The Future of Music has a terrific post about the decline of music sales and the RISE in sales of musical instruments and gear.
The stats:
- Recorded music revenues dipped 23% from 2000 to 2005
- The percentage of 18 to 34 year olds professing to play musical instruments rose from 24% in 1997 to 32% in 2006
Be sure to click over and learn more, but for me, this is a perfect platform to spotlight this:
video from Lesse Gjertsen.
In my opinion, Lesse Gjertsen is pioneering a new form of entertainment. My hunch is there will be many new forms as technology, affluence, free time and who knows what else converge.
I see this as one of several convergent factors beneficial to your career.
- Entertainment is becoming even more important to people
- The world is flat – every day there are more people within your reach as an entertainer
- More people playing music means more that are savvy and appreciative of what you bring
- Authenticity will rule the day.
I’ll elaborate on number 4: I believe the primary reason fans are abandoning the record labels products has far less to do with technology that with autehnticity – or lack there of. The record labels business model was designed to churn out product. A model like that leaves little room for innovation and it doesn’t serve the “fringes” and niches of customer desires. Which explains why one Britney Spears quickly leads to 5.
The internet has broken down the barriers between the non-Britney’s and people. In doing so, lots of Britney fans have discovered alternatives to the Britney clones too – the authentic ones. Combine those two points and people are less inclined to spend their money on Britney’s 2 through 5. Why should they?
After you’ve contemplated my thoughts, be sure to check out Lesse’s Hyperactivity. Not only is it amazing, but if you look at the related videos, you’ll see that the clones are alive and well on the internet too.
