The Arts and Media - Recorded Music

Americans have long been among the most voracious consumers of recorded music in the world. However, the Recording Industry Association of America, the music industry's primary trade association, reported that the total U.S. dollar value of audio recordings was dropping, from $14.6 billion in 1999, to $13.7 billion in 2001, to $11.9 billion in 2003. (See Table 4.9.) The decline was attributed to such factors as widespread illegal downloading of music from the Internet, the falling price of compact discs at retail, and a lack of blockbuster albums from major artists.

In 2003 the most widely purchased type of recorded music was rock, at 25.2%, although its popularity had steadily declined since 1994 when 35.1% of audio recordings sold were in this category. During the same period, interest in country music waned from 16.3% to 10.4%. (See Table 4.10.)

Other categories of music experienced growth. Rap/hip-hop nearly doubled its share of the market, rising from 7.9% in 1994 to 13.3% in 2003, while religious music increased from 3.3% of the total in 1994 to 5.8% in 2003. Most other categories held relatively stable throughout the period. (See Table 4.10.)

The form in which Americans purchased music also changed. In 1994 slightly more than half of audio recordings purchased were CDs (58.4%) and a third were cassette tapes (32.1%). By 2003 cassette purchases had dropped to 2.2% as CDs became the overwhelming format of choice, with 87.8% of the market. In the future, the

TABLE 4.10

Recorded music purchased, by genre, format, age, source, and gender, 1994–2003
	1994 %	1995 %	1996 %	1997 %	1998 %	1999 %	2000 %	2001 %	2002 %	2003 %
1"Rap": Includes rap (10.4%) and hip-hop (2.9%)
2"R&B": Includes R&B, blues, dance, disco, funk, fusion, Motown, reggae, soul
3"Religious": Includes Christian, gospel, inspirational, religious, and spiritual
4"Other": Includes ethnic, standards, big band, swing, latin, electronic, instrumental, comedy, humor, spoken word, exercise, language, folk, and holiday music
52001 is the first year that data was collected on DVD audio and digital download purchases
62003 is the first year that data was collected on SACD purchases
7"Internet": Does not include record club purchases made over the Internet
SOURCE: Peter Hart Research, 2003 Consumer Profile, Recording Industry Association of America, 2004, http://www.riaa.com/news/marketingdata/pdf/2003consumerprofile.pdf (accessed July 7, 2004)
Rock	35.1	33.5	32.6	32.5	25.7	25.2	24.8	24.4	24.7	25.2
Rap/Hip-hop1	7.9	6.7	8.9	10.1	9.7	10.8	12.9	11.4	13.8	13.3
R&B/Urban2	9.6	11.3	12.1	11.2	12.8	10.5	9.7	10.6	11.2	10.6
Country	16. 3	16.7	14.7	14.4	14.1	10.8	10.7	10.5	10.7	10.4
Pop	10.3	10.1	9.3	9.4	10.0	10.3	11.0	12.1	9.0	8.9
Religious3	3.3	3.1	4.3	4.5	6.3	5.1	4.8	6.7	6.7	5.8
Classical	3.7	2.9	3.4	2.8	3.3	3.5	2.7	3.2	3.1	3.0
Jazz	3.0	3.0	3.3	2.8	1.9	3.0	2.9	3.4	3.2	2.9
Soundtracks	1.0	0.9	0.8	1.2	1.7	0.8	0.7	1.4	1.1	1.4
Oldies	0.8	1.0	0.8	0.8	0.7	0.7	0.9	0.8	0.9	1.3
New Age	1.0	0.7	0.7	0.8	0.6	0.5	0.5	1.0	0.5	0.5
Children's	0.4	0.5	0.7	0.9	0.4	0.4	0.6	0.5	0.4	0.6
Other4	5.3	7.0	5.2	5.7	7.9	9.1	8.3	7.9	8.1	7.6
Full-length CDs	58 .4	65.0	68.4	70.2	74.8	83.2	89.3	89.2	90.5	87.8
Full-length cassettes	32.1	25.1	19.3	18.2	14.8	8.0	4.9	3.4	2.4	2.2
Singles (all types)	7.4	7.5	9.3	9.3	6.8	5.4	2.5	2.4	1.9	2.4
Music videos/video
DVDs	0.8	0.9	1.0	0.6	1.0	0.9	0.8	1.1	0.7	0.6
DVD audio5	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	1.1	1.3	2.7
Digital download5	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	0.2	0.5	1.3
SACD6	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	NA	0.5
Vinyl LPs	0. 8	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.7	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.7	0.5
10–14 years	7.9	8.0	7.9	8.9	9.1	8.5	8.9	8.5	8.9	8.6
15–19 years	16 .8	17.1	17.2	16.8	15.8	12.6	12.9	13.0	13.3	11.4
20–24 years	15 .4	15.3	15.0	13.8	12.2	12.6	12.5	12.2	11 .5	10.0
25–29 years	12 .6	12.3	12.5	11.7	11.4	10.5	10.6	10.9	9.4	10.9
30–34 years	11 .8	12.1	11.4	11.0	11.4	10.1	9.8	10.3	10.8	10.1
35–39 years	11 .5	10.8	11.1	11.6	12.6	10.4	10.6	10.2	9.8	11.2
40–44 years	7.9	7.5	9.1	8.8	8.3	9.3	9.6	10.3	9.9	10.0
451 years	15 .4	16.1	15.1	16.5	18.1	24.7	23.8	23.7	25.5	26.6
Record store	53 .3	52.0	49.9	51.8	50.8	44.5	42.4	42.5	36 .8	33.2
Other store	26 .7	28.2	31.5	31.9	34.4	38.3	40.8	42.4	50.7	52.8
Tape/Record club	15.1	14.3	14.3	11.6	9.0	7.9	7.6	6.1	4	4.1
TV, newspaper, magazine ad or 800 number	3.4	4.0	2.9	2.7	2.9	2.5	2.4	3.0	2	1.5
Internet7	NA	NA	NA	0.3	1.1	2.4	3.2	2.9	3.4	5.0
Female	47 .3	47.0	49.1	51.4	51.3	49.7	49.4	51.2	50.6	50.9
Male	52 .7	53.0	50.9	48.6	48.7	50.3	50.6	48.8	49 .4	49.1

industry was expected to sell more and more music legally downloaded from the Internet, although in 2003 this constituted just 1.3% of sales, up from 0.5% in 2002. Music was also sold on DVD audio discs (2.7%), super-audio CDs (0.5%), and vinyl long-play albums (0.5%), among other specialist formats. (See Table 4.10.)

Americans over age forty-five made more than onequarter (26.6%) of audio recording purchases in 2003, nearly twice their percentage in 1994. The growth in this age group likely reflected the enduring interest in music of the aging baby-boomer generation. In contrast, young people, once considered the recording industry's strongest supporters, comprised a declining proportion of the market for recordings. Purchases made by consumers ages fifteen through nineteen dropped from 16.8% in 1994 to 11.4% in 2003, and among young adults ages twenty to twenty-four the number of consumers dropped from 15.4% in 1994 to 10% in 2003. While there were slight variations from year to year, men and women bought recordings in almost equal numbers. (See Table 4.10.)

The places Americans purchased their music was changing as well. In 1994 more than half of music purchases were made in record stores, but by 2003 only a third were. At the same time, sales through other types of stores, including such mass merchandisers as Wal-Mart, grew from less than a third to account for more than half of purchases. Only a small percentage of people (5%) purchased music over the Internet during 2003, while slightly less (4.1%) bought music from a record club such as Columbia House. (See Table 4.10.)