Rock and Roll for the ages...

I tried to read the New York Times daily, if not weekly, it seems to be easier to read daily when I am on the road, but I have always speculated that reading the Times at least on Sunday, gives you a chance of having some idea of what may be going on in the world. And what does this have to do with rock and roll you say, well here’s the logic as I see it…

I give a talk that asks three rhetorical questions:

a. What’s the fastest growing group of computer users in America today?

b. Who has the greatest amount of discretionary time?

and the tip-off..

c. When everyone born in America before 1955 dies, how much money will generationally transfer? The answer, (drum roll…$40 Trillion…, and the answers to questions a. & b. are Baby Boomers….)

So, turn to the times, and Voila…There is a great piece entitled, “Rock of Ages”… The thrust of the article is that AARP is trying to use aging Rockers to recruit. To date even though I now qualify, I haven’t succumbed.

But there is a great quote in the article, which should ring alarm bells for technology companies.

“Even during the ascent of Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys in the late 1990s, when teen sensations were getting all the attention, consumers 45 and older were the industry’s biggest market, according to survey data compiled by the Recording Industry Association of America. The gap has only widened since then. Last year fans 45 and older accounted for 25.5 percent of sales, while older teenagers (a group more prone to music piracy) represented less than 12 percent. So it’s little wonder that Rod Stewart’s raspy remakes of pop standards emerged as a franchise, or that Bob Dylan in September captured the No. 1 spot on the Billboard chart for the first time in 30 years.

The trick is that conventional marketing techniques don’t always work with this group (if they work with anyone anymore). Older listeners don’t have much interest in traditional commercial radio, which targets children and young adults, as do TV channels like VH1 and MTV. And they don’t spend much time in traditional record stores.

So labels, publicists and marketers have had to learn new tricks to reach them. Older acts show up not on MTV’s “TRL” (Total Request Live) but on morning shows like “Today,” and hawk their wares in infomercials and TV mail-order ads. Instead of seeking Top 40 radio airplay, they look to National Public Radio and satellite radio. And to entice more casual consumers, artists now regularly guarantee exclusive recordings to mass retailers like Target or high-end chains that cater to grown-ups.

When I was in Costco last week, I bought three CD’s, Rod Stewart, Tony Bennet’s Duets and Dianna Krall. Bennet’s latest album…”Thanks in part to Target and Starbucks, his “Duets” album has racked up the biggest sales of his career (almost 650,000 copies in its first seven weeks).

And one can only speculate if technology companies were to think about this market, and create clever and thoughtful products, maybe they would be able to sell them to say 37 million people who had time, money and an inclination to buy, but that would be way too complicated wouldn’t it now…they would rather think about the impacts of “YouTube”…

 

Comments

[Elizabeth Grigg]

Thanks for writing this Buzz! It is an eye-opener to de-couple "cool" (read: young) from "success."