Trends News

Amazon Digital Sales up 29%, iTunes Sales Flat

Source: HypeBot
April 10, 2012

Amazon's digital sales grew 29% in Q1 2012 compared to Q4 2011. iTunes sales were relatively flat with only 2% growth over the same period, according to eDataSource. Digital sales at Amazon are comprised of kindle content, mp3's, streaming videos and android apps. Music is estimated to account for 12% of Amazon's total digital sales. iTunes sales include music, video, digital print and apps from the Apple App store. “iTunes was a key driver in hardware and overall sales for ...

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Still Think Streams Are Killing Downloads? Think Again...

Source: Digital Music News
April 7, 2012

Spotify payments are ridiculously bad for artists, but are Spotify streams killing iTunes downloads? That probably depends on the artist in question, and in many cases the answer is yes.  But on the aggregate, the early answer seems to be that both formats are rising—and paid downloads aren't getting cannibalized one bit. Here's a look at US-based revenue data shared by the RIAA, specifically for the years 2004-2011.  Paid download revenues are on the top, subscription streaming revenues are on ...

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Sales Of Vinyl 45s Grew 99.6 Percent In 2011...

Source: Digital Music News
March 28, 2012

Vinyl is officially booming, but this retro explosion is going beyond full-length LPs. According to data just released by the RIAA, US-based sales of 45s - categorized as 'vinyl singles' - surged 99.6 percent in 2011. This is based on the retail price of units shipped, which means this only counts new stuff - and not the considerable volume of dusty used 45s. It's Official: Vinyl Sales Up 39 Percent In 2011...“ And the best part? This format was essentially ...

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'Digital Music Created the Resurgence in Vinyl...'

Source: Digital Music News
March 19, 2012

What's really causing the sudden rebound in vinyl? The easy answer is that fans just want something tangible, a physical memento that isn't iTunes or Spotify. But the more you dig into the vinyl resurgence, the harder it becomes to separate it from everything that's happening in digital. In fact, the incredible access and discovery that digital formats have enabled could be the very reason why vinyl is experiencing its little comeback. “Digital music has created the resurgence in vinyl ...

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Almost 50% of Rhapsody Listening is Mobile, Even Before Full Facebook Integration

Source: HypeBot
March 13, 2012

Spotify might get more of the press these days, but the veteran Rhapsody recently broke the one-million-subscribers mark, due in part to its acquisition of Napster and Facebook integration that lets people try Rhapsody without whipping out their credit card for a free trial. Unlike Spotify, the Rhapsody app lets people try the service on their cellphones and tablets for free—although that does require a credit card, at least for now. Evolver.fm learned that Rhapsody will soon allow Facebook users ...

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Believe It or Not: Music Buying Audience is Growing and the CD is Far from Dead [study]

Source: HypeBot
March 8, 2012

NPD's new “Annual Music Study" shows that after years of losing consumers who simply stopped buying music, the total number of music buyers increased for the second consecutive year, growing 2% in 2011 to 78 million. The number of paid download buyers increased 14% in 2011 to 45 million customers. Digital buyers also spent more at iTunes Music Store, Amazon MP3, and other digital music stores in 2011; the average annual expenditure for digital music rose 6 percent in 2011 ...

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Study: Consumers Overwhelmingly Prefer Ownership Because of The 'Security'

Source: Digital Music News
February 23, 2012

The simple version is that physical is going digital, and digital is going towards access. The real version, however, seems to be infinitely more complicated. According to a UK-based study just presented by eMusic and the Association of Independent Music (AIM) this morning, a massive 80 percent of British consumers still buy physical stuff like CDs and vinyl. And, one of the top reasons is the security that ownership offers.

In other words, it doesn't go 'poof.' Here's slide 5 ...

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Offline Playback Crucial to Future of Music and Media

Source: HypeBot
February 23, 2012

Guest post by Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm. It's true, what they say: Our digital lives are moving to the cloud. Whenever we fire up Facebook instead of a local email client, we're taking part in the shift from locally-run software to the networked app world. However, some fairly major parts of those digital lives—our music, movies, and other activities—haven't truly moved to the cloud, at least when it comes to all of those smartphones and tablets we've been buying, ...

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