Vinyl which is 10% of physical sales generates more revenue than streaming which is to be saving the world

Last week I saw this go up on a digital news site.  L O L*...  and it caught not only my attention, many of my friends have been emailing, texting and face booking me about the fact that vinyl makes more for the creators than streaming, which any reader of this blog already knows

( LINK to the original article about this on Digital Music News)

So, let's really break down this situation. (Industry technical term I got a situation) By taking the numbers via Nielsen SoundScan (BTW this week there was a surge in digital going up 33 percent WTW for a total of 49% of sales - to round it up-  out of it's 2015 range of 43-46 % of sales.

Now as I pointed out in the title, Streaming is supposes to be the format saving the world and the Vinyl Records was supposed to be dead back in the 2000's.   Think about this streaming is supposed to be the fasting and best hope of the offerings from even the best Digital Distribution Deal

Considering I say all the time Vinyl wholesales for what CD's retail and now it's clear steaming within digital don't pay that well.   Sadly the all digital all the time manta still wins and  is the prevailing mindset way to often in artists and the press ~  just not the fans they want it physical always have and always will.

Vinyl as a format that was just .08 precent of total sales back in 2008 go to earning more than all of streaming the savior of music (or maker of tech dork billionaires) today in 2015 doesn't get near enough press coverage I have to ask?. 

We know elected officials are blind to the existence of what a vinyl pressing plant (story about DistrictVinyl.com coming next blog) or these independent merchants (mom & pops like CrookedBeat Records  to regionals like Dimple Records) are doing for their communities while dealing with local government that doesn't get or even want them sometimes, Not to leave out  Congress which keeps failing to fund creators on the front end via the MusicAct* when we already know that investing in Music raised our GDP and will continue to do so if we only start to support US Made Music.  Now  what do we have to do to get the ourselves out of this induced stupor for all things only one way.

Let's remember each (artists, band or ground - creators) is a means in and of themselves for commerce, culture and jobs in our local economy an when connected together {Network Effect} with labels, managers, promoters, studios, socials/pr and wholesalers we're now talking about trillions of dollars. Furthermore!  None of the Majors are offering to help any local community. And, in fact drain the best talent out of them as they Haliburtonize music by failing to export their artists bands and groups as Made in the USA products.

Since none of Majors export their music from US shores it would seem getting the non Majors or the the local music makers as our product to support would be on the top of every US officials agenda -- from Commerce, EXIM Bank, to State that keeps taking about "Cultural Diplomacy" via music which is impossible since we don't export it.  Not sure how we got so lost, yet lost we are and until we start rethinking some of what folks assume is working reality (Digital Rule) our Nation's and our future is being robed from us one song at a time.

Let me just say it here,  If we took one place DC and the Mayor, who is a smart capable leader, put the same amount of money into #DCMusic as #DCTech I would wager that at the end of one year that the payouts, earning and accolades for DC and the businesses involved would strongly favor the Music.

"I look forward to an America which will reward achievement in the arts as we reward achievement in business or statecraft."  --"Remarks at Amherst College upon receiving an Honorary Degree (439)," October 26, 1963, Public Papers of the Presidents: John F. Kennedy, 1963.

W/ Jess at the NEA 50th Anniversary in DC

*This will be one of the most visited post's for them and its not the stories that they thought they'd be publishing when naming it Digital Music News....

Co op + iteration is key to release success 2015

Co op,
noun informal

1.  a cooperative society, business, or enterprise.

Iteration,
noun

1. the repetition of a process or utterance.
2. repetition of a mathematical or computational procedure applied to the result of a previous application, typically as a means of obtaining successively closer approximations to the solution of a problem.
3. a new version of a piece of computer hardware or software.

plural noun: iterations

C      Coopiterations,
         noun informal

1.  a co op creating new versions of entertainment, 
2. Creators of entertainment working with business partners to maximize sell through distribution, means if it's not sold to end user it will come back to supplier of it at a cost. 

Therefore if you have a release coming out your -- already doing it!

Carrying this to the next level,  Your release presumably has a marketing and promotion plan and inside of each of these plans need to be a cooperative marketing and advertisements plans for each phase of the release after manufacturing.

Planning > Recording > Mastering > Manufacturing > Distribution > Retail > Fans 

Check out the Steps outlined in making one commercial song. 

CD's are still more than 52% of music album sales at mid point of the year.

So I ask again what industry stops counting or better yet denying the existence of it's largest element when in plain sight the proliferation of it is easily demonstrated and without even looking at the stores listed above. 

"There are how many Starbucks? In the USA there are 11,457  and guess what they all carry music for sales and there aren't any free download cards. How about Public Libraries 120,096 and most of them carry music too.  So there's clearly a problem in what is being posted on blogs verses what is happening in the market place." 

So my example for today comes from a post proclaiming that physical is dead and digital is it... on Stereogum. Granted the gif they have is from another site however up on theirs and no one is questioning it. 

"Everybody knows the music industry has undergone monumental change in the past 30 years. How much change? This handy GIF from Digital Music News" 


However the problem is that physical music specifically CD's is the majority of the music sold ... Some people believe that they are larger since not every store let alone few venues report to Soundscan. 

Now try as I might, I won't stop people from posting that physical specifically the CDs are dead, However with the help of Neilson mid year report we know that 121,000,000 total Album sold w/  54,000,000 being Digital and Vinyl accounting for 4,000,000 or .033 So using math we can deduce that CDs to be 52% of sales and the GIF on the site is just not showing it.

PS as you can see by this weeks sales it's even more.

The report of digital and physical demise of music is silly Forbes.

Recently Forbes weighed into the conversation about the state of our business publishing a story from Zack O'Malley Greenburg "Nielsen's Mid-Year Report Reveals Demise Of The Digital Download" in it he makes a couple of bold assertions about the state of the business which as the CEO of an Entertainment company I say ain't really the whole pictures.   The part about Digital download and how they are going to disappear, didn't we just hear that about CD's.  and that streaming is taking over the WORLD, please.

 I can point readers over to an article written by Jon Maples aptly called "The Value of Nothing: Don’t Accept Junk Food Streaming Music Numbers" and he presents some questions for the people that are thinking that streaming is chicken waffles tied to never ending money machine.  Cuz it Ain't. and I agree about that part and here is what I wrote about this subject back in January were I believe more of the tale of Digital is being played out think of it as it ain't your parents ipod anymore kids. 

However,  Jon and Zack and everyone else besides dozen distributors and the Gores Group don't seem to understand MATH.  

Physical is king ((((STILL))))) which any subscriber to Soundscan knows has been the story for the year and this last weeks report is no different with physical sales still being 2384 units of the 4,252 total sold or 56% of the pie.



Now how can something, namely physical sales of prerecorded music, be the majority of sales in it's category! Yet people keep writing it off?

Sure Vinyl is coming back. Considering I backed and released Music That Changes the World  Box set in 2011 and knew and wrote about vinyl back in 2009 when vinyl was .08 percent the pervious year sales those of us that are a VinylDistributor.com can attest yeah it's a great business; However, this number ((((1,015 number rung up from sales at Mass Merchants ))))) -- ain't vinyl --it's CD's and it shows that the big boys are still in the game and to play and win in this game you got to have the right equipment.

Unless they teach something new in Bschool today-- you still have to be where the markets are and for the life of me how 56.1 of it's ain't part of the market is akin to Bush's Voodoo Economics. Heres' a thought how would the US music business fair if writers like Jon and Zack looked at the whole picture ya know, not leaving out the majority of a market. Cuz to me this is either a lack of understanding of the business model or they have an agenda?

As well,  unless I've not gotten "the memo" the fans want music in many different ways and the cost of giving them what they want has never been cheaper;  So, until the bloggers and writers come to terms with the new world where things don't go away (( They maybe niche however on the internetwork nothing goes away since the cassette tape is coming back))  we're not going to see a real connection between the artists, fans and their music until the whole picture is put forth and then the fans can decide how they're BuyingThis.  Not the writers of words or their publishers.

Funny, This reminds me of a Sumerian text by Kabti-ilani-Marduk know as Erra Epos and in it is the saga of the premature advancement of the powers by Marduk (Ram or Aries) over that of Enlil (Bull or Taurus) and the need for proper measuring to ascertain whether the time had indeed come.   Which as it turns out then and now-- it had not.