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.

Racism is part of music and once we break past it wealth is achiveable.

"As inspiration often strikes me, it was a heated debate between two grown @$$ men in the barbershop arguing about another man’s pockets that prompted me to tackle the idea of why Hip Hop has no billionaires".

By Kelby provokes a great debate greater than the barbershop and for the point of this blog post  #1 is Racism and I happen to agree with him and I have used these three very people in my reasoning for Altavoz's existence.   

None of these guys have ownership of the distribution none of the majors or independent distributors have offered them access to the wealth making part of music and the CEO and company that comes out offering ownership of a publicly traded company to these label owners and others will have a head start at offering the future of entertainment today. 

BTW if your want to join in the fun in doing just that please let me know. 



PS Physical Music was 58 5 of sales so don't even try to say Distribution in online. 





s

What is the majority of sales in an industry and CNN declares it DEAD then you know what?

So for those of us that use Math, the current sales of prerecorded music by category is lead by none other than physical music and of that the CD is the majority of sales*

From the weekly Sales report of Soundscan a division of Nielson Entertainment, LLC it's pretty plain to see that despite the rumors of digital taking over the world it hasn't taking over half of the market, yet? And the CD is still very much alive.

I said "yet" because of something called  Manufacturing on Demand "MOD," and my company AltavozEntmt, under the leadership of Bobby Ekizian, pictured below,  is leading this new charge for pin pointing where a physical sale is desired; Now coupled with the ability to ingested the title into the AMPED and NARM EDI database.

The artists can now worry about generating fans that are BuyingThis(tm) and the indusrty parthers involved can use the clicks to pinpoint the bricks in Altavoz aptly named new service ClickstoBricksDistribution.com "C2BD" This capability has not been harnest to ensure that the whole supply chain from Fan to Retailers knows there is a some fan heat before they even have to make one physical copy.

This information for the fan backup the supply chain will also let the artists know that there is a potential to make 500 limited edition releases, sign them and sell them to their AltaFans for a healthy profit and everyone is happy.  The future is and I gotta wear em ....

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.

The Minutes have come home to roosts.

Just saw this on HypeBot.com and have to say that this is something I've been saying was going to happen the moment that I saw the mobile business trying to come into the music business.  It was back in 2009 when I was at the San Degio MusicBiz.org NARM convention <digress I believe that year they where DigitalMusic.org or something like this,  It was and is this still very important convention, next one is in Nashville -- so buckle it up, /digress>  and I looked up from the 1st morning breakfast/main meeting to view a banner that said [Digital Mobile Physical] and shook my head knowing full well that to be mobile it has to be digital and that phone companies sell minutes not music.

We all know the kids were onto this right on the jump and they started side slotting and we've seen a retrenchment into established distribution channels it's either digital or physical and those few distributors didn't go away infact they are in strong position and phone companies are back to the job of selling minutes.

Everyone streaming service or digital startup that does not put this minutes vs entertainment is free mindset to bed because there is no free on mobile.  And IMHO this is why physical will always be an option that you buy and load it onto your phone. Hey we all know saying FU to the phone companies is just as fun and meaningful as it is to the Majors and never underestimate the power of those out that that want to do just that.... It's what I live to do everyday and the phone companies mind you live to bill all of us.

Local Visionary asked if he should open a night club and the answer in DC seems to be yes!!!

When I noticed that a local Tech VC posted something on social media about investing in a nightclub I figured I'd take a look. Little did I know I knew would find one of the smoking guns of data that specifically shows how entertainment investing in music( particularly live, since half of the clubs listed here are all about live music) is good business.  Take my town DC;  We have 8 of the top 100 clubs based on revenue in the USA and try to get someone outside of this group to talk about the business and you'll get more out of crickets, even silent ones.

Show me any other category in DC close to Music with this many top companies in one town besides lobbyist ?  I'll Get my popcorn..... Oh by the way...This is not just for the investors it's good for local economic development; Since many of the ancillary events to a music event are very local.

Major or any music act doesn't come to play a DC Club to have their food catered from a chain; they want local while being in a locale and they will shop local for arts and clothes. "Artists Money Multiplier Effect*"

Now considering DC has 8 of the top 100 nightclubs in the USA it would seems not too far of a stretch to say that there is a basis for considering investing in DCMUSIC as well as DCTECH.  For the record ~ the two really aren't exclusive and from head of the Library of Congress's lips** to my blog -- music drives US innovation.  A great blog just came out on  Consequences of Sound about the All Access: An Oral History of DC’s 9:30 Club and reading it gives some very candid insight into our local music scene and how it's important to foster the locals while reaching for the stars. .

I'd suggest reading it and let's get some check books out and start rewarding the economy we already have that is bringing millions of dollars vs likes or vampy news coverage.  And, since we're really talking about millions of millions of million in recurring revenue and it also brings in more tourists; it well surveyed that having a vibrant music scene is a part of the decision for college attendance and new jobs it needs to be in the 5 year plan and every plan.

Lastly How come I'm the only one talking about this?    What exactly has to be done to get the DC government to back something that is naturally occurring they don't have to give tax breaks and  already  hire DC people every day of the week businesses?  FYI Virginia and Maryland aren't too far behind.

Oh yeah I went "Mr Cranky" like.... btw he is missed.

The one and only Dee Snider~ Twisted Sister #MusicBiz2014 

It's it's about Jobs then why isn't Music in the equation Data says it needs to be!

Recently the National Endowment for the Arts release a report on employment and the Arts and needs to be the wakeup call to banks, economic development offices and venture capital.  

As someone that clearly working in the capitalization of music we hear ourselves and from our partners that funders would rather fund an app that steals IP your music than actually investing in it.   

I've already blogged about compensation for workers in these type of jobs, which accoridng  Berklee.edu  "we are not only talking about more than comparable wages on averge paying  27k"

So now that we know we have a lot of people wanting to be in this industry and we have great paying jobs in it.  What are we waiting for USA?  

Lets invest in our Arts economy and makes some jobs people want for products that the world would enjoy us exporting.    

The Music Capitalist 

+Nelson Jacobsen 

 . 

Here the link http://arts.gov/news/2014/national-endowment-arts-announces-new-research-arts-employment

Some Highlights 

The big picture - In 2013, 2.1 million workers held primary positions as artists. A primary job is defined as one at which the greatest number of hours were worked. In that same year, an estimated 271,000 workers also held second jobs as artists. Twelve percent of all artist jobs in 2013 were secondary employment.

Unemployment trends - For primary artists, the unemployment rate was 7.1 percent in 2013, compared to 6.6 percent of all U.S. civilian workers, but higher than the 3.6 rate for all professionals (artists are grouped in the professional category). This is an improvement over the 9 percent jobless rates in 2009 and 2010, but well above the pre-recession unemployment rate of 3.6 percent in 2006. Architects and designers were among the hardest hit occupations. While both have halved the 10-11 percent unemployment rates they faced in 2009, neither is back to pre-recession employment rates of 1-3 percent. By contrast, musicians have faced a steady unemployment rate of 8-9 percent since 2009, much higher than the 4.8 percent jobless rate in 2006.

The entrepreneurial spirit - In 2013, 61 percent of artists with a second job were self-employed, compared to the 35 percent of primary, self-employed artists, and 10 percent of all U.S. workers.