There’s some excitement in the music industry about the publication, by the BPI last week, of figures indicating a more-than-10% rise in classical music UK streaming and sales.
These figures, at first glance, look very heartening. Classical music is used to being the ugly sister in music streaming and sales, but the percentage rises–including a 6.9% rise in classical CD sales–indicate real confidence and growth. The most dramatic increase is in classical music streaming, up 42% year-on-year.
Dig a bit deeper, though, and the figures–although encouraging–must be seen in context. What the BPI doesn’t mention in its release, understandably enough, is that classical hasn’t represented even 5% of overall music consumption since the early 1990s. It managed to represent 6% of digital consumption in the early 2000s. Since then, its share of digital consumption has plummeted to 0.9% of overall digital consumption. And for reference, classical’s share of what remains of the CD market has also fallen, even though the majority of pop music is no longer released on any physical format.
If we analyse revenues on physical product, classical’s global share of physical revenues has been falling steadily since the early 90s. It is currently around 2%–and that is a generous figure. So a rise of 6.9% within that niche equates to a global increase of 0.014% in the marketplace. Not much cause to break out the champagne.
The question for all of us in the classical music industry must be:
If classical listeners are still so demanding of all the things which they are supposed to be demanding of (high audio quality, tangibility), why is classical’s physical market share falling?
And in more general terms, why and how has classical found itself in this ghetto? How has the culturally-dominant musical style of a century ago fallen so far from visibility, market share and relevance?
My life’s mission–and the driving force behind Tido’s vision–is to connect people with the richness of music in all its forms. And that certainly includes classical. I have been quoted as saying that my industry (the classical music industry) has done its best over the past century to alienate, patronise and exclude its own audience…an audience which was once its own but which it has now largely lost.
This is the elephant in the room – not noteworthy increases within a tiny ghettoised niche, but the collapse of relevance and connectedness to a larger audience.
Chaz Jenkins of Chartmetric has some trenchant observations on precisely this.
If classical wants to reach a massive new audience who are receptive and accessible, it should be focussing on marketing itself to new listeners in its established markets plus the fastest growing markets for streaming (South East Asia, LatAm).
Chaz Jenkins, chartmetric.io
Creating classical ghettos is simply a shortcut to irrelevance.
Tido views the world of music as one unified field. We don’t make hard borders between genres or styles, and our innovative search and discovery model will address the biggest perceived issue with classical streaming: its discoverability and relatedness.
Einaudi’s immense chart popularity reflects the strength of his engagement with audiences, in the way we all hope and need to. But when the BPI announces that he represents one in twelve of all classical streams, followed by film music and artists including Bocelli and Jenkins, it’s clear that the definition of ‘classical’ may be shifting from our understanding of what that has meant in the past.
And this for me is the biggest concern about the BPI’s press release. The positives it celebrates can be seen as insignificant in the much bigger global picture. What it frames as important is in danger of missing the horizon view.
Metaphors about the Titanic are overused. But in this case the classical music industry has not only lost the mother ship, its life-raft is far from shore with no immediate sign of rescuers.
Such isolation is what Tido seeks to address. The music industry has been seeing threats for so long that it can lose sight of the opportunities digital offers us. A connected world of music means more to us than product, new monetisation channels or a rescue package. It means a re-attachment to the essentials of music: a humane experience which provides life-long learning. Such learning–whether as a child, student, amateur or professional–enriches the context, usability and understanding of our musical universe. This is a universe without walls or hard borders, where the ‘lost child’ of classical music can re-connect with the audiences and interests of the larger world.
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