A music catalogue can contain hundreds of recordings.

Some are new.

Some are ten years old.

Some grow every month.

Others decline.

Looking only at total revenue can hide important differences.

A simple age-based analysis helps artists and labels understand how recordings perform as they get older.

What is catalogue age analysis?

Catalogue age analysis groups recordings according to when they were originally released.

Instead of looking at every track as one undifferentiated catalogue, you compare groups such as:

• less than one year old;
• one to three years old;
• three to five years old;
• five to ten years old;
• more than ten years old.

These groups are often called cohorts.

A cohort lets you compare recordings at similar stages of their commercial lives.

Why does age matter?

New music often receives concentrated attention around release day.

That attention may come from:

• marketing campaigns;
• editorial playlists;
• social media;
• press;
• existing fans.

Over time, activity can change.

Some recordings decline quickly.

Others remain stable.

A smaller number may grow.

Age analysis helps you identify those patterns.

Start with a catalogue export

Create a spreadsheet with the following columns:

Field	Example
Artist	Example Artist
Track	Running Home
ISRC	Existing track identifier
Original release date	15 May 2023
Current monthly streams	12,000
Previous monthly streams	10,000
Current monthly revenue	£45
Previous monthly revenue	£40
Track age	3 years
Age cohort	3–5 years

Use your actual distributor statements and analytics.

Do not mix revenue currencies without conversion.

Calculate track age

The simplest method is to compare the original release date with the reporting month.

For example:

Reporting month: October 2026

Original release: October 2022

Track age: approximately four years.

If using a spreadsheet, calculate the completed months or years since the original release date.

For reissues, maintain both the original recording date and the date of the new product where appropriate.

Calculate monthly growth

The formula is:

(Current month streams ÷ previous month streams − 1) × 100

Imagine a song grows from 10,000 to 12,000 monthly streams.

12,000 ÷ 10,000 = 1.2

1.2 − 1 = 0.2

Growth = 20%.

Use this alongside absolute numbers.

A percentage alone can be misleading for very small tracks.

Group revenue by age

Once every track has an age cohort, sum the monthly revenue for each group.

You might discover:

• new releases generate 35% of revenue;
• one-to-three-year-old recordings generate 25%;
• three-to-five-year-old recordings generate 20%;
• older recordings generate the remaining 20%.

That tells you something about how your business currently earns money.

It does not automatically prove which age group performs best.

Compare similar cohorts over time

Suppose you want to know whether songs released in 2022 are ageing better than songs released in 2021.

Compare their earnings at equivalent ages.

For example:

How much did each cohort earn in its third year after release?

How much did it earn in its fourth year?

That is more meaningful than comparing two groups at entirely different points in their life cycles.

Watch for catalogue mix changes

A label that signs several successful artists may see catalogue revenue grow even if its older tracks are declining.

Likewise, a catalogue acquisition can dramatically alter the totals.

Record major events such as:

• acquisitions;
• catalogue migrations;
• new territories;
• sync placements;
• large campaigns.

Otherwise you may mistake a change in catalogue composition for organic growth.

Revenue matters more than streams alone

Different platforms and territories can generate different revenue per stream.

Track both.

A recording can grow in streams while revenue remains flat because its consumption mix changed.

For financial decisions, the income trend matters.

Build a monthly dashboard

Useful measures include:

• catalogue revenue;
• number of active tracks;
• revenue by release year;
• revenue by track age;
• growing tracks;
• declining tracks;
• revenue concentration;
• catalogue retention.

Update it each month.

Over time, the dashboard becomes increasingly useful.

Final thoughts

Catalogue age analysis helps answer a simple question:

What happens to our music after release day?

That is important for artists planning marketing and labels considering investment.

A catalogue should not be judged only by its newest releases.

Its older recordings can reveal just as much about the long-term strength of the business.