This year is showing so far to be good for vinyl sales and on-demand streaming, up 40% and 42% respectively. However, overall album sales are down almost 15%.
Nielsen Entertainment released their bi-annual Music Industry Report, which highlights the previous six months’ “Overall Music Consumption.” Disney’s Frozen soundtrack dominated the top spot for most selling digital and physical albums.
The top selling artists in vinyl were Jack White, Arctic Monkeys, Beck, The Black Keys, and Lana Del Rey. Daft Punk’s 2013 Grammy-winning album Random Access Memories earned 6% of its first week sales from vinyl–19,000 out of 339,000–and ultimately sold over 50,000 vinyl copies.
Jack White recently set a record for biggest one week sale of vinyl records, topping over 40,000 copies of his album Lazaretto. It includes hidden tracks and holograms that are only accessible on turntables. Vinyl makes up 25% of his total sales.
The report echos trends that a growing number of consumers care more about sound-quality. Also it reflects how streaming has caused a major cut in album sales.
The middle ground for these two trends may be better digital formats. In Europe, streaming services like WiMP offer CD-quality streaming. Platforms like Bandcamp here in the States allows artists to upload and sell their files in high-fidelity formats.
For independent artists looking to make their album profitable, vinyl is becoming a legitimate medium, as many fans of the analog format are willing to pay more for an experience that–in their estimation–can’t be replicated digitally. It also offers a format for exclusive physical content and beautiful, large album artwork–something digital has yet to adequately recreate.
Make Pro Songs
There are 8 unique value-points inside the Sage Audio membership, so let’s go over each one so you can decide if it’s the right fit for you.
1. 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’ll 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 Sage Audio 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.
2. 1-on-1 Mentorship
- The Sage Audio 1:1 Mentorship gives you direct access to us to answer all your questions and receive unlimited advanced mixing feedback directly from us.
- Unlimited direct access to us for in-depth discussions to help you improve your mixes and masters.
- Unlimited advanced mixing feedback with detailed suggestions for improvement.
- Fast communication to answer all your questions and get tailored guidance that’s specific to your needs.
3. Unlimited Mixing Feedback
- Unlimited mixing feedback so you can improve your mixes quickly.
- This is highly valuable - giving you access to a thriving community of mixing engineers who can provide feedback about what you can improve before sending your mix to be professionally mastered.
4. Sage Audio University™ (SAU) — (Mixing and Mastering Education Platform)
- SAU is a modern audio engineering education platform that includes in-depth mixing and mastering course curriculums that match the new music industry.
- SAU is designed for every experience level, ranging from first-time 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 every course curriculum.
- SAU course curriculums include 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, social channels, and portfolio for as long as you remain a member.
- Get first access to all future SAU course curriculums to continually build and refine your mixing and mastering skills as the industry evolves.
5. Mixing and Mastering Competitions
- Compete in Mixing Competitions and Mastering Competitions to win prizes and connect with friends and colleagues.
- This is a great collaborative way to improve your skills alongside both aspiring engineers and seasoned industry professionals.
6. Community
- The Sage Audio community is a tight-knit community of passionate audio engineers who can provide you with real-world mixing feedback, meaningful discussions, networking, collaborations, and more.
7. 70+ GB of Curated Sage Audio Downloadable Content, Including:
- 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).
- 58 Sage Audio custom plugin presets to improve your mixes and masters.
- Sage Audio Membership Badge to showcase on your website, social channels, and portfolio.
8. 700+ Video Catalog
- Access 700+ in-depth Sage Audio mixing and mastering videos - curated and organized into playlists so you can 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 mixing and mastering skills at your own pace.
