In going over some RIAA notes I discovered that Jazz and Classical music each accounted for less then three percent of music sales in the US in the year 2000 with both trending lower. The projection for this year has both at under 2.5 percent.
The figures are much worse if you consider how many people are buying the music. The average classical and jazz buyers tend to spend quite a bit. The estimate is that fewer than one percent of the record buying public will buy a jazz or classical CD this year.
With the parent companies of recording firms run by folks who sell magazines, movies, video games and liquor one wonders how long these genres are for the world - particularly when you consider that the record companies may suffer a profit collapse not unlike that the long distance phone companies suffered.
How many opera buffs use Windows:) Some people have joked that classical music is the Macintosh of the music world (in market share).
There are a few bright spots on the horizon for folks interested in endangered musical genres and we will be exploring them in 2003. (a few of us tried to explore them a few years ago with disasterous results, but it was a learning experience)
12:00:59 AM 
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