Christopher Joel

Here’s a really cool set of graphs from Hypebot (read my thoughts below):

Physical vs Digital:

16% growth in the past two years, wow.  Part of me is still surprised that physical products still outsell digital products.  The other part of me realizes that labels seem to do everything they can to prevent themselves from making money in the digital realm, so it’s not that surprising that physical products still provide most of their income.  Their only hope is that they open up to digital, learn how to make money with it, and reap the benefits.

Digital Retailer Market Share:

No surprise here.  iTunes rules the roost.  I can’t wait to see this chart the year after Spotify gets here.  I bet it will take a sizeable chunk of this chart.  For now, I’ll have to check out this “Other” store though, they seem to doing quite well.  (j/k)

Monthly Transactions Per User:

I really have to wonder if the variable pricing thing has anything to do with the chart going up.  The new iPhone 3GS also came out in July.  In any case, even the modest boost in Rhapsody‘s numbers show that people are very interested in music, we jsut need to have access to it.

Spending:

Simple version:

Subscription services have a steady, predictable, going-along-with-the-pricing-plans numbers here.  Napster lost a bunch of customers while Rhapsody and eMusic gained.

iTunes has the lowest spending per transaction, but has had a slight growth per user.  I’m betting $.69 to $1.29 per track is too high of a price point, otherwise their numbers would be higher in both categories.

FYE and CD Baby have the highest per transaction numbers because people are forced to buy the entire CD at retail prices.  You’ll notice people aren’t spending as much there as before.