Grey hairs among us may remember the thrill of a trip to the corner record shop to buy the hottest new album the day of its release.
People don’t do that anymore. Sam Weaver, a 40-year radio veteran and an editor with music industry trade publication All Access says consumer’s options have improved wildly. “Oh, my gosh! I-Tunes, for example. You Tube, Pandora, Spotify. These are all the ways consumers can get access to their music,” Weaver tells KTRH News.
“Nielson released a study that shows music consumption has increased 12.5%. Now – that’s consumption vs. sales, traditional sales, album sales,” he says, citing a 2017 review adding traditional album sales with track equivalent album units, and other forms of audio and video streaming. Even if you take You-Tube out of the equation, there has been a 10.2% uptick in music consumption. Streaming now accounts for 65% of all music consumed, up from 51% in 2016.
If B.B. King could grab Lucille today he’d be strumming “…the thrill ain’t gone.” It’s only moved.