Chris Nelson/NYTimes have a piece on the RIAA's recent reliance on boomers as continued customers, because they do not do much online downloading of music, and do more traditional (read: retail store purchases) buying of music (read: more expensive CDs of artists over 40). So retailers and the record companies are catering to these interests. Though it does make me think that retail music selling is becoming a niche market for those less technically adept, and less hip, maybe, compared to the 18-24 market. The music industry sees the boomer group as underserved, and they probably are. But this is also a way to hold onto a business model that is slipping into the past, along with the industrial era, like the horse and buggy market did with the offering of the horseless carriage. It'll work for a while, but at a certain point, it's going to be very, very niche.

And in the meantime, will the recording industry get hip to the fact that they may no longer be in the music unit biz (a single or a cd), but rather are in the biz of selling an audio information experience over as many distribution mechanisms as exist, catering to multiple age groups with a wild range of interests, with greater expectations for flexibility, quality and breadth of selection? We've gotten a taste of the heavenly jukebox, and no matter how retro they go, we're not gonna forget it.