The Sales
Not only has social media and the advancement of technology affected the industry, it has given the ability to digitally download music, a process that has begun to become to norm in how we listen our music. In the past, listeners were forced to purchase entire albums in order to listen to one particular song. Today, we are able to either purchase that one song on Itunes or look up a song on Youtube. These advancements have had influence on what version of music the audience buys, as well as the sales themselves.
In the blog post by Next Big Sound, the sites looks to attribute as to what affects the sales of music, social media wise. The site used criteria such as Twitter and Facebook fans, radio play, youtube views and other social media stats to determine how sales of individual songs and entire albums were being sold. Not surprising, radio play continues to being the leading indicator in the sales of a song, with Youtube being the second. What was much more surprising was the indicator for album sales. Wikipedia page views was the leading indicator of the album sales' success. This makes sense however, as we live in a world where people want to look up information on an artist, and Wikipedia provides a massive amount of pages that deal with many forms of media. What was also surprising is that Myspace was the second indicator for album sales. This indication shows the influence that Myspace still has in music. The graphs below summarize the leading indicators of sales for individual songs as well as entire albums (11).
In the blog post by Next Big Sound, the sites looks to attribute as to what affects the sales of music, social media wise. The site used criteria such as Twitter and Facebook fans, radio play, youtube views and other social media stats to determine how sales of individual songs and entire albums were being sold. Not surprising, radio play continues to being the leading indicator in the sales of a song, with Youtube being the second. What was much more surprising was the indicator for album sales. Wikipedia page views was the leading indicator of the album sales' success. This makes sense however, as we live in a world where people want to look up information on an artist, and Wikipedia provides a massive amount of pages that deal with many forms of media. What was also surprising is that Myspace was the second indicator for album sales. This indication shows the influence that Myspace still has in music. The graphs below summarize the leading indicators of sales for individual songs as well as entire albums (11).
These criteria have helped artists and record companies find out what exactly the audience goes to before they decide to go out and buy it. It has helped to form strategies on what social media works best for a certain artist and its audience. As digital sales have become more popular, using media rather than only relying on radio play and other traditional promoting methods have become less important. The internet and social media era has also affected the sales and revenue of the music business as well.
In the article titled Digital Sales Surpass CDs at Atlantic, Tim Arango of the New York Times reports that the digital sales of music, including songs as well as ringtones, has surpassed the sales of physical copies of music at Atlantic Records. Atlantic confirmed in 2008 that digital sales accounted for 51 percent of their total revenue. While this news is encouraging for digital media, there is a larger problem that has gotten worse in the past decade. The music industry's revenue has decreased drastically in recent years. From 14.4 billion dollars in 1999, the industry went down to 10.1 billion in 2008 and things have not gotten better. Hopes that digital downloading of music would help this downward spiral, but those hopes have since been crushed. Despite the growing revenue for digital sales, it still remains to be only a fraction of the revenue for most other corporations, with Atlantic being the first record company to have its digital revenue be the majority (1).
The issue with declining music sales can be attributed to many factors: from what platform the music is released to how it is marketed by an artist's record label, or by the artist itself. The music industry has been changed drastically in many ways because of social media, and the revenue itself has been greatly affected by one's ability to use the internet and listen and discover new music. As the digital media starts to become the standard in how music is purchased by its fan base, different ways to get music such as finding it online or through file sharing have decreased the sales of the music. It is up to the marketers of the music industry to find out how and what makes the audience attracted to the artist in able to continue to have success.
In the article titled Digital Sales Surpass CDs at Atlantic, Tim Arango of the New York Times reports that the digital sales of music, including songs as well as ringtones, has surpassed the sales of physical copies of music at Atlantic Records. Atlantic confirmed in 2008 that digital sales accounted for 51 percent of their total revenue. While this news is encouraging for digital media, there is a larger problem that has gotten worse in the past decade. The music industry's revenue has decreased drastically in recent years. From 14.4 billion dollars in 1999, the industry went down to 10.1 billion in 2008 and things have not gotten better. Hopes that digital downloading of music would help this downward spiral, but those hopes have since been crushed. Despite the growing revenue for digital sales, it still remains to be only a fraction of the revenue for most other corporations, with Atlantic being the first record company to have its digital revenue be the majority (1).
The issue with declining music sales can be attributed to many factors: from what platform the music is released to how it is marketed by an artist's record label, or by the artist itself. The music industry has been changed drastically in many ways because of social media, and the revenue itself has been greatly affected by one's ability to use the internet and listen and discover new music. As the digital media starts to become the standard in how music is purchased by its fan base, different ways to get music such as finding it online or through file sharing have decreased the sales of the music. It is up to the marketers of the music industry to find out how and what makes the audience attracted to the artist in able to continue to have success.