Could it be....

[hmglaz@webtv.net (Howard Glazer)]

... that the downturn in recorded music sales over the past few years
could be a result of the graying of the baby boomer demographic? All the
boomers, after all, are over 40. A good number of them are over 50.
Since most music is purchased by people in their teens through thirties,
it would seem to me that music sales would have nowhere to go but down. 

The record companies, apparently, don't take the population shift into
account, as they continue to push heavily researched, meticulously
planned youth-targeted product at a youth market that's just not as
large a part of the total population as the baby boomers were during the
industry's boom years.

And couldn't the crassly marketing-driven nature of much of the
big-label product also be dulling the buying impulse?

Howard