Re: the old geezer skew of digital music buyers ...

From MediaPost Raw:

Rant: Beatles Mania Shows Apple’s Age

That’s it?! That was Apple’s big game-changing announcement?! The fact that Steve Jobs finally got his hands on the Beatles catalogue?! “Thank goodness that is out of the way; now we can focus on important developments,” jokes Forrester’s Mark Mulligan. “The fact that securing the content of a band old enough to be most young music fans’ grandfathers (and some) is a sad reflection of the state of the digital music market.” Sure, the music will sell and sell well, but, as Mulligan adds: “That’s just further depressing evidence of the old geezer skew of digital music buyers.” In its defense, Apple is pursuing innovations, including ongoing efforts to move its music service to the “the cloud.” It also recently hired Elliott Peters — formerly Warner Music Group’s senior VP and head of digital legal affairs — to twist the industry’s arm on the matter. Still, regarding the big Beatles win (!), Milligan says: “The digital music market (and the young music fans that record labels desperately need to get engaged) needs new music products, not yesteryear’s hits repackaged.”

I love all things digital and even when I have to be drawn kicking and screaming into it (e.g., HDTV) I will almost always settle down and just learn to love it.  I say this as Iron Man 2 spashes it's CGI way in the background across the office LCD screen in Dolby 5.1.  Much nicer than watching Close Encounters on the BetaMax playing on a Sony 26-inch monitor.  In glorious mono.  But it was really good mono...

It's awfully weird that British Invasion tunes from a half-century back are re-invigorating the digital music world and it's just a little embarassing.  I'm not so sure I'd pay a buck and a quarter to hear Hey Jude as a "newly mastered" MP3.  Or $12.99 for The White Album, which originally cost me $3.99 at the PX.