In Luminate’s newly released 2023 Midyear Music Report we dive into the biggest trends impacting the Global music industry so far this year. While we cover topics as diverse as Super Fans, the consumption of non-English music, and content proliferation through the course of the report, let’s jump into the world of Direct-To-Consumer (D2C) sales today to look at the wide sweeping trends. (For those readers who may be unfamiliar with the term “D2C,” this is essentially product and apparel sold directly to consumers via official online artist and label stores.)
Overall in 2023, D2C physical product sales in the US are up 20% over the same period last year, which is higher than the overall US physical marketplace that is up 13.3%. Notably, cassette sales are almost 15% lower via D2C stores through the first half as the category growth starts to slow.
Looking at Current vs Catalog sales also reveals interesting trends in D2C. Whereas Catalog* consumption has been growing in for several years (Catalog share of Total Album Consumption** jumped from 72.4% to 72.8% this year), over 60% of D2C sales are Current. Strong Current sales intuitively makes perfect sense if you’ve ever rushed to your favorite artist’s official online store to pre-order a physical copy of an upcoming album.
D2C stores provide artists the opportunity to sell merch right next to their music products, and Gen Z is particularly excited about these offerings. Our Luminate Insights Consumer Research data shows that
Learn more about D2C, Super Fans and other highly impactful trends in today’s music industry. Click here to view the 2023 Midyear Music Report.
* Catalog is defined by a music release that is older than 18 months
**Total Album Consumption (Album + TEA + SEA On-Demand)
