Music Consumption Rose 9% in 2022, As Catalog’s Share Jumped To 72%. Luminate’s analysis of music sales and consumption trends shows 2022 was another strong year for the music biz. Total album consumption in the U.S. (which combines album sales and the equivalent value of song streams and sales) jumped 9.2% to 974.9 million. That’s a couple of ticks higher than an 11.3% gain in 2021. U.S. on-demand audio streams hit the trillion mark for the first time ever in a single year in 2022, rising 12.1% to 1.1 trillion. Digital track sales continued their downward spiral, tumbling 25.1% to 151.9 million. And while total album sales (physical and digital) registered another year-over-year decline (-8.2% to 110.1 million) two vintage formats continued to rebound. Vinyl album sales grew 4.2% to 43.5 million, accounting for more than half of physical album sales and more than 40% of total album sales. Cassette sales are also in comeback mode although their contribution is far smaller, surging 28% to 440,000.
Buffalo, NY | Buffalo Next: Music store has downtown Niagara Falls singing a new tune: Daredevil Records opens in Niagara Falls. Jessica Berry cut the ribbon on her Daredevil Record Store & Listening Lounge in the former Tugby-Lennon building, 324 Niagara St., on Friday. The store sells new and used records, CDs, cassette tapes and vintage T-shirts, and buys used merchandise for cash or credit. Audio equipment scattered throughout the lounge allows customers to listen to music before they buy it. Retro Walkmans and Discmans are also available to use for a fee. “Generation Z, they never got the chance to experience that,” Berry said. Daredevil customers can kick back and relax in the lounge while sipping such musician-endorsed refreshments as Oakland Coffee from the band Green Day and Johnnie Ryan Moneybag soda from Gene Simmons. Berry received a City of Niagara Falls Minority and Women Business Enterprise grant for the project, which she said was instrumental in deciding to open the business.
Rochester, MN | Music community develops in ‘Hidden World.’ While Rochester’s Hidden World Vinyl Records obviously sells records, it also finds ways to engage and energize a local community concerned with creativity and humanity. Hidden World Vinyl Records takes its name from a 2006 album by a hardcore punk band from Toronto. While the hardcore band’s titled includes a not so polite word that begins with F, the local record shop seems to be hardcore about something that embodies the spirit of politeness — community. Appropriately, Hidden World is a bit off the beaten path. Located at 519 Second Ave. NW, Rochester, the local record store is in a neighborhood that mixes residential and commercial properties and butts up against the railroad. It has been open for the last three years with a few pandemic-related closures. While Hidden World obviously sells records, it also finds ways to engage and energize a local community concerned with creativity and humanity.
UK | Vinyl resurgence pulls HMV back from the brink: HMV has reported its highest profits since it was rescued out of administration in 2019. The resurgence of vinyl has driven a turnaround at HMV after the retailer bet on a comeback for records. HMV has reported its highest profits since it was rescued out of administration in 2019, boosted by surging sales at its stores. It comes after the retailer decided to move away from CDs and embrace vinyl under owner Doug Putman, a Canadian businessman who rescued the chain four years ago. HMV now stocks a range of exclusive pressings that cannot be found elsewhere and last September launched its own vinyl record label, signing its first new artist in 20 years. …Sales at Sunshine Records and Entertainment, which owns HMV and smaller chain Fopp, jumped from £90m to £150m in the 12 months to May 2022, accounts show. The jump helped it return to profit after a Covid-driven downturn the prior year. The company made a profit of £2m.
Alliance Entertainment Chooses AutoStore to Automate Movement of Vinyl Records at Kentucky Warehouse: Alliance has signed a four-year lease with AutoStore to take advantage of the company’s automated storage and retrieval systems. Alliance Entertainment Corp. announced last week that it is working with AutoStore to automate its 873,000-sq.-ft. warehouse in Kentucky where it holds music, movies, video games, electronics, arcades, and collectibles. AutoStore makes automated storage retrieval systems (ASRS), which are designed to help facilities better take advantage of vertical space for picking and moving products. Alliance Entertainment’s ASRS configuration includes AutoStore’s latest-generation B1 robots combined with over 52,000 storage bins. Each bin is configurable and can hold up to eight unique SKUs with a maximum weight of 66 lb. It covers 22,200 sq. ft. of the company’s 873,000-sq.-ft. warehouse. Those systems enable a pick rate of 2,000 lines per hour across seven picking ports and a putaway throughput of 200 bins per hour, according to AutoStore.
These retro inspired modern speakers are perfect fr the vinyl-loving audiophile: Founded by Etsy co-founder Robert Kalin and NASA engineer William Cowan, audio brand ‘A for Ara’ hopes to be the very antithesis of the modern-day hi-tech smart speaker. While smart speakers are designed ultimately for music, they take the joy and the ritualistic nature out of music listening and appreciation, which is where A for Ara comes in. The audio company hopes to takes us back to simpler times with their retro-modern speakers that use an eclectic blend of design styles as well as old and modern fabrication techniques. The word ‘Ara’ stands for Altar in Latin, giving the speaker the reverence it deserves. For now, A for Ara has two speakers under its product umbrella – the FS-1 and FS-2. Both speakers have a larger-than-life appeal to them, and have a nature-inspired whimsical design.
Genesis ‘BBC Broadcasts,’ curated by Tony Banks, to be released in 5-CD and 3-LP versions: Genesis ‘BBC Broadcasts’ sets available March 3 In 5-CD and 3-LP versions, which will include 53 tracks and a majority of the 1987 Wembley show for the first time. Genesis BBC Broadcasts is an extensive collection of broadcast material from one of the biggest-selling recording artists of all time and one of Britain’s most internationally renowned bands. Curated by founder member Tony Banks and the group’s long-time engineer and producer Nick Davis, the set is available as a 53-track 5-CD set and 24-track triple LP. Released on March 3, this is the first time all of these tracks have been released on vinyl, and the first time a majority of the iconic 1987 Wembley show has been made available in an audio-only format (further details below). These collections represent the cream of the group’s work recorded by the BBC between 1970 and 1998, and it includes contributions from all three of the group’s vocalists, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins and Ray Wilson.
Nik Kershaw / Collected 3LP vinyl: Limited 3LP set with hits and remixes. Collected is a new vinyl compilation featuring the best of Nik Kershaw. This 3LP set features hits such as ‘Wouldn’t It Be Good’, ‘Dancing Girls’, ‘I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’, ‘Human Racing’, ‘The Riddle’, ‘Wide Boy”, “Don Quixote’ and ‘When a Heart Beats’. This collection features songs from all nine of Kershaw’s studio albums including his most recent, 2020’s Oxymoron. The third LP includes eight 12-inch versions of Kershaw’s biggest hits. This is a bonus LP only available with this first pressing, which is limited to 1,000 worldwide. Future pressings will not include this record and will become 2LP sets. This release also comes with a four-page booklet with notes and photos. Collected is released on 24 February 2023, via Music On Vinyl.
