Baby Boomers Are A Force In Music Sales

For quite a while now the entertainment industry has aimed its products at the under-35 demographic. The theory is that this is the group with the disposable income, so TV, movies and the music industry do everything they can to target this group.

I suspect this idea comes from the time when the Baby Boomers [those born between 1945 and 1960] were young and made up a large part of the U.S. population. The Boomers still make up a large part of the population, but they have aged and are no longer a part of the targeted demographic.

The music industry is starting to learn that by tending to ignore the older Americans, they may be missing out on a monetary bonanza. The Boomers have not stopped buying and appreciating music just because they got older.

Recording Industry Association of America's latest figures show the Baby Boomers are still a powerful force in music industry sales. In fact, they may be the most powerful force. People over 45 years old accounted for 25% of all music sales last year. This is over twice the sales of any other age group. Even more remarkable, they accounted for 24% of all online music sales [ I guess they're more computer savvy than generally given credit for].

This flies in the face of conventional wisdom, which has always considered the music industry to be youth-driven. The Baby Boomers have as much, if not more, disposable income as the youth have, and they're willing to spend it on entertainment.

The music industry is starting to realize its mistake. Maybe it's time for the TV and movie industries to take stock of what they're doing. They may be missing out on this same monetary bonanza by ignoring the Baby Boomers.