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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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- 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.
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5. Mixing and Mastering Competitions
- Compete in Mixing Competitions and Mastering Competitions to win prizes and connect with friends and colleagues.
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6. Community
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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).
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8. 700+ Video Catalog
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