Music Industry Statistics for Music Marketing Success!

What’s the fastest way to lose your money in the music industry? Anyone…. come on…..

Investing into the music industry through music marketing, A&R, signing artists, recording music, and more can be a very scary place to put your money if you don’t know the facts. Music industry statistics give you the facts about what is selling, how it’s selling, who’s buying, where they are buying, and more. If you do not know your music industry facts you could be throwing your money at ideas, or dreams, without knowing all you are really doing is throwing your money in the trash.

I have assembled a few of the most important music industry facts you need to know in order to properly prepare for marketing music.

Music Industry facts to Support Your Music Marketing Efforts:

2009 – 1,238,300,000 Singles Downloaded – up 9.2% from 2008
2009 – 76,400,000 albums downloaded – up 20.2% from 2008
2009 – Mobil download – including ringtones, videos, and music – 305,800,000 – down -24.5% from 2008
- Globally 19 out of every 20 songs downloaded are done so illegal
- Ringtones declined 25% for a total retail value of $729 million
2009 – 292,900,00 CDs sold down 20.5%
2009 – CD Single 900,000 sold – up 17.8% but retail price dropped so over all profit fell -12.5%
2009 – LP Records 3,200,000 sold up 10.8%
2009 – digital downloads 41% (up 19% from 2008)
2009 – Physical Sales 59% (down -12%) – consumers are still buying physical units.
2009 – digital Performance rights payments reached 155 million in 2009 up 55% from 2008

2009 Music Industry Consumer Demographics

Age and percent of total purchasing power

10-14 7.3%
15-19 10.9%
20-24 10.1%
25-29 8.3%
30-34 8.9%
35-39 9.8%
40-44 11%
45+     33.7%

Music Industry Purchasing Channels

Record Store 30%
Other Retail Stores (Wal Mart/Best Buy) 28.4%
Record Clubs 7.2%
Internet 14.6%
Digital Download (mobil) 13.5%
Concert 3%

Gender

Female 51.5%
male 48.5%

Over All Music Industry Dollar Value

Look at these numbers carefully. They disclose everything about the industry in the last 10 years. Music sales are down, way down world wide. Illegal downloading of music is really hurting the industry as show by the losses from year to year as the internet was hooked up to almost every house in the world!

1999 -  $14,584,500,000
2000 – $14,323,000,000
2001 – $13,740,900,000
2002 – $12,614,200,000
2003 – $11,854,400,000
2004 – $12,345,000,000
2005 – $12,296,900,000
2006 – $11,758,200,000
2007 – $10,372,100,000
2008 -   $8,480,200,000
2009 – 12.5 Billion Dollars lost from Piracy world wide including illegal downloads and physical counterfeiting

Major Label Investing into the Music Industry Statistics

Why is this important to know? Because if you are an independent label or artist you need to know what your competition is doing, how much they are spending, and where they are spending their money. You have to compete and being a broke independent is not an excuse. There are ways to stand toe to toe with the majors… you just have to think outside the box while marketing your music!

$5 billion a year is invested into artists by record companies
30% is spent on artist development  ($1.5 billion)

4,000 artists on major record company rosters combined
Majors spend 16% of sales revenues on A & R alone
The music industry creates a $160 billion dollar industry around it including radio, live music, publishing, equipment, etc.

Music Industry Statistics Conclusion

The music industry is an $8 – $10 billion dollar a year industry. That is a lot of money! What percent do you want? Would you be happy with $100,000 per year so you could quit your day job? How about a million a year so you could travel the world and share your music across seas? Again, what percentage of this huge industry can you claim as your own? With over $8 billion annually being made…. if you are not getting what you want – you are doing something wrong!

Looking at the statistics you can clearly see that music is still being sold, but did you realize that the over 45 demographic is doing most of the buying? Have you done anything in your music marketing efforts to gain the attention of this crowd? I mean come on – 33.7% of the music buying population can not only be buying Yanni because they are sooooooo old! (I’m 40 this year… wow bout to be in that soooo old catagory!) Anyway….

Did you know that females buy more music than males? Not a huge difference, but enough to make you stop and think. I can assure you, in all my travels and talking with bands, artists, and labels I can tell you with out a doubt that most of you are gearing all your promotions towards males. You are using flashy models, cool graphics, street pictures, etc…… have you watched any of the huge blockbuster movies lately… even the most extreme action flicks have a few scenes of tenderness to captivate the female audience! Maybe you should look at how to best capture the females in your genre of music. Almost no one else is doing it… could be a very wise music industry business move on your part!

What about where your demographic is buying your music? Everyone is saying the internet is all you need to sell your music and they actually believe it because they have not looked at the music industry statistics – available for free by the way at www.RIAA.com. It still amazes me – how can you expect to sell music if you don’t know where, how, when, or why your consumers expect to get their music? You can’t! 58.4% of all music sales are still transacted at retail locations including CD retailers and the big retail giants like Wal Mart and Best Buy. Only 14.6% of the music purchased today is done so online. Remember that magic $8 – $10 billion dollar a year sales figure for the music industry…. limit yourself to only selling your music online and that number drops a lot… like down to $1 – $1.5 billion. Now, what do you think? Is it easier to get your piece of a $10 billion dollar industry or a $1 billion dollar industry. I assure you it is much easier to carve your niche out of a $10 billion dollar music industry!

Folks, look at the numbers, but your brain power to the facts, and start planning your success rather than chasing it. With the power of the music industry statistics and your creative ability to think outside the box, you can compete with the majors on a limited budget, you can carve your piece of the industry… on your terms, and you can earn your living and more making music!

Remember: Just do something…. sitting and waiting for something to happen does nothing for your career!

Peace,
Jai
“Love the MUSIC in Yourself, Not Yourself in the MUSIC!”
www.iammusicnetwork.com