In praise of — and a plea for — better sounding music I just re-read that last sentence. Harsh stuff from someone who doesn’t understand the music of today’s yoof?
Or am I scratching the surface of a problem facing the recorded music industry?Consider the following:Older music is certainly having a moment this summer and much of this interest is not being driven by nostalgic oldsters but by the same kids playing Spikeball across the street.Luminate, the company that monitors music consumption for the record industry, noted in its mid-year report that “current” music (identified by the industry as material being less than 18 months old) isn’t just losing market share.
It’s becoming statistically less popular among all demographic groups. Looking at the United States, the metric known as “Total Album Consumption” of “current music fell by 1.4 per cent in the first half of 2022 compared to a year ago.
Meanwhile, “Catalogue” music — material more than 18 months old — is up by 14 per cent.We can go even deeper. The market share of “Catalogue” music in America is 72 per cent so far this year with “Current” music sitting at 27.6 per cent.