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LOCAL ECONOMIC SNAPSHOT | TEXAS MUSIC INDUSTRY

In pitch with new technology


By BILL BOWEN
Special Contributor businessnews@dallasnews.com

The Texas music industry employs almost 150,000 people, counting musicians, nightclubs, record companies, recording studios, touring companies and others. The Lone Star music industry has grown in recent decades with the rise of the South by Southwest music and technology festival as a national draw and the continued growth of Austin as a music capital. But new technology has brought change and the industry is adapting.

A digital dirge for U.S. album sales


Nationally, album sales rose in 2011 for the rst time since 2003. Otherwise, over the past 10 years, unit sales have declined rather dramatically as le sharing and digital downloads have cut into record company prots. Album sales Include both physical compact disc or vinyl sales and digital equivalents of 10 individual song les.
(In millions of units sold) 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11

Revenue declines
The declines in unit sales have been echoed in revenue. 1999: $14.6 billion

330.6 million

2009: $6.3 billion


Note: Apple introduced iTunes in 2003.

The Texas industry


The decline in record sales and the push toward online digital le distribution has hit publishing companies, production, distribution and the number of record labels, themselves. But recording and touring services continue to grow, as does the number of radio stations. Nightclubs, dancehalls and other venues 1,901 2,000
1,500 1,000 500 0 00 05 12

Publishing companies
2,000 1,500 1,000 500 0

Record production, distribution and sales services


1,500 1,000

Texas recording studios


2,000 1,500

1,492

1,399 1,132

962

1,171

1,000 500 00 05 12 0

654

781

793

309
00

295
05

257
12

500 0

00

05

12

Record labels
2000 1500 1000 500 0

Touring services
2,000 1,500 1,000

Radio stations
2,000

Working musicians
40,000 30,000

975

1,056

1,138

1,500 1,000 500

31,110

569

597

555

758

806

946

20,000 10,000

500 0 00 05 12

00

05

12

00

05

12

NA
00

NA
05 12

SOURCES: Recording Industry Association of America; Texas Music Ofce, Ofce of the Governor

The bottom line


The music industry was a test case for how the Internet would affect business [It] has empowered a singer-songwriter in Wichita Falls to get a worldwide following. Anyone who can nd a blog has more access to more bands and more music than ever before. So people know about the bands that we bring through, and we can sell out small venues easy. Nathan Binford, a founder and co-owner of Tactics Productions.com in Dallas The recording industry has shrunk by about 50 percent in the past 20 years, and recording and distribution companies hope that it has bottomed out.

Casey Monahan, director of the Texas Music Ofce

Bill Bowen, special contributor, The Dallas Morning News

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