A new midyear report from the US market monitor Luminate has shown the country’s total album consumption of what they term “current” recorded music fell by 1.4% in the first half of 2022. That’s compared with the same period the year before. It constitutes a drop of more than two million units.
At the same time, the organization reported a 9.3% year-on-year increase in the total US album consumption of “all music” which comprises “current” plus “catalog”. This means that while current music is shrinking, older or catalog music is growing at a significant rate. This sector is up by 14% on the same period in 2021 and now makes up more than 340 million units.
Don’t think that ‘Current’ music’s popularity is somehow just being pushed down by the decline of the CD, or other formats outside of streaming, either. One of the more surprising stats in Luminate’s latest report shows that in the US in H1 2022, the volume of on-demand audio streams of ‘Current’ music, specifically, fell 2.6% YoY.”
– Music Business News
There could be any number of reasons for this phenomena but one unavoidable conclusion is that it’s now more important than ever to invest in new music creators. Giving them an opportunity to earn a fair living from their work is essential if they’re to weather this trend and continue contributing to our culture.
The MBW article has more excellent analysis of this and is well worth checking out.