A music mag for people over 30.
Mr. Light said virtually all the current music publications are youth-oriented, without much of interest to someone over 30 who purchases boxed sets by artists like Bob Dylan and samples the work of newer artists like Norah Jones who play music that is anything but trendy. Tracks will come out twice in the first half of 2004 and three times in the second half.
Older consumers generally do not excite advertisers, and Tracks’ first issue has little in the way of ads from companies that are not record labels. But older consumers, whether out of technological impairment or a habit of collecting, still actually buy music. So as the music industry has watched sales drop 30 percent over the last few years, these listeners – and readers – have a special, and growing, power in the music industry.
Five years ago, people under 30 bought 50.4 percent of the music sold, according to the Recording Industry of America. Last year, those over 30 bought 56 percent of the music sold.
“The adult sector of the business is largely download and CD burner-proof,” said David Weyner, general manager of Arista Associated Labels, an Arista Records division focused on adult listeners. “I think that there is a place for a magazine that picks its targets and is able to reach a sophisticated adult audience.”