Goa-trance sales: an insight and overview
Suntrip Records - May
2016
There
are always a lot of articles and comments online about the music
industry. Mostly they are clear: music labels are dying, artists only
get money via gigs/performances, the vinyl is back and the future is
digital.
We, at Suntrip, thought it was about time to have a
look what is true and what is not. What you see is a (partly) result
of a huge job. We gathered ALL sales from all different media last 12
years and the result was an excel file with over 300.000 data! But
ok, we managed to have results
And even surprising results! Have a
look! (and make sure to read everything, because things are not
always as they seem
)
1.)
Total
sales per year for Suntrip
So,
2016 was the best year for Suntrip sales in our history! Yihaaa! Or
not? Well, depends on our view.
It is clear, we had a lot of
sales in 2015, but this is caused mostly by the fact we started with
a lot of special auctions on the Suntrip site. (with over 15 orders
with our whole catalogue). These orders of old cds caused this
result
Once you go to "new" releases you will see it is pretty
sad (that graphic comes later).
Another thing, in 2016 at the
moment we are at 55% of the sales of last year
So next year will
have a much smaller graphic for sure.
But
ok, let's not complain, we had a good amount of sales, that is
cool!
As said, this is mostly because of our "backstock"
(old cds). This is clearly viewable in the following graphic. Red are
the sales of releases of the mentioned year (so, for 2015, that means
all releases that were released in 2015), the dark green are sales of
the year before (so for 2015, the dark green means the sales of all
titles of 2014) and the light green means all the sales before that!
(so for 2015, all sales of releases between 2004-2013)
So
as you can see, "old" cds take a big part of our sales
is this
because there is a new generation that keeps on finding new stuff
between the old ones? Or do we have many customers only buying once
every 2-3 years? We are not sure about this
2.)
Sales per release
But
as said, there is no need for euphoria
Why? Simple: the cd is
dying. Partly caused by the new culture. Cars and lap tops/computers
only have a cd reader as an "extra option", even 70% of the djs
end up downloading their stuff for free, while waving hands during
the mix
But ok, let's go to the facts. Below you see the sales of
our releases the first 3 months after release. Red is the cd, green
is the amount of digital sales.
And we are afraid it is clear
Cd is selling only between
25-45% of 10 years ago the first 3 months
A dramatic change. So
then you hope digital will take over? Well, not at all. We do have
digital orders, but as you can see, the amount is much smaller as
cds. Also, the revenue of digital items is much lower
If
you look at the sales the first year, it is clear some cds get a
certain hype and sell better after a while
Still, this is 50% less
as when we started in 2004
3.)
Distribution
So, are
we doomed as a label? Yes and no
The backstock keeps us alive, and
also we invested a lot of effort into different kinds of
distribution. Before Arabesque was the only place who would
distribute our cds, now our music is available via many more
platforms. This is one of the things that keeps us alive
People
ordering directly from us! It gives us a better revenue and more
returning customers! Our Suntrip shop is yellow
Clearly that is
the big winner, while red
Arabesque, keeps on fading away.
4.)
The digital age?
And
in the end, to make clear Digital is not taking over at all
Have a
look to the percentage of sales that are digital
It is about 20%
of our total sales of our latest releases
Conclusion
So,
what now? Well, we are stubborn and old school music lovers, so we
keep investing in cds
In the end it is a great thing for
collectors, but we will also continue playing on the digital market
let's hope this will mean, we have a great future ahead as music
label! :)
We thought it was nice to share this with all
of you
To make everyone realise how the things go with the labels,
and of course, to make it clear it is important people still support
the artists directly via the labels! :)
If you want new music, please
pay for it. 5 cds a year = 50€
1
tank if gasoline, 4 times to the theater, 2 big psy-trance parties,
or even
1 good meal with your parents! :)