Good Vibrations - older pop musicians still selling records - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

American Demographics, Sept 1, 2001

When it comes to music, what's old can be new again. Paul McCartney, Jimmy Buffett and John Denver went multi-platinum this year.superscript 1 Some veteran recording artists have even managed to ride the boom in online music sales: the two best-selling albums online in 2000 were by Santana and The Beatles,superscript 2 bands that predated the Internet. But these oldies-but-goodies may not be able to count on their young fans much longer. The 10- to 24-year-old crowd, traditionally a group of avid music buyers, isn't spending its allowance so freely anymore: This age group represented a 34 percent share of all music sales in 2000, down from 44 percent 10 years ago.superscript 3 One reason for the drop may be that these music lovers are finding cheaper ways to get their tunes - such as downloading them for free using music file-swapping services similar to Napster. In fact, 45 percent of college students frequently listen to MP3s, music files downloadable from the Internet.superscript 4 And sales of recordable CDs, the kind you use to store those MP3 files, are expected to grow 44 percent this year, to $1.15 billion, from $800 million last year.superscript 5 Times they are a changin'.

Sources: superscript 1Billboard, superscript 2OneChannel, superscript 3Recording Industry Association of America, superscript 4eBrain Market Research, superscript 5The NPD Group

Pump Up the Volume

TICKET TAKERS

Click and Buy

Rock On!

Online Beats

School Vibes

ALL EARS