Following up on a comprehensive look at the U.S. music industry in 2014, Nielsen has released its year-in-review for our neighbors to the north. Canadian listeners streamed more than 6 billion songs in just the second half of 2014. Continue Reading
Now that we’ve set off on a fresh new year, we’re getting some interesting and insightful perspectives on everything that transpired in the music world during 2014. Data scientists have had the time to collect final numbers and finish analyses. On Jan. 2, we got a preliminary look at the work of Nielsen SoundScan team, which showed a general trend of increased streaming and decreased sales. Today, we have the 2014 Nielsen Music U.S. Report to expand on those first finds. Continue Reading
Nielsen SoundScan released its 2014 year-end figures for both music sales and streaming in the U.S. Streaming totaled 164 billion songs, up 54% from the 106 billion songs streamed the previous year. According to the Wall Street Journal (paywall), the overall music consumption didn’t change extensively between 2013 and 2014 based on an equivalence where 1,500 song streams or 10 individual song downloads count as an album sale. Continue Reading
Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web: The return of cassettes; the return of vinyl; Nielsen on marketing to millennial men; more on Merlin/Pandora. Continue Reading
Nielsen released its Q3 Total Audience Report, formerly called the Cross Platform Report. The name change signifies a philosophical reconception as well as new marketplace realities. In the metrics, AM/FM time-spent listening dropped slightly year-over-year, but it is the generational shift which really stands out. Continue Reading
Nielsen posted interesting observations derived from a study of streaming activity for the week ending November 9. In that week, for the first time in the 10 years that Nielsen has been tracking online audio, more than 4-billion streams were consumed. Video streams also broke a record, surpassing 2-billion. Continue Reading
Nielsen published its latest insights on the outlook for connected cars. The high-tech vehicles are appealing for the cool factor; 60% of future auto intenders said they want one to experience emerging technologies. But the desire for entertainment on the road was a close second, at 58% of future auto intenders. In fact, the Nielsen results revealed that 36% of connected car users streamed audio every time they got in their vehicle during the second quarter of 2014. Continue Reading
New Nielsen research focused on the role Asian-American listeners play in digital music. Spotify was more popular in this demographic than in the general population, by a margin of 14.4 percent to 7.6 percent. Many listeners also gravitated toward services… Continue Reading
YouTube is the world’s largest distributor of streaming music, and an important music-discovery platform. Does extreme YouTube music popularity (virality) boost music sales? Nielsen takes a stab at answering that intriguing question, acknowledging that the results are inconclusive. But the graphic report is interesting. Continue Reading
Nielsen Soundscan’s annual mid-year report, issued each June, shows the first half of 2014 continuing a definitive consumer migration from purchasing albums to streaming songs. The main takeaway from Nielsen’s mid-year report is that the trend toward streaming appears to be accelerating. In January, Nielsen’s full-year report of 2013 indicated 32% growth in streaming compared to 2012. In 2014, the year-over-year pace is +42% rise in streaming at the year’s midpoint. Continue Reading
Nielsen posted a fascinating infographic called Music Mapped Out that carves the U.S. into regions, and analyzes how their populations listen to, and pay for, music. It’s an interesting view of music consumption. Which U.S. region streams the most? (Hint: think coastal.) Continue Reading
This morning Billboard reported Nielsen SoundScan’s sales and streaming numbers for the first quarter. Track and album sales are down, at an accelerating pace. Meanwhile, streaming is up, and an interesting revenue calculation indicates that streaming growth outpaces the decrease in downloads. Continue Reading