Image source @ Visual China
The article | Music Herald (ID: nakedmusic), written by | Lu Xiuxiu, editor | Fan Zhihui
People seem to be more and more fond of listening to old songs.
Recently, the "2021 US Year-end Music Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") released by MRC Data, a data analysis provider in the US music industry, shows that in 2021, Catalog Music (referring to songs that have been released for more than 18 months, that is, old songs) will account for 74.5% of the total consumption of the US music market, split into the first half of the year, and the market share of Catalyst Music in the second half of 2021 will be as high as 82.1%, leaving Current The share of music (songs released within 18 months) is less than one-fifth.
Compared to 2018, this number has risen by more than 20%. In an era of more than 70,000 new songs per day, the market share of new song consumption has fallen again and again. This inevitably makes people wonder, how did the old song become the "fragrant food" of the music market? Why do people love to listen to old songs more and more?
Old songs have become the "fragrant food" of the music market
In the change in the share of Catalog Music, we may be able to see the reasons behind the growth.
The "Report" shows that the share of old songs increased from 66.4% in the first half of 2021 to 74.5% in the whole year, which also means that the consumption of old songs soared sharply in the second half of last year. It also turns out that according to MRC data, the "Total Album Consumption" (TAC) of old song films in the United States between July and December 2021 reached 376.7 million copies. Correspondingly, the total consumption of new singing films in the same period was only 8200, down 37.4% year-on-year.
It should be noted here that MRC's "Total Album Consumption" (TAC) indicator is a "conversion sales" that bundles physical sales and digital album sales with single downloads and streaming. To unify the caliber, MRC converts every 1,250 plays on paid-to-subscribe streaming platforms to one album and every 3,750 plays on ad-supported streaming platforms to one album.
At the same time, the "Report" also shows that in the second year of the epidemic, the number of music streaming on-demand continued to grow very strongly. Following a 22.6% increase in 2020, global music streaming on-demand increased by 26.3% to 2.74 trillion times in 2021.
But in the U.S., Current Music's annual streaming hits fell for the first time since 1991 (19.4 percent). This is not an isolated case, as the year-end REPORT Canada 2021, a report on Canada, also shows that Current Music's streaming on-demand volume also declined for the first time since 1991. In contrast, the U.S. and Canada saw a 29.4 percent increase in hits on Catalyst Music last year and 19.5 percent, respectively.
Looking at China, old songs are also gradually encroaching on the music market.
Some time ago, apple music released the "Chinese mainland 2021 hottest song list", in the TOP100 Jay Chou artist accounted for 56 songs, the remaining 43 songs are also by Lin Junjie, Eason Chan, Taylor Swift and other domestic and foreign artists released before 2020. In addition to streaming, the search volume of old songs on short video platforms is also growing. According to the annual list released by Douyin on January 6, 98.97 million people searched for old songs on the platform last year.
In fact, since the epidemic, the influence of old songs has been accelerating. According to a previous report released by MRC Data, Catlog Music's share of the U.S. music market in 2018 was 60.8%, rising to 63.2% in 2019, compared with 63.8% and 74.5% in 2020 and 2021, respectively. In the report of ifPI, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, Oldies, 80s, 70s and other old song music genres are also regulars in the world's hottest music style charts in recent years.
At the beginning of the epidemic, some people tasted the sweetness of acquiring the copyright of old songs. In the first half of 2020, the surge in the demand for streaming media in the market for "old songs" also made the stock price of Hipgnosis Songs Fund, a British copyright investment company known for "building an enduring portfolio with classic golden songs as the core", rise against the trend. Over the same period, BMG's streaming revenue soared 26 percent, largely due to a 49 percent increase in revenue from Catlog Music.
Under the old song, record companies have reduced their investment in A&R and accelerated the acquisition of classic tracks. According to incomplete statistics, last year, record labels reached classic copyright deals with dozens of well-known musicians, including Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, David Bowie, etc., with billions of dollars in transactions.
From this point of view, after the epidemic, the "back to the pot meat" of lao ge has become a "fragrant feast" for copyright investment.
Why do people like to listen to old songs more and more?
The "new thing" of short videos is one of the biggest contributors to the popularity of old songs.
While more and more popular songs are emerging, many old songs are also giving new life on the short video platform. At present, there are two main paths for old songs to become popular in short videos, one is to obtain new listeners through cover songs. Recently, Pinguan's "No Locks on the Door" released in 2004 and Faye Wong's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" released in 1999 are among them, both of which triggered a cover singing frenzy on the short video platform and won about 700 million views.
Among them, the popularity of "Door Without Lock" originated from the cover song of Pinguan's son in the variety show "Shining Band", and some netizens joked, "No one knows about the lock for ten years, and the world knows it for a day."
Another way for old songs to become popular on short video platforms is to become popular as a popular BGM. At a time when the circle of musical tastes is layered and the trend of differentiation is obvious, the attention economy pursues short-term explosive points, and it is difficult for new songs to reproduce the high popularity of the golden songs of that year. In contrast, using classic old songs as BGM to resonate has become the creative choice of many short video users.
Different from the situation of the popular new song slaughter list in previous years, this year's "2021 Douyin Data Report" took stock of the annual top ten nostalgic golden songs for the first time. Most of the classic songs have won billions of views, and they have a great tendency to compete with popular new songs such as "White Moonlight and Cinnabar Mole" and "Stepping on the Mountain and River".
Of course, the popularity of old songs on short video platforms is mainly due to the further improvement of the proportion of middle-aged and elderly users. At present, the penetration rate of short video users in China is more than 90%, the growth of young forces has peaked, and middle-aged and elderly people are becoming the main force among short video users.
According to the "Short Video User Value Report 2021" released by China Guangshi Sophora Media Research (CSM), the number of middle-aged and elderly users aged 40 and above has risen from 6% in 2019 to 47.1% in 2021; 30% of the current short video works are released by "silver-haired e-families" over the age of 50.
In fact, not only short video platforms, but also the voice of middle-aged and elderly people in music streaming platforms is also accelerating. According to the survey, about 60% of the new users of UK music streaming between February 2019 and February 2020 were middle-aged and elderly people over the age of 45. In some countries of the Americas, the penetration of music streaming among the elderly population is already extremely high, such as 89% in the United States, 75% in Mexico, and 72% in Chile.
In China, the penetration rate of music streaming is not high, and the data shows that only 4.9% of them are over 40 years old. But the rapid popularity of the Internet in recent years has laid the foundation for the elderly to enter the music streaming market. In August last year, the 48th Statistical Report on the Development of China's Internet Network released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) showed that the number of middle-aged and elderly netizens in China is growing rapidly, accounting for 46.8% of the total number of network users. It can be seen that with the increasing voice of middle-aged and elderly groups in the entire Internet world, there is still room for further excavation of the value space of old songs.
Many people like to listen to old songs, mainly because of the "nostalgic" filter on the old songs. After all, when we reminisce about the past, we always naturally think of the songs we heard at that time and the idols we liked. Conversely, reminiscing about the past in music is also the same.
The connection between the song and the memory is not empty. Many studies at home and abroad have shown that popular music is an important element in shaping the consciousness of each generation. For example, a study from the University of Westminster showed that the special memories created by music between adolescence and mature youth, linked to the people, places, and events we encounter at that time, are of great significance for the formation of personality and self-awareness.
It can be seen that the songs we hear in our adolescence can easily become the BGM of a certain memory. Hearing this song later not only means nostalgia, but also has a special meaning of discovering the trajectory of self-growth.
MRC Data calls the old song new popularity "the trend that emerged after the epidemic", which may be able to say that after the epidemic, people love nostalgia more. As a form of hearing that is "a sense of longing for the past full of emotions", listening to old songs implies many people's nostalgia and desire for a peaceful life before the epidemic.
Few national events can be like the epidemic, like an invisible barrier to cut time apart, casting a common memory of all mankind. For those old times before the epidemic that are difficult to reproduce, the old songs have become the best BGM for nostalgia.
epilogue
Old song trend, then the current musician is more and more difficult to do?
In fact, the old song encroaches on the market, which does not mean that the new song is marginalized. Overall, the music market is showing a trend of continuous expansion, of which whether it is old songs or new songs, are in the stage of making the cake bigger, but the growth rate is fast and slow, and the market share shows a trend of falling and falling.
In addition, the expansion of the influence of old songs mainly comes from the improvement of the voice of middle-aged and elderly groups, and the attraction of new music to this part of the group is not high. For today's musicians, it should be grasped that the Z generation, a group with more potential space, their high sense of payment and purchasing power in music will become a long-term growth driver in the music market, especially the new song market.
For more musicians, the popularity of old songs may be used as an inspiration and motivation - in the long run, polishing high-quality works is a stable and profitable business, after all, long-lasting musical works are the most valuable.