In the last week, we've shared streams of a Trey show and a Keller show at tomorrowsverse.com, and expect to share more in the future, but we're probably not even a 1000th of a pixel on this heat map which shows the relative size of the places we go online to listen to music these days.
Green is for positive growth last year. Red is negative growth. The full exposition and interactive map is available from the source at virtualmusic.fm. But the real interesting information is contained in the next heat map. Click more to see.
If tomorrowsverse.com is the fraction of a pixel in the map above. Where do we stand when we add Pandora and Youtube into the mix? About 31% of all videos on youtube are music, easily making it the number one music destination on the web. And why not, you can find anything you want there, for free with great search tools and often with video.
So what affect does all of this have on the music industry. A couple of charts from Digital Music News tell the story here. The first is for albums, and the second for singles.
The message? Single song downloads are changing the game for how we as consumers. As listeners, though, it's another .
Here's what I take away from all of this: go see live music! You can't download an experience, in single or album form. As a society, we may be shifting away from the production and consumption of Long Playing Album (Radiohead's King of Limbs was a not-so-subtle reminder of this). But live music provides the most direct emotional connection between artists and fans (and it lasts more than 3 minutes).