Last week, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) released its mid-year report , detailing trends, gains and losses in the music industry. Billboard analyzed the report and broke down the significant trends into five “takeaways.” Here’s what was found.
Streaming gains are offsetting decline in digital sales.
Digital revenues are down by 0.5%, largely due to the $15.5 million loss by ringbacks and ringtones. However, new streaming revenue sources have started to match the decrease in downloads.
Falling CD revenues have become less of a problem (but they’re still a problem).
CD sales have been (and can expect to continue to) dropping about 20% a year. So far this year, the revenue lost by CD sales is $168.5 million (23.7%). The good news is that vinyl sales are up by 42.8% ($43.7 million), but that doesn’t quite close the gap.
Paid music subscriptions aren’t big business yet.
At this point, these music services only are subscribed to by 2.5% of the US population. The subscription-based model doesn’t seem to be the problem as Netflix reaches 11.1% and Sirius XM reaches 8.3%. It just looks like the pay-for-music services hasn’t quite caught on.
Advertising is key to today’s digital music business.
The revenue from ad-based streaming is more profitable than the paid streaming subscriptions. Or as Billboard puts it, “people who don’t pay to access digital music are more valuable than people who do pay to access digital music.”
Film, TV, web and video game music revenue isn’t as big as it seems.
Although accounting for only 3% of the recorded music industry, sync revenue is on the decline by 10% ($88 million).
According to the report, the overall revenue of the music industry is down around 5%. Of course what isn’t reported is the cost of music production, which has declined significantly more than revenue sales. For just a fraction of the cost of a traditional album production, artists today can create a high-quality mix and master on their own. Moving forward, it’s likely the artists who take advantage of such advancements and trends who will thrive in the music industry, despite how rocky things look.
So, Why A Membership?
Let’s face it — trying to create professional mixes without the correct knowledge, tools, services, and network is like playing a concert with a broken instrument to an audience of no one.
That’s where the Sage Audio membership comes in — the membership gives you everything you need to create professional mixes consistently.
The membership is the secret to your success — it’s the difference between the 1,929,999,999 of poor-sounding mixes and the .00000002% of mixes that make people say 'WOW!"
There are 7 unique value-points included in your Sage Audio membership.
Let’s go over each one so you can decide if the membership is right for you.
1. Sage Audio University
- SAU Flagship Mixing Course: 23-video in-depth mixing course that reveals the little-known secrets of mixing and matches the needs of the new music industry.
- SAU Flagship Mastering Course: 19-video in-depth modern mastering course that dives into every nuance of making professional-sounding masters.
- SAU Pre-Mastering Course: Concise pre-mastering course that details the latest industry standards for preparing your mixes for mastering.
- SAU is designed for every experience level, ranging from budding mixing engineers to advanced engineers. The techniques and concepts taught can be applied to any DAW to create industry-leading mixes without expensive software or plugins - and free plugin alternatives are suggested throughout each course.
- Each SAU course includes Start-to-Finish session walkthrough lessons for multiple genres so you can follow along with your preferred genre.
- SAU Certification Document, which can be downloaded and showcased on your website and social channels.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
2. Private 1-on-1 Mentorship
- The Sage Audio private 1-on-1 Mentorship gives you direct access to us for advanced mixing feedback, in-depth discussions, and customized guidance that's tailored to your specific needs.
- Unlimited private access to us for advanced mixing feedback, where we provide detailed suggestions for improvement.
- Unlimited private access to us for in-depth discussions to help you improve every aspect of your mixes and masters.
- Customized guidance that’s tailored specifically to your needs.
- Fast communication so you can improve your skills quickly.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
3. Unlimited Mixing Feedback
- Unlimited professional mixing feedback directly from us so you can consistently improve your skills and create professional mixes.
- Mixing feedback is invaluable, and the Sage Audio membership gives you continual direct access to us for real-world feedback so you can improve every aspect of each of your mixes while you're in the process of mixing.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
4. 50 Free Mastered Songs Per Year
- 50 free mastered songs per year with your own dedicated professional mastering engineer so you can get all your mixes sounding like professional songs.
- You get your own dedicated Sage Audio mastering engineer to create custom masters that are specific to you and sound exactly how you want.
- Unlimited revisions with your dedicated mastering engineer. As a standard of our service, we are not happy until you are happy with the sound of your masters.
- All masters are delivered as commercial, industry-standard high-resolution 24-bit HD WAV masters so they will sound clean and clear on every platform.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
5. Community
- The Sage Audio community is a tight-knit community of passionate audio engineers who can provide you with additional real-world mixing feedback, meaningful discussions, networking, collaborations, and more.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
6. 70+ GB of Curated Sage Audio Downloadable Content
- 36 multitrack sessions spanning multiple genres for mixing practice.
- 57 un-mastered mixes spanning multiple genres for mastering practice.
- 62 Recommended Free Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 39 Recommended Paid Plugins List (vetted, tested, and approved, so you don’t have to).
- 71 Sage Audio custom plugin presets to improve your mixes and masters.
- Sage Audio Membership Badge to showcase on your website, social channels, and portfolio.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
7. 800+ Video Catalog
- Access 700+ in-depth Sage Audio mixing and mastering videos - curated and organized into categories so you can easily take a deep dive into all aspects of audio engineering with thousands of hours of concise, expertly crafted Sage Audio videos to continually improve your skills at your own pace.
Yes, I want to join the membership now >
