The Decline in TikTok Users Is Wishful Thinking for Music
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal suggested that TikTok experienced slowing user growth in the US between 2022 and 2023. The decline was attributed in part to the younger demographic. At MusicWatch, we saw no evidence of this. To be fair, there are lots of ways to measure audience for a platform such read more »
MusicWatch Reports Results of 2023 Annual Music Study: Record Numbers of Music Streamers and Paid Subscribers
MusicWatch Annual Music Study points to continued health of the US music market, a record number of paid subscribers, and increased spend on recorded music. Over 90% of internet users are streaming music in the US. MusicWatch today published its 22rd edition of the US Annual Music Study, the most comprehensive overview of audio and read more »
Monetizing Music Fans: Billion Dollar Opportunity or Superfantasy?
Demand isn’t there today, but there’s a payoff if it can be unlocked. Lucien Grange and Robert Kyncl, leaders of Universal Music and Warner Music respectively, received a lot of notice last week for suggesting that music fandom was sorely under monetized. Both see squeezing more dollars from music fans as a path to growth. read more »
Boomers Aren’t Saving Music Subscriptions Anytime Soon
As growth in the number of paid music streaming subscribers slows in the US, some have theorized that Baby Boomers are the key to unlocking more paying customers. It has become popular to talk about Baby Boomers as the saviors for the next wave of growth in music streaming subscriptions. This notion started after analysts read more »
Does Sirius Deserve More Respect?
SIRI’s streaming app is a legitimate contender in music streaming and Pandora continues to be a leader serving the large market preferring ad-supported music services It was a challenging first quarter for Sirius, with staff reductions, and a notable dip in stock price. New vehicle sales, which typically fuel trials of Sirius’ in-car satellite service, read more »
Generation Audio: A Different Way to Look At Audio Listeners
Audio is a category ripe for segmentation. Genres are a great start. If I say Classic Rock or HipHop what vastly different imagery comes to mind? We can create similar images by showing someone who prefers listening to music on radio, versus one who favors streaming. Then there’s age demographics and groupings such as GenZ. read more »
MusicWatch First Half 2022 Consumer Surveys Show Record Number of US Music Subscribers and Strong Growth in Music Listening Across Streaming and Social Platforms
US Music Listening Hours Up By 28% Compared With Year-Ago MusicWatch released the results of its audiocensus survey of US internet users aged 13 and older. The study showed strong growth in engagement among US music and audio consumers during second quarter 2022. MusicWatch estimated that there are an additional 10M more music streamers in read more »
“Talking ‘Bout My Generation”: the New Era of Vinyl Record Buyers
The new generation of Vinyl buyers are dedicated to the format and represent an opportunity for artists, retail, and device marketers. In 2021, vinyl record sales topped $1 Billion in the US. The last time vinyl sales topped the billion-dollar mark was 1988, when inflation adjusted revenue was $1.2B (RIAA). Between 1989 and the read more »
Vinyl Records and the Art of Analog Passion
How Vinyl Deeply Connects Artists and Music Fans My daughters came of age in the iTunes era. They spent hundreds of dollars per year on digital singles and compiled large playlists on their iPods. Even so I wasn’t sure the singles orientation of downloading was helping them make deep connections with artists- the kind of read more »
Landmark MusicWatch research provides an in-depth look at the needs and desires of today’s vinyl music customers.
April 19, 2022 New York: MusicWatch, a leading U.S. research and analytics company serving the music industry for nearly a quarter of a century, unveiled today a first of its kind study conducted in cooperation with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Music Business Association. The study, titled Revelations About the Vinyl read more »