny fraction on music compared to in the past. I discover music on YouTube or some other free streaming service and only buy when I really, really like it and want to listen repeatedly. In the bad ol' days, I'd hear one good song and buy an entire - sometimes terrible - album. Now I can try before I buy.
I'm also older, so there's that. Old people don't spend as much on music.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
The headline says "More people bought physical CDs and vinyl than songs on iTunes" but the numbers given are "total download sales in 2018 [were] a little more than $1 billion", "Purchases of full album downloads likewise fell, by 25%", and finally "Sales of physical media... totaled $1.15 billion".
So are we talking about number of people, as said in the headline, or song sales, or album sales, or money?
I clicked through to the report and the most shocking thing to me was that people spent $25 million on ringtones and ringbacks in 2018.
As far as I can tell, the numbers don't account for any second-hand sales of physical media at all, which may not be a thriving market but also isn't trivial, at least in terms of unit sales. Money-wise, it's probably pretty low, due to high supply and low demand resulting in low prices.
Regardless of what they counted or how, I'm pretty sure most artists are still getting fucked.
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If you take a "Modern" song, and try to put it in Vinyl, the moder equalization would make the needle jump out of the record. This is termed "Loudness Wars", and was made possible by the introduction of Digital Music (CD, DCC, MiniDisk, etc).
If the song you want was released in Vinyl AND the same mix was used for Vinyl, CD and digital download, you can feel free to get it in the media most convenient to you.
If, on the other hand, there are different mixes dependeng on the media, go for Vinyl, you will not get the most acurate reproduction, and there may be noise, but at least, you will get a hell of a lot better dynamic range in your song.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/0...
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CDs get lost, burn up in fires, get scratch, lots of things happen. streaming services generally are a much better way to preserve the files.
You think that right up until your streaming service of choice suddenly drops some music you listen to often. There is more music than you think that can drift in and out of music service coverage... this has happened to my wife before.
With a CD, as long as you can read it once you are golden. Just digitize it yourself - using a service like iTunes Match even means you can still listen to it even if it's not on the streaming service the company offers. (not sure what companies besides Apple offer something like iTunes Match).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley