Music Industry

Rock + Beer = Great Business Opportunities!

AC/DC, Motorhead, Iron Maiden and a couple dozen other bands have slapped their names and logos on beer. The Lights Out, a band from Boston, even released an entire album on a beer can. How did we get to this level of cooperation between bands and beer? Marketwatch takes a look.

What can a band do when the record store is an antique and they’re just another name in a crowd of streaming options? Have a beer.

Music acts, especially those used to radio airplay, ample non-festival live music venues and album sales, are having a really tough time navigating the modern music industry. According to Nielsen Soundscan, overall music sales rose 3% last year behind a 75% jump in on-demand streaming.

That’s great for Spotify, Google’s GOOG, -1.06%  YouTube, Apple AAPL, +0.01%Amazon AMZN, -0.40% and Microsoft’s MSFT, +2.35%  Xbox Music, among others, but not tremendous if you’re an artist used to the opportunity and revenue that albums once provided. CD sales continued to plummet, falling 16% last year, while digital albums slumped 20%. Vinyl sales jumped 10%, but make up only about 6.5% of all albums sold.

So the days of hooking fans at the record store are over. However, there’s a corner of the retail market where shoppers are still compelled, by law, to shop at brick-and-mortar locations and pick through shelves based on labels and what they’ve heard from friends.

Keep reading. (Thanks to Tom for the link.)

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 38011 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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