Music Industry Review: Where's the Progress?

Are you tired of being told about the music industry’s eminent demise? If yes, then you’re in luck because there’s hope. Nielsen Soundscan’s 2014 summary, while painting a bleak picture for album sales and overall downloads, had plenty of sunny figures as well. Because you don’t have the time to review it, let me give you the hightlights:

1. Starting with a beam of light, Americans love music more than ever. In fact, 93% of the population spends 25+ hrs listening to their favorite music.

2. More people prefer to actively listen to music (75%) than watch TV (73%)!

3. On-demand streaming from services like Spotify, continues to dominate music consumption growth. Check 2013 @ 106 billion streams vs 2014 @ 164 billion, an increase of 54%!

4. And funny enough, while radio is thought of as lost at sea forever, it’s still the #1 way consumers discover new music with 91% of Americans tuning in at least once a week.

However, it’s not all rosy. 

5. Album sales continue their precipitous decline. Overall, physical, vinyl and digital sales were down 11.2% from 2013.

6. Steve Jobs created iTunes to sell more iPods, but he also truly believed Americans would always want to own their music. He may have been wrong. Americans’ preference for streaming is offsetting even digital downloads, which fell 12.5% from 2013.

What does this mean for you? The reality continues to paint a bleak picture for earning via royalties. But if you’re a student of history, has the indie musician ever made a living from those things? Nope. So here’s 3 action steps you can take to improve your situation:

1. Even though you won’t make millions, it’s still critical that potential fans can easily discover your music. That’s why using a distributor is still critical to increasing your audience. I recommend TuneCore, which you can explore by clicking here.

2. After your music is everywhere (and if you use TuneCore, they will put it everwhere - 150+ stores and counting), you need to optimize streams and downloads you receive by driving that traffic to your website. Your website is the only place where you control interaction with your fans! From here, you can sell them everything. 

3. In addition to using music stores to drive traffic, learn the basics of writing good copy and driving traffic through SEO. For writing better copy, I recommend the book “Web Copy that Sells” by Maria Veloso. To get some free SEO knowledge, I follow Glen Allsopp on his blog at ViperChill. 

Obviously, there’s a lot more to it then these 3 steps, but I’m hoping they give you an idea of how savvy musicians are succeeding. However, I completely understand if you feel overwhelmed. What if there was a guide to help you get started?

My name is Harrison and that’s why I built MusicMunch, where I create time for you so you can create more music. I graduated with a music degree in saxophone and didn’t have a clue about how to earn a living in music. Over the past 4 years, I’ve been learning more and more about how to take use the internet in the most savvy of ways. I share these insights with you through my website, MusicMunch.

According to my readers, the most useful article I’ve written is “TuneCore Review: ‘Your Music, Your Way, 100% of the Time’”. I recommend starting there because beyond just reviewing, I explain ways in which you can get the most bang for your buck, always critical for musicians, right?! From there, connect with me by signing up for my newsletter. If you have questions, I’ll get you an answer pronto because nothing is more important than saving you time so you can create more music!

Good luck and see ya at the next Jam!

Comments

[ezraz]

People don't want to own these 10% versions of the files. What seemed like a bargain 12 years ago is a total rip-off now.

If you sell them the full studio master they will want to own that.

Netflix HD streams video at 7Mbs. If you buy the movie on blue-ray or DVD you are getting as good as or better than that quality.

Spotify & Apple stream music at 0.3Mbps. If I buy the song as an mp3 or AAC it's the same file -= 10% of the original song. The original could be anywhere from 1.4Mbs to 5.8Mbps.

No artwork, no packaging, no lyrics, no fan club, no information, no point in paying for <10% of the real thing.

I only buy 24bit audio, or 16bit "lossless" for a discounted rate. No more money into the MP3 scam.