No Subject

Buyers' Stats, Go Figure
by Jim Farber

Judge the following statements true or false:

Teens buy more records than any other age group.
Latin-music sales keep growing.
Hip hop is the commercially dominant form of modern pop.
Anyone reading about music in the Britney-Ricky-DMX era likely would believe
all of these statements to be true.

Surprise! Each one of them is false, according to a new survey by the
Recording Industry Association of America.

By its calculations, music consumers older than 30 far outpurchase
teenagers. Latin music, while huge, showed a slight sales dip in the last
year. And hip hop moves less than half of what rock does. So much for
conventional wisdom.

In terms of music-consumers' age, more than 50% come from the
don't-trust-'em demographic of over 30. Slightly more than 20% are teens. In
fact, the fastest-growing segment of record buyers are a doddering 45-plus.
Such gray-hairs now account for 23.8% of the market. That's nearly double
what this age group tallied a decade ago.

Blame it on those pesky baby boomers who just keep blowing out more candles
on their birthday cakes without giving up on their lifelong record-buying
habits. So why doesn't this fact get more play? Mainly because we in the
media primarily focus on the biggest sellers, often with the cutest faces.
Meanwhile, the myriad smaller-selling artists end up collectively accounting
for the largest number of total purchases. These data confirm just how
fractured (or at least diverse) the music-buying audience has become. More
and more, we're all in our own worlds, listening to different things.

In the world of Latin music — often hailed as the fastest-growing style —
shipments actually dropped 7% in the last year. But then, so did unit sales
for the whole industry. Latin music still accounts for nearly $50 million in
sales. So don't cry for Marc Anthony just yet.

As for rap's inflated rep, credit it to edginess rather than hard numbers.
Certainly, this genre has grown in the last decade. Last year, for the first
time, it replaced country as the second-biggest-selling genre in America.
But it has not increased to the degree you might expect. Ten years ago, hip
hop accounted for 10% of the market. Now, it accounts for nearly 13%. People
pay more attention to it mainly because the style offers some of the
freshest sounds, along with boasting the most flamboyant stars. Yet, even
with rock losing 10% of its selling power in the last decade, guitar-based
music continues to be the top category.

And here's one more "fact" to question: Men far outbuy women when it comes
to music. At least that used to be true. Ten years ago, males accounted for
54.1% of the market to females' 45.9%. Today, men lead by only a single
percentage point.

        -Brian in Atlanta
         The Who This Month!
        http://members.home.net/cadyb/who.htm