RIAA, EIA stats provide optimism and conflicting e

RIAA, EIA stats provide optimism and conflicting evidenceRecently released statistics from several audio reporting organizations provide a snapshot of the consumer audio market and a glimpse into what replicators and duplicators face as the market changes.Despite continued downward trending in prerecorded music cassettes, duplicators are reporting steady or increasing orders, indicating that much of the analog cassette market is moving further into spoken word and premium/promotional territory that will be more and more difficult to chart.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Best car speakers brands, top speakers for cars The Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) year-end data show that the CD format continues to dominate the now $12 billion-plus prerecorded audio industry, with a 58.4 percent market share in 1994 up from 1993's 51.2 percent, with 662.1 million (net) units shipped. The CD single also increased share, from 0.9 percent in 1993 to 1.9 percent last year, with 9.3 million units shipped.Analog cassettes continued a downward trend in terms of market share, falling from 38 percent in 1993 to 32.1 percent in 1994, and the cassette single also fell, from 7.8 percent to 4.9 percent (81.1 million). However, earlier statistics released by the RIAA show an increase in unit numbers shipped for full-length pre-recorded analog cassettes, up 1.7 percent to 345.4 million units. Thus, even as the number of analog cassettes grew, their market share continued to fall.RIAA's unit sales statistics come from the member record companies, all of which have their own cassette and replication facilities; the market share data come from a monthly survey of 200 respondents averaged over the course of a year.PROMOTIONAL SINGLESRelated statistics show that an increase in vinyl LPs from 0.3 percent to 0.8 percent of the market reflects the influence of mega-group Pearl Jam's decision to release its latest recording first on vinyl, then later on CD and cassette; however, some industry analysts see a continued moderate increase in vinyl as a format among audiophiles. Increased sales of CD singles, the 7-inch vinyl single and the 12-inch vinyl single also reflect a trend toward increased promotional usage of those formats in radio and to various media. Music video sales showed a decline, from 1.3 percent share in 1993 to 0.8 percent last year.ROCK TOPS COUNTRYBy genre, rock showed a significant increase, from 30.2 percent share to 35.1 percent. This is directly attributable to the melding of large-selling acts like Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots into mainstream rock charts and away from the alternative milieus that spawned them. Rock grabbed market share away from country, which fell from its record high of 18.7 percent in 1993 to 16.3 percent last year, and from a still declining pop genre which fell over a point and a half to 10.3 percent, and from urban/contemporary and rap, which fell from 10.6 percent to 9.6 percent and 9.2 percent to 7.9 percent, respectively.Demographically, aging baby boomers in the 45+ age range increased their share of recordings sold to 16.1 percent, putting them just behind the leading category, the 15-19 age group, which bought 16.8 percent of the products. This could also be connected to the increase in market share for tape/record clubs, which jumped up nearly 40 percent to 15.1 percent from 12.9 percent, while record stores fell from 56.2 percent of sales to 53.3 percent. Older buyers are increasing in numbers and are more inclined to purchase from sources that provide convenience over selection. And spending at the "other stores" outlets also marginally increased sales.EIA STATSData released by the Electronic Industries Association (EIA) show that consumer audio equipment sales surged 12 percent and topped a record-breaking $8 billion in 1994. While the sales figures include radio, the increases across the board in portable audio, components, systems and aftermarket best car speakers under 100  can infer a good year for both duplicators and replicators of prerecorded audio products.Portable audio increased 12.3 percent in sales in 1994 over the previous year. Components, such as CD players and cassette decks, increased 3.1 percent; CD boomboxes rose 28 percent to $1.1 billion. The EIA indicated that cassette-based systems slipped slightly in sales, but did not provide figures. Combined systems, which generally include one or both of those components, gained 16.3 percent. Best car speakers brands, top speakers for cars surged the fastest, growing 18.3 percent, which reflects increased sales of autos and trucks in the U.S. In this category the EIA noted that in-dash cassette player sales rose 13 percent to $703 million in sales even as auto CD players and changers jumped 44 percent to $601 million.Kathy Gornick, chairperson of the EIA's Consumer Electronic Group, attributed the boost in overall sales to both a resurgent U.S. economy, the continued popularity of digital audio formats, and more sophisticated and diverse home theater products audio/video receivers rose 9 percent to $389 million and combined sales of home theater speakers jumped a substantial 78 percent to $112 million.MUSIC ASIDEThe RIAA list included the category "other," which is reported as having a 7.1 percent market share. Despite the drop in cassette sales, this vague category presumably includes spoken word recordings, and it shows an increase of nearly eight percent from 1993, although it is down from a high of 7.5 percent in 1990. The spoken word retail industry has still not matured to the point where in can reasonably estimate its own size. However, one audio book retailer who did not want to be identified suggested that spoken word sold in the area of 12 million units in 1994. This year's RIAA annual statistics were reported solely based on unit sales and did not include dollar amounts.What this means for spoken word in particular and cassettes in general is difficult to determine. Duplicators with a spoken word client base report anything from flat growth to relatively substantial gains. Jeff Baker, president of Cassette Productions Unlimited, with plants in Irwindale, CA, and Arden, NC, with a 40-million-unit annual capacity, 95 percent of which are spoken word projects, said 1994's experience was "flat," with growth for his company coming from additional video duplication orders and fulfillment revenues. Baker, who is considering adding CD replication capability later this year, said that a capacity glut is developing in both analog and digital. "But what happens in spoken word duplication simply does not show up in the RIAA figures," he said. "There really is no way to accurately estimate the size of the industry, the size of the market, or to make reliable predictions about the future."On the other hand, Jim Reising, vice president of manufacturing for Nightingale/Conant in the Chicago area, which does all spoken word work, said his orders were up 30 percent in 1994 and he expects to see an increase of at least half that this year. "I've always said that I believe that spoken word is at least as big as music duplication, if not bigger," Reising stated. "It's simply easier to track the size of the music market because it's only five or six major duplicators doing the work and reporting statistics. We did 10.5 million units last year and would have done more except that labeling held us back. But there are three duplicators in the Chicago area alone doing spoken word and I estimate that between us we did on the order of 30 million units last year. And with all the smaller half-million annual duplicators all over the country, there's no way to really see how big it is." Nightingale/Conant has already "dabbled," to use Reising's characterization, in spoken word on CDs, testing several mainstream products using six-CD packages to replace four-cassette packages, at a slightly higher price.Norm Welch, president of Eva-Tone, in Clearwater, FL, said his company is doing about 70 percent music duplication on analog cassette and the company saw an eight percent increase in that segment in 1994. However, most of the product fell outside mainstream areas. Much of Eva-Tone's work is for Christian clients, as well as children's and mature markets. According to the RIAA, the umbrella rubric Gospel gained only marginally, from a 3.2 percent market share to a 3.3 percent, while children's audio products remained flat at 0.4 percent market share.Dan Daley is a contributing editor to Tape/Disc Business.

Edited by david4121 - 31 Oct 2018 at 6:08am