THE HOME :
Selling Products for the New Frontier of Performance & Work
By Michael Raine
From podcasters to voice actors to livestreaming gamers and musicians , plus the millions working from home , the home-based audio market has exploded
Over the last five years or so ,
there ’ s been a convergence of technology and circumstance that has swelled the market for audio products for home-performance and work-from-home needs . And the best part for suppliers and dealers is that this market — which was growing before COVID-19 and skyrocketed during it — isn ’ t going to disappear whenever the pandemic mercifully ends . As well , it ’ s a far wider market than many MI dealers typically serve . It ’ s young and old , male and female , professional musicians and musical illiterates , individuals and companies , and those with budgets both small and very large .
According to Statistics Canada , by June 2020 as pandemic lockdowns were enforced across the country , 40 % of Canadian workers were doing their jobs from home . By comparison , in 2018 , just 10 % had the option to work from home , even just part-time . And very importantly , not all of those millions of people are going to return to the office when this is all over . Another survey released by Statistics Canada in July 2020 found that nearly a quarter of Canadian businesses expect that at least 10 % of their employees will continue to work remotely after the pandemic . In many cases , employees are enjoying gaining the hours they previously lost to their daily commute , and employers are realizing that , contrary to their previous assumptions , productivity has not gone down .
This growth in the work-from-home market is complemented by the growth in the home performance market that was already beginning prior to the pandemic , and in some areas has exploded during it . By home performance , we ’ re talking about livestreaming musical performances and video games . And while livestreaming video games using platforms like Twitch has been continually growing for almost a decade at this point , livestreaming music performances from home has been a new endeavour for countless musicians over the last year as they were prevented from touring or even playing at the local pub . For this , they have been turning to a number of platforms , including Twitch , but also Facebook Live , Instagram Live , YouTube Live , Zoom , and more .
As well , podcasting is continuing the growth trajectory it ’ s been on for a few years . According to Podcastinsights . com , by Jan . 1 , 2021 , there were about 1.75 million podcasts available . That total has tripled since 2018 when it was around 550,000 . And the majority of these podcasts are recorded in people ’ s homes – even some of the biggest ones , like Marc Maron ’ s infamous garage set-up that hosted President Barack Obama , among others .
“ We can ’ t call the last nine months just an uptick . It ’ s through the roof ; it ’ s insane ,” says Graham Collins , the manager of Long & Mc- Quade Pro , the national retailer ’ s specialized recording- and pro audio-focused location in Toronto . “ It ’ s pretty broadly based , too . I ’ d say , first and foremost , yes there ’ s podcasting people , then secondly people who may already play an instrument and are just looking to record because they ’ re home and have nothing better to do and hear you can do that kind of thing and think it ’ d be fun to do that . Also , people who were sort of already into it and are looking for something a little better than they previously had . Then it ’ s people working from home with Zoom calls for work or to talk to relatives and friends because you haven ’ t been able to see them . I mean , it ’ s really across the board .”
Collins certainly isn ’ t the only one noticing it . Each of the dealers CMT reached out to described the growth in these related markets for at-home audio needs in emphatic terms .
When Matt Van Hemmen of The PA Shop in London , ON spoke to CMT in 2019 for an article on serving the home recording market , he mentioned the sales growth he was seeing at that time in gear for non-musical applications like podcasting , home-based voiceover recording , and livestreaming . “ Last year when we did the article , it was one of the things that came up , but I don ’ t think anyone was thinking it would be so full-force . Well , obviously no one expected what was going to happen this year , either ,” he says to CMT near the final weeks of 2020 . “ It ’ s been a pretty massive shift , honestly . When everything first went down back in March and we closed , we were kind of sitting here being like , ‘ What the heck is going to happen for the next few months ?’… But within a month pretty much anything you could think of – audio interfaces , desktop boom arms , microphones – like any specific audio control devices that are designed for streaming were completely backordered . Everyone jumped on it at pretty much the same time ,
20 CANADIAN MUSIC TRADE