Self-Imposed Music Scarcity In The Digital Era

Although streaming is the dominant form of music consumption, and seems to be here to stay, many listeners are turning to vinyl-only, or cassette-only record labels to obtain their music. __________________________________ By Glenn Peoples of Pandora Pitchfork has an interesting article today on vinyl-only record labels. They reside in music’s…

Drake Scores 10th Week At #1

Drake ​has returned to #1 on both the Nielsen and BuzzAngle Music charts with "Views," which sold another 92,000 equivalent album units, including 58,000 streaming equivalent albums, this week. It’s the album’s 10th non-consecutive week in the top spot. "Views" only the 10th record in the last 20 years to…

Vinyl Sales Up Another 17%, Used Sales Surpass New

The growth in of vinyl music sales makes for great headlines. But the vinyl market is really a dual market, according industry analysts MusicWatch – new vinyl sales and used resales. The later, which is the larger market of the two, goes largely ignored by the music industry. ____________________________________________ The…

Collecting Your Favorites: Vintage Music In The Digital Age

Before the ubiquity of streaming, many music fans spent a lot of time (and money) on amassing huge quantities of physical music. Here we look at how longtime fans can reconcile their preexisting stock with current technology. ________________________________________ In this fresh new article on MusicThinkTank, Rachelle Wilber looks at how…

How Much Are Pay Per Stream Royalties Really Costing Musicians?

Although differences in song length didn’t have much of an impact on revenue when physical album sales dominated the industry, this is no longer the case in the age of streaming, suggesting that it’s time to revisit how the revenue pie is being divided up. ___________________________________ Guest post by Bas…

Shakeup At Retail Music Distribution As Alliance Acquires ANconnect

Physical music sales may be tanking, but its still an important component of the industry’s bottom line. Along with sales shrinkage inevitably comes consolidation, and its against that backdrop that Alliance’s acquisition of ANconnect, which services music to Walmart and other big box stores, is being viewed with caution. _____________________________…

Vinyl May Be Up, But The Album Is Dying

Although vinyl has seen a slight bump, the album format overall is in a steady and rapid decline, something which artists and the music industry as a whole need to take steps to embrace, rather than continuing to create a product which is irrelevant to modern audiences. _____________________________ Guest Post…

U.S. Music Consumption Up 6.5%, On-Demand Streams Grew 58% [BuzzAngle Music Mid-Year Report]

After year’s of down numbers, the music industry is finally starting to rebound. Thanks to music streaming, the pace of expansion is accelerating, despite a growing downturn in music sales. _______________________________________________ U.S. music consumption grew nicely during the first half of 2016, even as sales of most formats declined, according…

Why Trent Reznor Is Wrong About Apple Music

In this piece, Tom Vek takes on Apple product executive Trent Reznor following his comments regarding the future of music consumption, and expresses his feelings that the Nine Inch Nails frontman is pursuing the wrong avenues of development. ______________________________________ Guest Post by musician and technologist Tom Vek In a recent…

Distributor Allegro Closes, Leaving 100s Of Indie Labels In Limbo

The latest victim of the rapid decline in music sales is indie distributor Allegro Media. It’s sudden closure has left hundreds of independent labels with their product locked in a warehouse and no distribution. _________________________________________ Music and video distributor Allegro has shut down unexpectedly, laying off employees and leaving dozens…