They don't buy it

Baby boomers are purchasing more CDs than ever -- but not jazz or classical. Can these genres survive in an increasingly bottom-line business?

By Eric Boehlert

Jul 6, 2000 | From the cradle to the grave: That's how serious baby boomers are about hearing the hits. The members of this influential demographic group, the last of whom grew up in the '60s and '70s, now have kids of their own (even as they refuse to excuse themselves from the pop-culture table) -- and are rewriting the rules of record sales.

According to a recently released annual consumer profile conducted by the Recording Industry Association of America, shoppers ages 45 and up purchased 25 percent of all music last year, up a whopping 38 percent in a single year -- easily the largest jump of any age group.

As prosperous baby boomers grow older, so too does the age of the average music consumer -- a surprise perhaps for those who think Backstreet Boys fans fuel the music business. "The assumption that music is the domain of 12-to-24-year-olds is wildly inaccurate," says Mike Shallett, chief operating officer of SoundScan, which tracks music sales.

Ten years ago shoppers over age 35 purchased just 29 percent of records, according to the RIAA. By 1999 that number had jumped to 44 percent, good for $6 billion worth of music sales.

For the mainstream music business that's a godsend. "Twenty years ago, adults meant nothing to the music business," says John Sykes, president of VH1, the music video channel that caters to 30-plus fans. "This generation was raised with incredible passion for music," he adds. "Their parents had five kids and threw out the stereo. But [these people] are getting married, upgrading their stereo and putting CD players in the car. They want to know what's going on musically, and don't want to end up in classic-rock hell."

The parents-as-rockers phenomenon is mostly a function of demographics and nostalgia. According to U.S. Census projections, the two most populous age groups in America are 35-to-39-year-olds and 40-to-44-year-olds. Each of these boomer wedges boasts 22 million members.

Look beyond the Kid Rocks and Britney Spears of the charts, and you'll spot loads of platinum acts who depend on this mortgage-paying collective: Macy Gray, Toni Braxton, Matchbox 20, Dixie Chicks, Sting, Faith Hill, Buena Vista Social Club, Sarah McLachlan, Santana and Shania Twain, among others.

Also fueling the music spending spree is the fact that boomers have new retail outlets that cater to their tastes, such as Borders Books and Music and Barnes & Noble. The bookstores have quickly snatched up nearly $700 million in music sales annually. "The resurgence among those 35-plus and 45 is mostly due to better places for them to go to shop for music, like Borders," says Ken Cosimano, vice president of multimedia merchandising for Borders' 312 stores. "They were uncomfortable shopping in the mall and music superstore environment. We lured them back into the marketplace." (The same trend seems to hold online, where book giant Amazon.com's current bestselling CDs include new releases by VH1 players k.d. lang, Sting, Don Henley and Siniad O'Connor.)

Yet despite this unique chance to market to a wave of music-buying adults who, according to one recent survey, buy an average of 20 CDs each every year, sales indicators suggest these 30-, 40- and even 50-something parents remain cool to jazz and classical.

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