In January, the Charlotte classical radio station WDAV became the first classical station to rank 1st in the history of the United States’s modern radio era.
WDAV announced, “In the most recent ratings report from Nielsen Media, WDAV ranked as the Number 1 station in the Charlotte radio market based on its share of 6.5 percent, with an average of 6,100 listeners tuned in each quarter hour and averaging 102,900 individual listeners over the course of a week.”
Vinyl and cds sales both rose from 2020 to 2021. CD sales increased for the first time since 2004 . It’s was warm welcomed bump of 22% to revenues of $584 million. Hard to call it a trend tho considering it wasn’t exactly hard to out perform 2020, but it’s still good news. Vinyl increased for the 15th year in a row, leaping 61% to a total of $1 billion. Compare those numbers before decided what format to sell your new record on (congrats btw). Also worth mentioning is the huge wait time for vinyl pressings to be fulfilled right now (10-12 months?). Production hasn’t kept up with demand and the field is ripe for a new production approach and/or small, private print shops to get involved.
The Australian state of Victoria’s Music Works program is funding 77 music projects involving close to 7,000 music industry professionals with grants totaling almost $1.7 million. You can read the whole list of projects here. This is in addition to 2 other major funding initiatives. The $9 million On The Road Again project is funding hundreds of concerts, busking performances, and pop-up shows across the region. And the $8 million Victorian Live Music Venues Support program will provide more than 160 live music venues with grants of between $20,000 and $65,000. Way to go Australia!
Spain will give a €400 culture credit to everyone turning 18 in 2022. Up to €200 can be spent on real world experiences like concerts, museums, movies, comedy nights, etc. Additionally up to €100 can be spent on physical art (albums, etc, ) and another €100 can be spent on digital art (streaming subscription, ebooks, twitch, etc.). I love how they’re funding personal expression and identity in young folks. Companies, artists, and venues are now incentivized to market to a young, potentially lifelong audience who can actually buy whatever they want (well €400 of whatever they want) for the first time.
And finally, someone got a drumset for their birthday and they were very excited to try it out (albeit in an adorable, overly respectful way).