Can the music industry give the film industry any pointers when it comes to living in a digital age? For years, it’s needed to deal with piracy on one hand and new methods of dissemination on the other.
Andrew Powell-Morse of SeatSmart asks the question, “Where is the money supposed to come from to keep the lights on?” in its blog post Does The Death Of Album Revenue Spell The End For Rock Stars As We Know Them? (Link doesn’t work in Safari.)
Using colourful line and bubble charts, he graphs:
- Top Tour Revenue vs. Top Album Revenue
- Tours vs. Album Revenue by Decade
- Total Tour Ticket Sales vs. Total Album Sales
- Tickets vs. Albums Sold by Decade
- Top Album Revenue & Sales Over Time
- Top Tours: Revenue & Attendance over Time
- Sum Revenue of Top Album Artists
- Sum Revenue of Top Touring Artisits
Looking at revenue only:
“Album revenue is plummeting while tours are steadily bringing more. However, those rising tour revenues don’t even come close to compensating for what’s been lost in album sales.”
One thing the stats reveal is that:
“…both album and ticket sales are down — concert ticket prices are on the rise while the average price of an album has decreased from almost $19 in the 1980s to just over $13 today. This does a lot to explain the divergence here — each concert ticket sold is bringing a greater return over time while each album sold is bringing a declining return.”
Andrew concludes:
“While album sales are comparatively evenly distributed, tour revenue gets sucked up by a smaller number of huge acts. This points to serious concerns over an industry becoming more and more reliant on tours to fund itself. Concert ticket sales are not going to save the music industry. They may provide some artists with good revenue streams to balance lower album sales, but they don’t work equally well for everyone.”
What are the parallels with the film industry? Perhaps DVDs equate with albums and theatrical releases equate to tours. Take a look a this PWC infographic of media revenue trends. Although it shows most trends up, “Physical Home Video” is trending down.
My take: Maybe independents need to buck the trend. If vinyl is making a comeback, does that mean indie film should embrace DVDs again?