Last Thursday (January 6), MBW published a jaw-dropping statistic about the US music market in 2021: 82.1% of music consumption in the second half of the year, we calculated, was of ‘catalog’ music, as opposed to ‘current’ music.
This calculation was solid. We based it on numbers published within the US market monitor MRC Data‘s full-year 2021 report – which arrived last week – in addition to numbers published in MRC Data’s midyear 2021 report, which was published last summer.
MBW’s math in our analysis was detailed, but the basics are hardly rocket science:
MRC Data’s H1 2021 report, published last year, showed that catalog claimed 66.4% of US music consumption in the first six months of 2021;
MRC’s latest report, for the full year of 2021, showed catalog claimed a 74.5% share across the 12 months of 2021;
Therefore, catalog naturally must have claimed a significantly higher percentage than 74.5% within the last six months of last year (H2 2021).
We crunched the numbers in question for H2 2021 and, lo, 82.1% popped out the other end.
https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/about-that-catalog-music-stat-we-published-the-other-day2/
It makes sense that that percentage will only increase over time. Because there is only a small window of music that will be considered current, while the catalog contains the entire history of recordings. Also it can take time to discover new releases, unless you are actively following a particular artist, you might not be aware of a new release during the first 18 months.
Wrong numbers! Article just updated. Here are full-year numbers:
Wrong numbers to the left. Corrected numbers to the right:(https://www.musicbusinessworldwide.com/files/2022/01/MRCredo-648x370.png)
Where did that whopping 82 figure come from? Just half a year, based on the wrong numbers initially published by the industry. From the corrected article:
Now, though, we have a problem: Today (January 11) MRC Data has issued a correction to its annual 2021 report, significantly altering its numbers when it comes to both ‘catalog’ and ‘current’ music consumption in 2021.
The headline: Instead of ‘catalog’ music claiming a 74.5% yearly share of US consumption (as originally stated), MRC Data’s newly-corrected report shows that ‘catalog’ actually claimed a 69.8% share of the annual US music market in 2021.
Stating the obvious, this alteration is material.
As a result, MBW has re-calculated our own analysis of the US market in 2021 using MRC Data’s revised/corrected numbers.
Now, though, we have a problem: Today (January 11) MRC Data has issued a correction to its annual 2021 report, significantly altering its numbers when it comes to both ‘catalog’ and ‘current’ music consumption in 2021.
This led to a significant increase in Catalog’s share of the audio on-demand streaming universe, with 70% in 2021 vs 65% in 2020, as consumers reconnected with old favorites or discovered them for the first time through platforms like TikTok.
And vintage music formats took on new relevance in 2021 too, as vinyl album sales outpaced CDs for the first time in MRC Data’s history (since 1991). Vinyl album volume increased a whopping 50.4% YOY and finished the year with 41.7 million versus CD album volume at 40.6 million. This included the first week in MRC Data history that saw vinyl sales in excess of 2 million copies, with 2.11 million albums sold the week ending Dec. 23 as consumers stocked up for the holiday season.
8)
Surely we all know that the best music has already been made and the best musicians are already dead.
The old groups are the best. :)
I don't necessary think old groups are better or that current groups are better. Back catalogs can be pretty large as it is and so there is plenty to consume there. Also with the pandemic people would have more time on their hands to look through those back catalogs.
I am cocksure (please don't disturb me by facts to the contrary) that one big reason the "catalog" percentage rises in the second half, is that godawful December season.
Make my wish come true; I don't want no music that's new
... or blue ... or listenable.
I saw speculation that this is somewhat due to older people adopting on-demand streaming music and listening to "catalog music"
That is interesting because when I was growing-up the "top 40" radio stations were the hottest and I think most of the album sales were also current/recent. Our town had also had an easy-listening radio station and I think a classical station, but there was no oldies or classic rock station. At some point they added a country station.
Generally, you could only buy singles (45's) that were currently on the charts. Once a song fell off the charts it was no longer in the record store, except sometimes there was a small miscellaneous "oldies" bin. I think the oldies were leftovers... They weren't re-pressing them (the singles anyway).
But in those days, we didn't have the Internet or cable TV so all of the kids were listening to the same music... And everybody was watching the same TV shows.
...And now that I'm an old guy, 99.99% of what I listen to is "catalog" and I mostly just listen to music that I already own. ;)
On the other side of the coin... A few years ago I saw a statistic that said something like 80% of available music had zero sales in a given year! So there is probably a LOT of available music that's NEVER streamed either...
Music streaming services have moved music consumption from once time purchases to subscription. Thus, rather than people buying the next Lady Gaga once, then listening to it however often for all future, they are now paying (essentially) per listen.
That moves incentive from releasing new music to owning the golden oldies that people will listen to again and again.
BTW, once we have all thrown away our musical collection (and CD player), I expect that whoever owns the Beatles catalog, ABBA etc will pull out of Spotify, release their own streaming service, and the price will be reflecting how eager we are to listening to the music we grew up with. With no realistic alternative.
-k
I don't listen to current music because so little of it is intersting to me. Maybe I'm old and living in the past but what I hear today is a lot of corporate and affluent crap. To me the golden age of music is over and I see the decline of popular music as a parallel to all the corruption that's happening in society. Just saying.
I see the decline of popular music as a parallel to all the corruption that's happening in society.
... rather playing the soundtrack to our youth, when we invented free-sex-on-questionable-quality-acid *puts on Woodstock movie*Oops, that was one generation or two up ... or maybe three by now?
I can't help agreeing with you, actually - but yet: old farts have always been whining. I wish that when I was a teenager I knew John Coltrane (and John Zorn), so I could have effectively shut up old aunts who claimed that metal was just a noisy reflection of declining society, while jazz was ...
(Old farts whining will at some points in time be right too - and that time is now. *knock on wood*)
I find K-pop to be very product oriented as well. I've found it rather hard to sort from a Billboard 100 list, songs that I'd like.
Sure, there are times when I found a song bad on the first listen, gradually getting better then on to becoming one of my favourites, but a lot of the pop songs are immediately revolting either by their cliché execution or rather pathetic lyrics.
Personally, I end up listening to either J-pop anisongs or Hindi songs (my first language).
I concur with the assumption that current music probably gets more play time and more consumption, but the channels through which they reach the customer, is mainly through streaming and subscription services. I can see people buying (as in actually getting the file for themselves, etc.) the not-so-hot music of old, simply because it's more difficult to get them on a subscription basis, and people just want to have them for safekeeping. As modern music (or "current" as they call it) becomes older, people will start picking it up in media sales, for the same reason, i.e. I think those effects will have the bow-wave characteristic, etc.
So, you're more likely to stream current music, and more likely to buy older music, that kinda deal, etc.
Btw. I think the same effect is also present in consumption of new (or "current") and old movies. I think it's simply an effect of convenient streaming and subscription services in how those sales have shifted.
With a convenient access to music and media, I think the distinction between "current" and "catalog" is very difficult to figure out correctly, etc. Is a track that is a month old "old" or "current" - you tell me.