I am 69 (although I don't feel a day over 64!!) and my big brother is 79. We were talking about how, when we were young, the stereo system was the center-point of our inside world. Neither of us had televisions until we were in our, perhaps, late 20's and the wasteland of TV could not compare to the richness of music - I could perhaps also speculate on how smoking pot enhanced our listening experiences as well.
The world has shifted so much. the center of what we all do now is visual and interactive (telephone, tablet or computer) and listening has become secondary to the interactions that the digital world has brought to life. This is not all to the good - I would add. Babies in their first year who spend more than an hour engaged with the mothers cell phone have a higher risk of autism (a lot higher) and four year old's engaging with tablets loose their impulse control (however much that is). So there is something so fundamentally different about sitting and listening, and engaging. It is not all good, either. And I agree with tkrtrb125 - having more money and time has something to do with it.
And
YouTube Indicates What the Future is For Audiophiles - Interesting Demographics.
Howdy,
I just wanted to share some data from YouTube as I found it quite eye-opening and thought some of you might too.
I've posted a couple vids on YouTube recently and, as some will know, YouTube provides analytics data with every video, which is available to the channel owner.
The first video featured a Krell KSA 80 amp and at the time of writing this there have been 9,500 views:
Female - 0%
Male - 100%
13–17 years 0%
18–24 years 0%
25–34 years 0%
35–44 years 0.9%
45–54 years 13.5%
55–64 years 44.4%
65+ years 41.3%
So, 100% male, and pretty much all of the traffic is from guys 45 years old and above, with 40%+ from guys over 65!!
The second video was a spoof (song) on Audiophiles that was shared a lot and watched by a lot of audiophile spouse, so the stats were slightly different, but not much. At the time of writing, 18,150 views:
Female 2.4%
Male 97.6%
13–17 years 0%
18–24 years 0%
25–34 years 0%
35–44 years 5.9%
45–54 years 18.6%
55–64 years 35.5%
65+ years 40.1%
The video was watched by a few females because it was shared and hit with a slightly younger audience but not by much. For all intents and purposes, the stats are the same for both vids.
Caveat - YouTube tends to attract an older audience and it's tipped up towards males. TikTok would show different results, but I think YouTube is really the platform of choice for most of us, so the data is more pertinent.
Conclusion - we're a dying breed. 40% of us will be dead in a few years and there's not many 'yoots' coming through to replace us.
No real surprise here but we're all blokes - old, fat, sweaty, bearded, and about to kick the proverbial bucket. (Yes, I'm speaking entirely for myself).
Do you think there's more that manufacturers, dealers, reviewers etc. should be doing, or is it just the inevitable playing out?
Thoughts?
Here's the link to the two vids for reference:
Krell KSA80
The Audiophile Song
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- 139 posts total
AI determines who your videos are shown to. This has to do with your topics AND the demographics of your subscriber base... I did a quick scan of your video topics....besides Krell I am seeing Altec Lansing, cable reviews, turntable reviews, and audio show content....so not surprising that your subscribers are well over age 55...which is fine of course. If you were to look at the stats of larger channels like Andrew Robinson or the Cheap Audio Man....there will be a big chunk of users under the age of 45...and they will more than replenish the current ranks ;-)
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With the exceptional rise in prices of gear over the last decade that has outpaced inflation by good margin, I think we are seeing the future unfold. Manufactures are seeking to obtain profit from fewer, albeit wealthier, enthusiasts. What are they to do? Gear is made more “extreme” to justify the necessarily higher prices. Does it sound better? Probably. Are there good value propositions to be found? Not up at the extreme high end IME. But those with deep pockets and ears to follow gratefully oblige. As the customer base shrinks, the prices (and gear) will become more extravagant. And manufacturers will die off with the customer base… to a point. Some will certainly last. But the landscape will absolutely look very different in 30 years, as it should. Perhaps the silver lining is that with change, unexpected improvements can be appreciated. The general tone of this thread is negative but thinking in a more forward direction, perhaps there are elements of today’s audiophile society that limit growth and improvement in sound reproduction. What I’m interested in is if we can manage to create some ingenuity and end up with 90% of the sound quality, 20% of the complexity and 10% of the cost of today’s best systems. That will never happen if all we do is continue to aspire to own systems that cost as much as a house and weigh as much as a car. Perhaps we should welcome a little change. |
@seanheis1 Age seems to shift with cost while gender stays the same. I don’t think any of this surprises anyone. A few people early on commented to the effect “tell us something new”. My point and the reason for posting was to discuss what, if anything, could be done differently to attract a younger audience. We already know from the stats that lower prices bring a younger age group. That’s the point well made by a few people and is pretty obvious. I mentioned people like Devon Turnbull from OJAS who had an interesting way of marketing his business, using social media to connect with a younger audience. There’s more to be had from his methods. Otherwise I’m not really losing any sleep over this, I’m too old to care too much about something that isn’t going to cause any wars or end the planet. My place in it all is that it’s been a hobby for over 45 years. I like the gear and music in fairly equal measures and I like dropping the occasional post on my blog or the occasional video on the socials. If, as some have suggested, this is a societal issue, another sign that the gap in wealth is growing and being concentrated more among an ever decreasing percentage of the population, then that’s a sad indictment of where we’re all at.
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I like all of this:
Not exactly sure what you meant here: "perhaps there are elements of today’s audiophile society that limit growth and improvement in sound reproduction." |
- 139 posts total