I think it’s rather fitting that us older generation is leading the way on YouTube. It’s also fitting that the music dies with us since we were exposed to the greatest music ever recorded from the 60’s to the 80’s. Don’t you think? The younger generation listens to all of the crap from today and think it’s an actual hit. Not me. I still listen to everything from the 60’s to the 80’s because that was real music and we were very privileged to have grown up with it!
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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Just a wondering thought. Since we all agree this industry is being supported by a bunch of long in the tooth guys, not all of this gear being marketed will ever be sold. So, what happens to it? I mean like how many Klipsch, Fyne Audio, Tannoy, Spendor, or even high end stuff like Wilson Audio speakers are sitting out there and won’t be sold? And other gear too, preamps, amps, turntables, etc. Do they just keep them forever collecting dust in a warehouse? Do they destroy them, ship them to underserved poor countries, cannibalize them for parts? Just curious what happens to all this stock of "stuff", not even counting all the stuff that will be sold for peanuts at estate sales when we kick the bucket, or God forbid, end up in a landfill. [Edit: Just now saw SNS’s similar post] |
@jcoltrane1 I do think there is good music written and recorded today too. A Paul McCartney and Linda Ronstadt are born every week (statistically |
It's interesting to read different perspectives on musical decades and genres that fuel this hobby. I'm not sure if this focus takes away from appreciating what's currently being released, though. There's a vast world of subgenres, starving artists, and non-mainstream music out there that often goes undiscovered by the masses. Fortunately, streaming services with their vast catalogs and algorithms help bridge the gap, IMO. As for the data, it seems like a meta-analysis would be useful. A few years ago the average age of members on this forum was 61. A poll on reddit's r/audiophile showed that 354 members were under 40, while 254 were over 50. Another poll from the same subreddit reveled that out of 516 participants, a strong majority were also members of ASR, while few belonged to Audiogon or other forums. What does this all mean? I'm not entirely sure since these samples are fairly compartmentalized. But it's interesting to note that companies like Schiit are offering products like the Yggdrasil "Less is More" and the Yggdrasil "More is Better" (measures better) to appeal to different customer preferences. I don't think the younger generation of this hobby is as robust as previous ones, but they're out there - often in forums like Head-Fi (presuming), ASR, and reddit. It'll be interesting to see where they take the hobby. At 43, I just hope I'm not left with sterile-sounding options and $1,000 EL34 matched tube sets. |
), we just don't necessarily know about them. The music industry is not helping for sure, but the same way the Beatles had to play in small clubs to become what they have, we have to keep going to small clubs to help musicians grow and make it. 
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