After exploring the habits of young listeners on Day 1 of Bandwidth, Day 2 began with a panel focused on how to reach music consumers age 35 and up. As one might expect, the panelists agreed that offline media is critical when targeting this demographic. Eric Johnson of Wolfgang's Vault noted that traditional PR and marketing -newspapers, terrestrial radio, etc.-is more effective than online marketing in driving traffic their site. KFOG's David Benson reminded the audience that many people still enjoy radio stations like his and use it as their primary source for discovering new music. Benson also cited a recent survey in which 85% of his audience said they buy the majority of their music in CD format.
But digital marketing is important too. Celia Herschman (One Little Indian) said...
that while traditional media works well for established artists, it tends to be a waste of money for emerging artists. You simply can't "buy your way in" to the marketplace anymore. Chris Domingez of GetBack, an online community targeted at music fans ages 35 - 55, believes that the key to reaching the 35+ demographic is establishing an emotional connection with the audience. In his opinion, social networks like MySpace and Facebook haven't done this effectively. Domingez also noted that older music fans do buy digital music in addition to CDs.
By Laurence Trifon of Trifonic
