Music Retail Graphs

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

MusicRetail R7 Mint Music Retail Graphs

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.

Come Get Your Fantasy World!

It’s now time for you to hear what I’ve been working on for the past year.  Fantasy World is now available.  You can get the entire EP as free 128-bit MP3′s from http://music.christopherjoel.com.  Of course, if you’re so inclined, you can also purchase it from there, or any of the following online stores:

Napster Launches MP3 Download Store

I’m thinking it’s a little late.  Napster would have been revolutionary with this had it come out five years ago.  Now, they are just another in a series of stores like this and this isn’t really big news.  I’d still sell on there, of course, but it’s not that big of a deal in music biz news.  It’s good that they are branching out and away from the subscription model, which I loath.  If all the download or subscription stores started offering eMusic-type subscriptions (where you pay $x for so many songs per month), then I think they’d make even more money, but apparently no one is that creative or daring just yet.

eMusic to sue if iTunes goes buffet

eMusic says they will sue Apple if they decide to try buffet-style access with the purchase of a premium-priced device.  One of the options Apple could offer in the future would be this: if you buy their premium device (like an iPhone with a crazy add-on fee), you get all the music you want from the iTunes store.  Sounds good for the consumer, right?

According to eMusic, this would be the definition of tying, that is, ” the practice of making the sale of one good (the tying good) to the de facto or de jure customer conditional on the purchase of a second distinctive good (the tied good)” (Wikipedia).  This is from the Sherman Anti-trust law, enacted in 1890, which says, “Every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, shall be deemed guilty of a felony”.

To sum up, if someone buys an iPod, they are tied to major label content (potentially shutting out independent sources of entertainment).  Which would be tying to a tee.  As much as I would love to have the buffet-style access to iTunes, it would be not be in the best interest of EVERYONE if this were allowed.  Indie artists like myself get screwed (once again by major labels), because the largest music market (iPod owners) would be almost unattainable to reach.

The only hole I see in this case is: would iPods/iTouches/iPhone be prevented from loading music from other sources (like CDs or other distributors)?  If so, this would clearly be tying and would not be allowed to continue, by law.  If Apple retains their current policies of allowing any MP3 or AAC to be played on their players, then this suit could have issues, but should still be brought, if anything just to bring all the details to light.

iTunes subscriptions

I have never liked the idea of subscriptions for music.  You pay $x amount per month and you get to play all the music you want.  Stop paying, you’re outta luck.  It just seems mobster-ish to me, which is par for the course for record labels, but not for Apple.  So I’m a little queezy about the idea of iTunes offering the same thing.  There seems be a giant void for details, so here are my questions:

  1. There is something floating around about paying a premium for a player that comes with a lifetime (of the device) of music.  Is there a pre-determined lifetime for said premium device – as in, even if it’s still working, the premium expires after x years?
  2. What happens to that music after the device dies or the premium ends?
  3. Is this the mobster-esque, pay a fee every month and we’ll provide music.  Stop paying and it’s nite-nite time?  I hate this idea.
  4. Will there be DRM if it is the mobster route  I also hate this.  I was planning to avoid Rhapsody, Napster, and others who force DRM.  I wouldn’t buy this and I wouldn’t sell it either.
  5. Will this work more like eMusic and Limewire, where you pay for a subscription that allows you to download x amount of tunes per month for free and pay per track after that?  This one I could go for…

Limewire launches music store

I’ve tried Limewire once or twice.  I’ve gotten away from the whole file sharing thing, although I will be adding my own files there once we get them all finished up.  Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Limewire has opened a legit, for-pay music store.  I’m stoked because they are working with mostly independent labels and acts.

The store can be accessed through the Limewire app, or through the web.  You can buy tracks individually for $.99 each, or  opt for a subscription which works similarly to eMusic.

  • Silver subscription: $10 a month for 25 songs (40 cents per track)
  • Gold subscription: $15 a month for 50 songs (30 cents per track)
  • Platinum subscription: $20 a month for 75 songs (27 cents per track)

Not bad!  All the tracks are DRM-free 256k MP3s.  Not super high quality, but good enough anyone’s iPod or computer speakers.  Expect to see Christopher Joel on the list once we get the album done!

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