Jazz originated in the early 20th century from a combination of African and European music traditions. While jazz was popular in its early decades, its sales and audience have sharply declined since the 1970s according to industry data. By 2008, jazz sales accounted for only 1.1% of total music sales compared to 3.0% in 1999. Similarly, the percentage of American adults attending jazz performances fell from 10.8% in 2002 to 7.8% in 2008, and many public radio stations eliminated jazz formats during the 2000s. This data suggests the jazz audience has aged and declined rapidly in recent decades.

1. Jazz Industry

2. History
• Jazz originated in African American communities
in the Southern Unites State at the beginning of
the 20th century. It is a musical style that came out
from a combination of African and European
music traditions. From its beginning until today,
jazz has been integrated into popular American
music.

3. History
• All around America jazz is suited to different
regional, national and local cultures, thus
changing distinctive styles. New Orleans is
particularly famous for its affiliation with jazz music
and culture, starting in 1910: big band swing,
Kansas City jazz and Gypsy jazz from the 1930s
and 1940s, bebop from the mid-1940s and all
other forms in the 21st century.

4. JAZZ ON THE
DECLINE - SALES
(Recording Industry Association of America)

5. JAZZ ON THE
DECLINE - SALES
• The Jazz Journalist Association illustrates the
rapid growth and steady decline from 1973 to
2009 in sales of recording for all commercial
formats. Music genre’s are not broken down in
the graph, however the following link shows the
RIAA’s 2008 “Music Consumers Profile” which
comprises of data evaluating nearly a decade of
business.

6. JAZZ ON THE
DECLINE - SALES
• The publish figures illustrate, jazz sales totaled 3.0
per cent of total sales in 1999, 3.4 per cent in
2002, fell to 1.8 in 2005, and in 2008 registered
only 1.1 per cent of sales. In almost every year
classical sales win over jazz sales; religious music
sales are in the 3.9 to 6.7 range; pop, country,
urban/R&B and hip-hop each hold numbers in the
low double digits, and rock accounts for between
24.8 and 34 per cent of year end shipments. Other
data measures formats, channels, consumers’
ages and genders.

7. JAZZ ON THE
DECLINE - interests
• The following facts signpost that the audience for
jazz in the USA is both aging and declining at a
rapid rate. According to the National Endowment
for the Arts latest Survey of Public Participation in
the arts, the fourth to be piloted by the NEA since
1982 the following facts were found:

8. JAZZ ON THE
DECLINE - interests
• The Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA) is the leading source for most statistical
inquires related to the music industry.
• The RIAA has reported that over the last twenty
years the sales of jazz music has declined
meaningfully.
• In 2002 10.8% of all adult Americans were present
at one or more jazz performances. By 2008, that
figure had fallen to 7.8%.

9. JAZZ ON THE
DECLINE - interests
• According to the Federal Communications
Commission by National Public Radio; 505 public
radio stations completed a survey from 2001 to
2010 – revealing that a fifth of them got rid of
classical music formals during this time period.
• Nearly 75% of them abandoned jazz, and even
more discarded world music during the same time
frame.

10. JAZZ ON THE
DECLINE - interests
• “During this time, we saw decreases in classical
music (down 20%), jazz music (down 15%), and
world music (down 30%) and increases in eclectic
music programming (up 54%), popular music
(19%) and news programming (up 27%),” NPR
wrote to the FCC.” (National Public Radio and
Federal Communications Commission.)

11. JAZZ ON THE
DECLINE - interests

12. JAZZ ON THE
DECLINE - interests
• Popularity of Jazz Music lingered small during the
2000s, with constant declines as the decade relaxed,
according to data from Peter Hart Research and Taylor
Research & Consulting Group, as reported on
RIAA.com in the RIAA's 2008 Consumer Profile.
• The genre's best year of the decade was 2001 with 3.4
market share.
• In 2005 Jazz plunged from a 2.7 to 1.8 share.
• Despite a few successive up years, the genre fell in
2008 from a 2.6 to 1.1 shares.

13. Sources
• http://www.davidchoimusic.com/forums/showthrea
d.php?t=939
• http://www.riaa.com/
• http://www.radiosurvivor.com/2010/12/07/classical
-jazz-and-world-music-on-public-radio-declined-
by-up-to-30-over-last-decade/
• http://www.playlistresearch.com/data/riaa-jazz.htm