I don’t know that anecdotal evidence from one video about a 30 year old vintage amplifier can give any indication of the future of this hobby. It’s already been pointed out several times, in this discussion, that the age ranges for those with disposable income are generally in the age ranges you site. I think, without any evidence that, as @12Many pointed out, it’s likely not changed from 20 years ago and will likely be the same 20 years from now. There is also a large community of content creators on YouTube that cater to less expensive but respectable quality hi-fi gear. I think there are many manufacturers making affordable components that have high value relative to their lower price. Based on this I believe the industry has thought about how to attract interest from younger audiophiles. This, like many other hobbies, seems to cater to a niche so the question I have is whether there is enough interest to maintain the relative size of that community across the spectrum of affordability (meaning the spectrum from high priced equipment to affordable entry level. equipment) so that the next generation of 40-60 year olds with disposable income is of sufficient size to adequately replace us. That was a really long winded way to say I don’t think it’s all doom and gloom.
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
- ...
- 139 posts total
I have a young friend who is 32 years old. I am 69 years old. He was one of those "young people" that had only listened to earbuds, TV speakers and the occasional concert. The first time we had him and his girlfriend over for dinner, by half way through the evening he was glued in the sweet spot with the iPad in hand and a huge grin on his face. I would say that there are many future audiophiles out there, just waiting to be exposed to high quality sound and to have some actual disposable income. |
Interesting post, even if not all that new. The Youtube stats are interesting; I haven't seen quite such dramatic "empirical evidence" of these trends before. But, FWIW, my experience doesn't quite correspond. For one thing, I'm a university professor and have many young friends and acquaintances, both among my students and among the younger faculty. Pretty much all of them love music in one way or another. It has been pointed out here that a good pair of headphones is a reasonable facsimile of what we go in for, especially for the young who can't afford either the gear or the physical space necessary for audio nirvana. But as they get older and richer, who knows? (Still, home ownership is in steep decline, and apartments don't really support superlative listening circumstances, for several obvious reasons.) Another thing: we have a very active audio club here on the California central coast, and several members are women. Not a parity, but not "0%" either!
|
A young person listening to spatial audio/apple music on some decent headphones will be thoroughly disappointed when he hears overpriced dinosaur stereo and Krell. The former is that good and the latter is on death row for many a legitimate reason. Some young household with square footage to spare will go with a multipurpose entertainment system/HT type of setup for tv, movies, music, playstation, etc. Only dinosaurs like myself would dedicate a large room for death row stereo. To be fair, dinosaurs never had netflix or big screens at home growing up. I am in a midwestern city (cheaper houses with basements), which has a very high percentage of young people (25 to 40 maybe) with affordable hometheater rigs. It could be true in other midwestern and some southern cities too. The coasts may be different because young people can only afford a shack or closet there. Women have ears and money too, but, somebody needs to introduce these things to them the right way...or they’ll be sticking to headphones. |
@rooze As previously mentioned, in my old age, I’ve grown fond of streaming my music exclusively. But, I do have plenty of warm, fond, heartfelt memories of all those many decades of physical media. I just attended the Pacific Audio Fest, and there was a turn table, or a turn table and a reel to reel in just about every room. The rooms which featured both reel to reel and a turn table harkened me back to the audio systems I owned way back in the seventies and eighties. Happy listening. |
- 139 posts total