Blue Note Web site embraces the graying of digital

By Antony Bruno

DENVER (Billboard) - Visitors to Blue Note's Web site will be in for a surprise in late August.

The label is in the process of revamping the site to become a social network and digital music store for fans of jazz and blues -- the staples of the Blue Note catalog -- rather than a simple promotional Web site for its artists.

It's a bold move for a label whose core age demographic is 35-54 -- far older than the typical 18-34 age group that virtually all other digital music services target these days.

But Blue Note general manager Zach Hochkeppel thinks the digital music market has overlooked older music fans for far too long and that the time has come to start teaching old dogs new tricks.

"They need to be brought into the fold," he said. "No marketing and no attention is usually paid to an older demographic. They're sort of ignored and neglected by media in general. Youth is always the first and foremost target, (which) sends the message to the older consumer that 'This isn't for you.'"

Although the assumption is that digital music is a format for young adults, studies show that older users are in fact quite active with new media.

A December Ipsos TEMPO survey found 35- to 54-year-olds made up 31 percent of those users who paid for music downloads. When you include those 55 and over, adults beyond the age of 34 make up about 40 percent of all paid a la carte downloaders -- twice the proportion that teens account for. They also download more songs than average: nine per month compared with the average five across all generations.

The generation gap is similar for music subscription services, where 35- to 54-year-olds represent 45 percent of those who exclusively use paid streaming or subscription-based music services. Meanwhile, an April study by the same company found that only 10 percent of 25- to 54-year-olds admitted to downloading music from peer-to-peer networks, compared with 21 percent of the 24-34 group and 27 percent of the 18-24 bracket.