Evolution of recorded-music revenue over the last 50 years - eviltoast

source

ht to @hilljam@mastodon.social

  • flora_explora@beehaw.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    11
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    Am I the only one who is totally confused by the lower plot? How is the data distributed among the positive and negative y axis? Is the negative portion supposed to be negative annual revenue? Why are CDs then in the positive and negative at the same time. I desperately need more labeling or explanation please. It sure looks nice, but I’m completely at loss…

    • chemsed@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 year ago

      How is the data distributed among the positive and negative y axis?

      It’s symmetrical. There is actually nothing negative shown in that graph. The graph could be flat at the bottom on the axis that it would change nothing. However, it looks like soundwaves.

        • Masimatutu@lemm.eeOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          I don’t know how to but this more clearly. The distance between the top and the bottom of the coloured strip at any given year; the thickness; represents the annual revenue.

          This is actually a pretty common format for representing the evolution of parts in a total, because you can clearly see the share, the combined revenue and the total revenue over the years (that’s the area). It is just that this one has been made symmetrical because it is easier to follow and just more pretty.

      • jlow (he/him)@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        So the axis with the year isn’t actually 0 pr something else? Its just how much revenue was made in total (2000s were the time with most revenue) and how much each media contributed in a funky way of displaying it?

        • sqgl@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          It would have been less confusing to have vertical lines rather than an x axis however they wanted it to look like a soundwave. However even though I am an electronic musician who works with soundwaves I didn’t notice the metaphor until reading the comment here.

        • flora_explora@beehaw.org
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Thanks for pointing that out. It is a bit like the distribution on a violin plot then. But it still is weird how the colors are distributed and albeit I think it does indeed look nice, I think this plot shouldn’t be in this community…

    • mckean@programming.dev
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      There’s no positive or negative, just share (width). It is done creatively but still accurately, it looks like the most dominant segment takes the center allowing you to easily spot which was the most popular at what year.