Deathwatch or Green Shoots?

A great NYT infographic illustrates the shift over time in music format sales. In the accompanying opinion piece Charles Blow suggests a deathwatch for the industry is in order.

But Australian digital entrepreneur Nick Crocker paints a much brighter picture, one that he backs up with his own data. While the conventional business of collecting revenue from selling CDs is shrinking, he points out that unit sales (including single tracks) were up 10% last year. Vinyl sales, admittedly a small percentage of the total market, shot up a staggering 89%. And perhaps most importantly, recent polling points to young consumers consuming more music and giving it a higher importance in their lives.

Whatever your take on the numbers, it’s becoming clear that while some parts of the music industry are hurting dramatically, other areas promise greater possibilities than ever.  We’re fascinated by the transformation-in-progess, and we’ll continue to float ideas and post preliminary research here on the blog in the months to come.