My kid bought himself a Technics turntable on craigslist when he was 17, plugged it into a little system I game him, and he buys vinyl albums that cost more than the turntable.
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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There is too much of a push to high cost hardware when good affordable equipment can be made. The young today are too busy paying rent, utilities, buying organic food and electric cars to have the excess cash to spend on stereo hardware. The industry is its own worst enemy. I'd like to buy a new tape deck to take 10 inch reels, but will not spend $10,000 on up for one and we can afford it. |
Interesting thread. I am going to guess that Darko and his “futurefi” channel (that includes reviews of vinyl products) has a different viewership than the OP’s results. In the 60s and 70s, when the current gray beards were starting out, an amp or a receiver with two wired speakers were the most common way to reproduce whatever came out of your source of choice. No streaming, no earbuds, no wireless speakers. Music and musicians were a cultural force, leading a shift in values and perspective for western society. That placed a high value on the means to listen just as transistors made decent sounding gear widely available, and many of us imprinted on that 2-channel experience and have been refining it with our rising living standards more or less ever since. Both my 30-something children have 2-channel systems. My son who is in tech has a better “stereo” than I do, and he aspires to continuously improve it and the room where he listens. He is also deeply knowledgeable about streaming, music servers and headphone gear but also has a very good vinyl playback system anx enjoys collecting high quality pressings. My daughter started with a vinyl rig that belonged to my father, and I have helped her upgrade it over time. Her 3 and 4 year olds especially like listening to it, which is why it has only a modest phono cartridge(!!) I have a midfi rig in my office, and my staff in their 20s and 30s love it. There is hope for music reproduction and a passion for it to persist. It just won’t look like it has in the past. kn |
Krell is a legacy brand from the 1980s...same with Levinson. So that explains the age demographic. If you were to look at YouTube age demographics for YouTubers that promote mid-fi and chi-fi, you would find mostly men under 50...the Reddit crowd. So I disagree with your conclusions that the hi-fi industry is dying. The chi-fi and mid-fi demographics will gain income over time...and while Krell won't be relevant to them, McIntosh will be. It's a legacy brand that like Harley, is still relevant.
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@bipod72 - I'm sorry but Steely Dan has NO bad songs. Of the very small number groups I listen to where I think EVERY album is worthy or being in my library (just about all groups have bad albums) of rotating albums they are the only group with no songs that I would ever think of picking up the arm and skipping over a song. One exception - Becker's (RIP) song on Everything must go, the last song on side 1 (Slang of Ages), so it is very easy to skip. It is not a real Steely Dan song. Other exception if you must, is not a Steely Dan song, East St Louis Toodle-Oo. Some may want to skip it, but I would never think of skipping it. And the UHQR of Aja is by far the best sounding available copy. I was also lucky that I spent a lot of time in a record store in college that some friends of mine owned (thankfully I never invested - would have lost 90% of to) do I got to hear most of the music of the golden age of classic rock in the 70's and early 80's and I challenge anyone to name another group with no bad songs. I'd love to check them out. |
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