GLOOM AND DOOM FOR THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

Metal Insider‘s Bram Teitelman published a story this morning with some interesting statistics about the decline of the music industry as a whole from 2008 to 2009. The results extend beyond the decline in sales of recorded music that we all know about:

• sales of recorded music (all formats) dropped 7.2% in 2009, to $17 billion
• radio advertising dropped 12% to $28.7 billion.
• sales of musical instruments dropped 15.4% to $14.8 billion
• sales of music-related video games dropped 47% to $43.5 billion
• The worldwide concert business gained 4% last year, to $19.8 billion
• publishing and performance rights edged up “slightly” (exact figure not given, but we can assume less than 5%)

Whether the steep declines in some categories are a function of changing trends or of a weak economy is up for debate, but I think it’s a safe bet to take the easy road and say “both.” Sales of recorded music were on the way down long before the recession hit, but while the drop in musical instrument sales is surprising I bet it’s pretty standard for lean times.

What I’d really like to know: 1) Stats for sales of digital music (both as a percentage change and gross $ amount), 2) The concert business improved, but as we know the tour markets are completely saturated… a defining statistic could be to look at average earnings per artist, or average concert attendance figures. I’ll bet those two are both down. Bram, get on it!

-VN