Just for fun, I crunched some numbers to see what genre people tend to click on when they come to the home page.
Here are the results:
Classical is by far the most popular one (1 in 3 home page visitors click on it), though electronica is very popular too (1 in 7 visitors click on it).
Our Catalog by Genre
Joerg asked: how does this correlate to the number of albums in each genre? and so I made this chart comparing the number of albums per genre vs the actual demand for those genres, as evaluated by what people click on the home page.
and here are the actual numbers:
You can see that the numbers "demand vs actual" roughly coincide, though with some variability:
1) For classical, jazz and hip-hop there's a greater demand for those genres than there is catalog
2) There are more albums than demand for alt rock, new age, hard rock, electro rock and world.
And what about licenses by genre?
At Magnatune, we have two business: selling all-you-can-eat memberships, and also licensing music to businesses. I ran the same analysis for our licensing, and found that new age is the most popular genre to license, and that all the other genres are about equal in licensing (we just started offering hip hip last year, which is probably why it's so small).
Here's a chart:
and here's the actual number of licenses we sold per genre:
I thought this was a very good point made in the comments:
It strikes me that one issue that may skew these numbers is the relative breadth of categories. "Classical" is a very big tent, to the point that someone looking for Gregorian Chant and someone looking for post-Romantic French music will be looking in the same place. There is a much greater chronological and stylistic range in what you call classical music and what you call "hard rock," "electro rock," "electronica," etc.
His point (as I take it) is that the "bucketing" in the chart is really skewing the results. So I redid the charts by combining genres to combining sub-genres in a way that seemed fair.
Here's what I did:
- I combined "ambient" and "new age"
- I combined "Alt Rock" "Hard Rock" and "Electro Rock"
- I combined "World" with "Jazz" (I know, that's debatable).
- I left Electronica alone
The chart does come out differently after doing this:
here are some things I note from this new chart:
- all the genre (except new age/ambient) have a similar number of albums
- demand for classical is greater than the catalog size, and he opposite is true for new age. However new age/ambient is still the #2 more popular genre.
- jazz/world and electronica have appropriately sized catalogs for their demand, though we have more rock than demand.
A followup blog posting is available with more charts.
Just for fun -- how does this correlate to the number of albums in each genre?
Posted by: joerg | February 16, 2011 at 07:42 PM
I am not surprised to see the classical music leading the pack. One thing about recordings of classical pieces is that they can be very good or very bad, depending on who is performing. But everything here is handpicked and good quality and a bargain for members. I only hope one day my father will join. He's crazy about classical.
Posted by: Spike Page | February 17, 2011 at 03:06 PM
Not surprised to see classical at the top. This is one of the main reasons I come to Magnatunes - because I can find fabulous medieval, renaissance, baroque, and classical recordings that one doesn't normally see at places like "iTunes". Keep up the good work, John. You've found some great artists and recordings!
Posted by: Mary | February 19, 2011 at 09:31 AM
John, I'm delighted that you're as much of a data geek as I am --- both figures are intriguing. (And as a classical-genre Magnatune musician, I'm pleased.)
Posted by: Robin Snyder | February 19, 2011 at 12:51 PM
I too am not surprised that Classical is the most popular, when I first was told about Magnatune that's what I came looking for but I now listen to lots of Ambient and electronica and have been inspired to start recording some. I like the fact that there is all sorts of stuff here that is really hard to find anywhere else........
Posted by: market | February 19, 2011 at 08:39 PM
Another way of looking at these figures is to total the Ambient, Electronica and New Age Categories........ which are closely related and overlap a fair bit..... 33%
Overall....... up there with Classical......
Posted by: market | February 19, 2011 at 10:11 PM
I really hope this won't lead to less rock, pop etc. in your catalogue! The reason for classical (and ambient, world etc) being so popular at magnatune.com is probably that you have promoted these genres heavily right from the start. People looking for rock might not know about you at all.
Posted by: Turid | February 20, 2011 at 03:06 AM
I doubt the statistics will lead to less rock, etc.
These statistics are mere glimpse into the whole story. For a single example, how many submissions for the genres come in? If it's making money for the artists and Magnatune, why pull it? Especially since it costs hardly anything to leave it available.
It also may be a reflection of the audience, and the dynamics of the marketplace. Rock, dance, etc. has plenty of outlets. I have a good amount of music from small and self-published albums found through word of mouth and ordered off the 'Net.
It seems like it's gotten harder to find high-quality classical in the past decades. Magnatune's picks are consistently high quality. No shabby recordings of the state orchestra of former outer blovakia. Word gets around.
In truth, it's all speculation. Magnatune has high-quality albums regardless of the genre.
...
That's just a long-winded way to say my impression as a long-time customer is that Magnatune's expansion of offerings has been steady but hardly at break-neck speed. They're not following the path of other labels, which I respect. I heartily wish Magnatune best success for their own sake as well as the expansion of my own collection.
Win-win.
Posted by: Rithban | February 20, 2011 at 10:59 AM
It strikes me that one issue that may skew these numbers is the relative breadth of categories. "Classical" is a very big tent, to the point that someone looking for Gregorian Chant and someone looking for post-Romantic French music will be looking in the same place. There is a much greater chronological and stylistic range in what you call classical music and what you call "hard rock," "electro rock," "electronica," etc.
Posted by: John | February 20, 2011 at 12:08 PM
As this thread is getting popular and lots of points are being made, I've created a followup thread here:
http://blogs.magnatune.com/buckman/2011/02/popular-genres-v2.html
with new charts based on the feedback above.
-john
Posted by: John from Magnatune | February 20, 2011 at 08:01 PM
Agree that the grouping favors classical music. "New Age" is a poor label: the music that is disdainfully described as "new age" by people who don't like it is a lot wider category than the music which is labeled such by the artists themselves. "Ambient" has less stigma attached, but is often indistinguishable.
This would also be an explanation for your finding in your followup post, John: I think people like the sound of "new age" music - but they don't think that they will like it, because isn't that about crystal healing and stuff? That people also like classical a good deal less than they think (but still quite a lot!), conversely, tells us that it's a prestigious label to have on your music.
Posted by: Harald Korneliussen | February 20, 2011 at 10:04 PM