MUSIC SPOTLIGHT

THERE’S NO MUSIC WITHOUT

US

Madonna may have said it best 20+ years ago: “Music makes the people come together.” Well, new statistics show that music definitely makes the LGBTQ+ people come together!

A recently published study titled The Power of LGBTQ Music Report 2022 reveals a number of interesting facts about our community’s relationship with music in its various genres and forms. The study was commissioned by Luminate, a collection of brands that have supplied music and entertainment industry data for decades, with support from Billboard magazine and Queer Capita.

“Queer music fans are exceptionally valuable to the industry — spending disproportionate amounts of time and money on the music we care about. We shape trends. We create trends. And in the case of queer artists, we are the trend,” said Matt Yazge, Luminate VP, head of research.

The final study is divided into five sections:

· LGBTQ+ Audiences are Valuable · LGBTQ+ Audiences are Influencers · LGBTQ+ Artists are Valuable · LGBTQ+ Genre Landscape · LGBTQ+ Audiences are Not a Monolith

As the study states: “While in decades past LGBTQ+ audiences may have been looked at as a fringe demographic within the larger context of the music industry, data shows that today, queer and trans audiences are more likely to spend their dollars on music — buying physical albums, artist merch(andise), concert tickets and more — at a higher rate than other averages would suggest.”

Indeed, it was discovered that LGBTQ+ listeners spend an average of $72 more per year on music than the average music listener.

While modern artists like Tyler, the Creator, Lil Nas X, Halsey and others dominate when it comes to streaming, two older LGBTQ+ acts continue to consistently outperform younger artists: Queen and Elton John. The band, formerly fronted by Freddie Mercury, still sits atop 2021’s total consumption data among LGBTQ+ acts, with 1.6 million units accounted for, while also consistently ranking somewhere in the top three among total streams, audio streams and video streams. Elton John, similarly, is ranked No. 6 in total consumption among LGBTQ+ artists with over 956,000 units, while remaining in the top 10 for categories like total streams and audio streams.

Some other key takeaways from this study include:

· LGBTQ+ consumers are 20% more likely than the general population to purchase merchandise like T-shirts, posters and stickers from their favorite artists. · Queer-made entertainment properties, such as RuPaul’s Drag Race, have a strong level of influence on mainstream culture. On average, songs featured in Drag Race lip sync segments see an impressive 138% increase in streaming the week after the show airs. · For non-LGBTQ+ identifying artists, J Balvin currently holds the highest-concentrated queer fanbase, with 29% identifying as LGBTQ+, while other non-LGBTQ+ acts like Charli XCX (28%), Chloe x Halle (27%), Blackpink (25%) and Lana Del Rey (25%) also maintain significant attention from queer audiences. · Due to the increase in vinyl sales from younger audiences, data shows that LGBTQ+ Gen Z listeners, on average, spend more per month on physical copies of their favorite music than LGBTQ+ Millennials ($15 vs. $10). FYI, I’m Gen X and still buying CDs!

Perhaps the bottom-line conclusion of this study is that LGBTQ+ audiences are anything but stereotypical. As stated: “They consistently break the mold and deviate from the trends set before them — and even within the community itself. While queer audiences tend to place a high value on an artist’s activism, other preferences — such as physical music consumption — are far from set in stone across the community.”