2. misc-audio
  3. 191250-671

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

rooze

Showing 2 responses by 2serious

2serious
2 posts
 

With the exceptional rise in prices of gear over the last decade that has outpaced inflation by good margin, I think we are seeing the future unfold.  Manufactures are seeking to obtain profit from fewer, albeit wealthier, enthusiasts.   What are they to do?  Gear is made more “extreme” to justify the necessarily higher prices.  Does it sound better?  Probably.  Are there good value propositions to be found?  Not up at the extreme high end IME.  But those with deep pockets and ears to follow gratefully oblige.  As the customer base shrinks, the prices (and gear) will become more extravagant.  And manufacturers will die off with the customer base… to a point.  Some will certainly last.  But the landscape will absolutely look very different in 30 years, as it should.

Perhaps the silver lining is that with change, unexpected improvements can be appreciated.  The general tone of this thread is negative but thinking in a more forward direction, perhaps there are elements of today’s audiophile society that limit growth and improvement in sound reproduction.  What I’m interested in is if we can manage to create some ingenuity and end up with 90% of the sound quality, 20% of the complexity and 10% of the cost of today’s best systems.  That will never happen if all we do is continue to aspire to own systems that cost as much as a house and weigh as much as a car.  Perhaps we should welcome a little change.  

2serious
2 posts
 

@rooze 

To clarify, I believe that there is a lot of boxed-in thinking when it comes to sound reproduction, both from an engineering perspective and from an evaluation standard.  Everyone wants to make everyone else believe that they are right.  Absurd and ignorant.  We are not all alike - thank God!  As such, we do not all appreciate the reproduction of music in the same way.  So we should all stop being so persnickety about trying to make everyone think and hear and listen like us.  I am 46 and believe and I am likely in the generation that bridges the gap, so to speak, between the hard-core, stalwart audiophiles and my kids who listen exclusively to headphones and our whole-house audio system.  While they appreciate my listening den with about 40K worth of gear, they stay only for 1 or 2 songs before they are off to the next thing.  That's the way it is going to be.  

More to discover