40 Years of Music Industry Change, In 40 Seconds or Less...

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by liv3evil, Apr 9, 2013.

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  1. liv3evil

    liv3evil Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Upstate NY USA
  2. jamesc

    jamesc Senior Member

    Location:
    Dallas, TX
    Very cool!
     
  3. rockclassics

    rockclassics Senior Member

    Location:
    Mainline Florida
    This is cool - thanks for posting it.

    Does the shrinking of the size of the pie indicate the decrease in overall revenue? I assume it does, but I may be reading too much into it.
     
  4. greelywinger

    greelywinger Osmondia

    Location:
    Dayton, Ohio USA
    Cool to watch several times.

    Darryl
     
  5. What I find most interesting is:

    1. How many 8-tracks were sold in the mid-70s and how few cassettes were sold. I realize that stereo cassette playback (car, boombox, portable) was not nearly as prevalent as it was in the 80s, but wow.
    2. How dominant the prerecorded cassette would be in the 80s and the LP shrunk so much. Thanks to Sony (walkman) and Panasonic (boombox) and Pioneer, etc. (car stereo).
    3. The downloaded single changed the market in general from albums.
     
  6. liv3evil

    liv3evil Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Upstate NY USA
    I'm a little shocked that amidst the so-called 'vinyl resurgence' that LP/EP sales still only accounted for 2.3% of all RIAA-noted revenue in 2012.

    2012.jpg
     
  7. Thurenity

    Thurenity Listening to some tunes

    More evidence of the domination of the cassette over the LP, by the mid 80's. Cassettes effectively killed off the LP and would have likely dominated for years to come if CD hadn't come along to replace it.

    Why this is important to remember is because the cassette was essentially the lossy download of its day -- portable, cheap (in comparison to LP, it was a buck or two less in price), and fairly easy to copy if you had a dual cassette deck. Sound familiar? Consumers have been interested in convenience first for as long as I've been a music buyer / consumer.

    Technology has changed, but consumers haven't really changed all that much.
     
    baroquehoedown33 likes this.
  8. Yannick

    Yannick Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cologne, Germany
    People were really buying over 50% cassettes at some time during the 80s? For a late-borner such as me whe grew up in the CD era, that's hard to believe, having parents from out of the vinyl era 60s.
     
  9. SoporJoe

    SoporJoe Forum Resident

    Location:
    British Columbia
    Most people in the real world (people that aren't into collecting music) would laugh at the fact that people still buy vinyl records (some would laugh at the fact that people buy CDs).

    I take a class at a community college and the instructor had to explain to the class what a vinyl record was (most of the students are in their very early 20s). He was explaining rotational velocity and thought this would be a good example. It was funny hearing him explain how a record works to these kids. There were a lot of comments from the class around the fact that they've never bought a record or a CD.
     
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  10. Thurenity

    Thurenity Listening to some tunes

    I was one of those people. By 1985 I had moved over to cassettes for all new purchases, except if it was an album I couldn't find on cassette. And I was still buying cassettes up until at least the early 1990's. Portability / price / convenience.

    Keep in mind that this is a US chart, so Europe's adoption could have been different. I know some areas were late to the CD party versus LP (as a lot of early 1990's LP's were only made for outside the US market).
     
  11. Say It Right

    Say It Right Not for the Hearing Impaired

    Location:
    Niagara Falls

    Love how DVD-A & SACD were doubled up and listed as 0%. So, statisically, quite a few of us don't even exist.
     
  12. Lownote30

    Lownote30 Bass Clef Addict

    Location:
    Nashville, TN, USA
    I like that CDs are still in the lead for 2012, though. Kinda goes against all the knee jerk type articles the press writes about the death of it.
     
  13. Thurenity

    Thurenity Listening to some tunes

    Correct, still in the lead versus digital albums (that was one of the bullet points that was confusing in the last two years -- digital singles fudge the numbers a bit if you add those to digital album sales). But there was just another SoundScan report that showed another drop in CD sales and increase in digital album sales: http://www.billboard.com/biz/articl...and-album-sales-down-digital-album-sales-jump CD sales still beat digital album sales in Q1, but the writing it on the fall as CD's continue their decline.

    I understand the why's I suppose (again, it's a convenience thing - instant gratification). Although if a CD and digital album were the same price I'd still buy the CD without even thinking twice. It's when the lossy download is significantly less money where it becomes a purchase factor. But that's just me.
     
    Lownote30 likes this.
  14. SteelyTom

    SteelyTom Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston, Mass.
    Clearly, vintage cassette pressings are the cachet collectables of the future.
     
  15. Thurenity

    Thurenity Listening to some tunes

    Don't forget about 8 tracks too -- 14% on the market in 1980! :D
     
  16. alamo54us

    alamo54us Forum Resident

    Yeah, that looks right. I was in the record biz from the 70's through the 90's. By the 80's, it seemed that we were selling at least as many cassettes as vinyl if not more.
     
  17. PineBark

    PineBark formerly known as BackScratcher

    Location:
    Boston area
    Compared to LPs, portability was the critical success factor for cassettes. Users could play the same media both at home and on the go. CDs sort of fit that same paradigm for home and car, but Walkman-type CD players were (are) too clunky. Digital files can do it all (although personally, I still like to have CDs as my archival backups).
     
  18. tmtomh

    tmtomh Forum Resident

    What the heck is SoundExchange?
     
  19. ganma

    ganma Senior Member

    Location:
    Earth
    Some additional recent news:

     
  20. Sean V

    Sean V Well-Known Member

    I had no idea cassettes still had that much of a market share in the mid and late 90's. By 1993 everyone I knew was buying CDs 100%.
     
  21. realgone

    realgone Forum Resident

    Location:
    Singapore
    That's quite surprising for the US market. I do remember seeing plenty of cassettes in developing markets in Thailand or Indonesia around that time. Probably had to do with the premium price of CDs.
     
  22. Horace Wimp

    Horace Wimp The 39,891st Beatle

    Location:
    Henderson, NV
    First thought: Sad.
     
  23. OnTheRoad

    OnTheRoad Not of this world

    Mass pre-recorded cassettes generally were of a 'lossy'...or lesser quality, but the circle of friends I had, and myself, made higher quality home cassettes (Maxell UDXL's/TDK SA....) from their vinyl for their cars/walkman's....NOT for home listening. Same as now for mp3. For remote listening...NOT dedicated home enjoyment. Mixtapes were fun, but in my experience, weren't the 'sit down and concentrate' dedication of listening like LP's were. They tended to be 'accompanying' music...kinda like the radio, or a streaming service like Pandora.
     
  24. Thurenity

    Thurenity Listening to some tunes

    Early needle droppers. :)

    This came up somewhere else - many young people couldn't afford both a stereo and a cassette player, and had to choose one (I was one of those people, back in the 1980's). When I started saving up for better hardware in 1985, it wasn't a turntable - it was a cassette player. Would have loved a stereo as well, and I did buy a slightly better TT after I got my first full time job. But in high school and college, money was definitely tight. The reduced price of pre-recorded tapes vs LP's also appealed to me because of the cost factor.

    In hindsight, I wish I had bought the LP's and recorded them because I'd still have those LP's today, most likely. But, cost is always a factor.
     
  25. kevintomb

    kevintomb Forum Resident

    Oddly enough I never saw the reality ( at least where I lived ) of cassette selling all that much. It may be more of a regional thing, or age related. Everyone I knew, and im talking friends, relatives, neighbors, etc. all bought vinyl up till about 1989 or 89.

    Cassette, was selling for singles somewhat, but just never saw it even approach vinyl sales around my home.
     
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