March 18, 2009 at 16:46The music market disappears as a phenomenon
The latest statistics from the analytical company NPD Group contains one contradiction, which is clearly evident. Last year, the number of buyers of music CDs in the United States decreased by 17 million people, and digital music buyers were the largest by only 8 million people, and among them 4 million who continue to be in the first category. These simple statistics raise one question: where did 13 million Americans go who stopped buying music?
Analysts cannot answer this question (they just mention the recession as a reason), although the answer suggests itself - people are gradually finding sources of free music, of which there are a huge amount on the Internet. This is not only torrents, but also legal Internet radio, YouTube with a huge number of music videos, social networks with the ability to share files and other services. For example, the popularity of Internet radio Pandora doubled last year and now makes up as much as 18% of the entire US Internet audience, and 19% of users receive music from social networks.
However, the lion's share of "lost" users will probably go to what is traditionally called "piracy." Last year, only 58% of Internet users bought music on the Web or on CDs, while a year earlier their share was 65%. If the number of customers falls even more, the music industry will have to look for new business models. Actually, the transformation of the market has already begun.
Analysts cannot answer this question (they just mention the recession as a reason), although the answer suggests itself - people are gradually finding sources of free music, of which there are a huge amount on the Internet. This is not only torrents, but also legal Internet radio, YouTube with a huge number of music videos, social networks with the ability to share files and other services. For example, the popularity of Internet radio Pandora doubled last year and now makes up as much as 18% of the entire US Internet audience, and 19% of users receive music from social networks.
However, the lion's share of "lost" users will probably go to what is traditionally called "piracy." Last year, only 58% of Internet users bought music on the Web or on CDs, while a year earlier their share was 65%. If the number of customers falls even more, the music industry will have to look for new business models. Actually, the transformation of the market has already begun.