According to Google Trends, the interest for New Age music has been stable in 2017. It is on the same level as in 2016. But if we look further back in time, all the way back to 2005, the interest for New Age music has dropped a massive 80 %!
I followed with great interest the recent redesign of veteran webpage emusic.com. Here the above-mentioned decline in the interest for New Age music is super easy to pinpoint. This is how the page looked like in the early 2000s. New Age music was a top 12 genre;
And this is where New Age music is found today, way down on the list, together with comedy, sound effects and various other minor genres (which is actually better than on Spotify, where you must look hard and long to find the genre – if you find it at all…):
Google trends
This is the graph for the “New Age music” search on Google in 2016-2017 (according to Google Trends). A nice and stable graph;
And this is the graph for the New Age music search all the way back to 2005 (according to Google Trends). The search volume has fallen with about 80 %.
Of course, such a graph does not tell the whole story. Since 2004 Internet users have become much better at searching. Perhaps users does not make such wide searches anymore – and search directly for artists? «New Age music» does not exclusively refers to a music genre either. But Google Trends graphs are a great tool to show the overall popularity of a topic, especially when you compare it to other findings – such as the emusic reference above.
I think it is a good thing that the interest for New Age music is about the same. This is rock-bottom. Now there’s only one way for New Age music, and that is UP!
Above picture by Evgeny Atamanenko – Bigstockphoto.com