With the rise of music streaming services, the number of people listening to old music surges → stagnation of new music culture?
【Argument that the rise of Spotify and Apple Music has led to a surge in the percentage of people listening to “old music” and the danger of cultural stagnation.】
https://gigazine.net/news/20220827-music-consumption-dominance-old-songs/
・Music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, total users reached 523.9 million worldwide in 2021
・Streaming services create competition between older and newer songs
・In the “Share of Old and New Releases in the U.S. Music Market,” Catalog Share will increase from 65.1% to 69.8% and Current Share will decrease from 34.9% to 30.2% between 2020 and 2021.
・Interim report on the music industry for the first half of 2022 shows that the share of old records grew more and more in the first six months of 2021, reaching 72.4 percent
・He claims that not only the music industry, but also the movie industry is in decline with all the remakes of “Top Gun,” “Indiana Jones,” and other new productions.
・Argues that if costs are not spent on discovering new artists and talent, the skills necessary for a culture to survive will be lost.
These are the quotes from the article
In a musical era of all-time absorption, music culture will not stagnate.
The argument above is that the penetration of streaming services is making it harder for new music, artists, and culture to grow as more people listen to older music. (This is data from the U.S., but I believe the same trend is true in Japan.)
I understand what you mean.
In fact, I think more young people are listening to older music.
I think that is simply because it is easier to access the older stuff (music).
In the past, it would have been very difficult to obtain music from decades ago. But now, with just a click, you can get it. (You can listen to it.)
Thanks to that,
The reality is that now, more than ever, old music has become a competitor for new music.
But does that mean that new music (culture) will stagnate?
Here is my, personal opinion,
Up until now, I believe that music trends have flowed in a relay format.
For example,
There was 80’s music, and then there was a trend, like 90’s music -> 2000’s music. (Young people today call the music of the 2010s “10s music,” but I feel uncomfortable with that. LOL)
But now, it is easy to listen to music from the early1900s
So,
I believe that music trends and culture are becoming, or have become, an all-era absorptive music era, not in a relay format, but regardless of the currents of the times.
That would be interesting, wouldn’t it?
In the past, music culture flowed in a relay format, but now it is a music culture that can easily absorb all eras.
Isn’t it very interesting to see what kind of music and culture will emerge in the future?
For example, I think that today’s young people can create more and more Hibari Misora-style rogues and rap songs. If it were difficult to access old music, it would be difficult to come up with such ideas.
The writer’s gloom in the above article gives a strong impression of a business perspective. It is true that the music business is in trouble if it continues to lose market share to older music.
But I am optimistic that such problems will be solved if we absorb the whole era and create more and more interesting music.
At the very least, the culture of music will not stagnate.
Well, as I wrote in my blog the other day, AI is also learning all the data and being creative, so I also think that human artists should not lose out and create new music while absorbing all the music of the times.
See you then.
P.S.I am not sure about the movie industry, which is producing more remakes and sequels. With regard to this theme, I do not believe that film and music can be lumped together.
【The Difficulty of “Hit Charts” in Music: How Should Users Deal with the Results?】
https://realsound.jp/2022/08/post-1112545.html
Methods of compiling music hit charts and rankings are also becoming more diverse. In this age of diversity, perhaps it is not appropriate to describe “old music” or “new music” in itself.
