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#Post#: 13666--------------------------------------------------
How To Get Young People To Become Audiophiles
DIR By: Mac
Date: November 6, 2012, 6:15 pm
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This could go in hardware too. But it's more about the concept
of good sound music.
[glow=red,2,300]How To Get Young People To Become
Audiophiles[/glow]
hometheaterreview.com
HTML http://hometheaterreview.com/how-to-get-young-people-to-become-audiophiles/
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>
> In the past, I have written on the topic of creative ways to
lure younger audiences into becoming audio enthusiasts. En route
home to Los Angeles from my first trip to the 2012 Rocky
Mountain Audio Fest (RMAF), this issue currently seems even more
pressing to the future success of the hobby/business of
enthusiast audio. At RMAF, there were about a dozen companies
that really get it. They play the right music. They offer
value-oriented products. They have beautiful industrial design.
They have meaningful distribution, be it through brick and
mortar stores, big box stores, Apple stores, Amazon.com or
Internet direct. They get it. Sadly, most others don't, with
companies falling into two categories that can be summed up as
a) clueless to the end-of-the-world scenario that is coming in
the next five to ten years, when Baby Boomers will be too old to
realistically buy audio the way they do today and b) those who
know the end is coming, but simply don't care. Either way, the
situation isn't healthy.
>
> Want some encouraging facts? Generation Y (kids coming out of
college now or who are in their early 20s) are the largest
demographic ever - bigger than the Baby Boomers who invented
audiophilia. Better yet, these kids love music more than Gen
Xers or Boomers do, so there is a larger potential audience than
ever who will want to buy audio gear. So what's the problem, you
ask?
>
> First, Generation Y-ers have become adults in the Great
Recession, so they don't have the money (yet) to invest in
luxury goods. Many are still living with their parents (known as
"boomeranging") and/or trying to get a foothold with their first
jobs in the worst market since the 1920s in the United States.
Next, Generation Y people have little to no focus or patience.
They talk, text and often fidget all at the same time. Diagnoses
of ADHD are as common as dandruff with these kids, who tend
listen to music very differently than do Generation X and Baby
Boomers. They skip songs. They lose interest and seek the next
buzz from the next track. They don't know a world without 10,000
songs on your phone or a fast-forward button for your 250
playlists or an era without Pandora, Spotify or Internet Radio.
Lastly, Generation Y-ers don't value luxury goods the same way
that older generations do. What they consider to be cool
wouldn't always be considered cool by their elders, an issue
that specifically ties to the industrial design of audiophile
gear. Generation Y-ers want (perhaps demand) to be wireless,
mobile and have their content the way that they want it, even if
it's not the way that is "truthful to the music," or as the
producer intended it. Realistically, they don't care, and they
are the ones about to spend the kind of money that will define
the audio business for the next 25 to 50 years. A sea change is
coming, even if many who were at RMAF can't see it quite yet.
>
> One company has done a fantastic job of cashing in on
Generation Y in terms of audio, albeit with Bose-like mediocre
audio, and that is Beats By Dre. Monster Cable's Noel Lee and
superstar record producer Jimmy Iovine literally hit the audio
grand slam with their terrible-sounding headphones by finding a
way to sell hip-hop lifestyle more than audio into very
profitable headphones that accompany every aspect of life, not
just in the big cities but also to everyone in the Mall of
America and/or who wear their jeans below their ass crack (on
purpose), no matter how "gangsta" they aren't. With nearly
3,000,000 Facebook fans and mainstream crossover, Beats is an
unqualified audio success, which proves that the concept of
selling to the next generation of consumers can in fact be done.
>
> So how do more niche audiophile companies get in on even a
taste of the payday that Noel Lee and Jimmy Iovine were smart
enough to pull down? Here are some tips for audiophile companies
and brick and mortar retailers:
>
> 1. Change the focus away from $20,000 and higher components
that have been so much a part of recent audio shows. Younger
clients can't relate to or even dream of such investments.
Always demonstrate attainable, aspirational audio, just like the
Marantz or McIntosh product was to the Boomer at the PX in
Vietnam. These stores allowed Boomers to set goals for the
luxury goods that they wanted to buy someday, not goals that are
so lofty that they likely can never be accomplished. They still
are buying this gear to this day, but new goals need to be set
for a contemporary larger, more music-loving generation.
>
> 2. Accept the fact that vinyl isn't the audiophile savior, no
matter how near and dear the format is to your heart. The facts
are clear: vinyl physically has limited dynamic range, high
signal to noise ratio and wears out quickly, even in comparison
to the now 30-year-old compact disc. Despite its collectability
and retro appeal, it's a sonically flawed format that wasn't
designed for a generation who grew up on HD formats. The
audiophile community needs to sell Generation Y on music in HD
in one format or another. Blu-ray and downloads, perhaps even
video games - all of which are HD audio (and video in many
cases). Look at the sales numbers in 2012. EA Sports can sell
1,400,000 copies of Madden Football at SIX TIMES the per-disc
price of a vinyl record in ONE WEEK. Consider than every new
vinyl record sold in 2011 for every title pressed sold 3,900,000
units and you can see that; the
"I-love-the-past-better-when-I-can-see-the-future" audiophile
pundits who think vinyl is making a comeback because sales have
increased 39 percent this year to date are wrong. Compact discs
sold in the neighborhood of 260,000,000 discs in 2011, which is
66.6 times more sales volume. What audiophiles are doing is
making the argument that you are rich if the $100 you have in
the bank goes up 39 percent to $139. Don't confuse growth
percentage with market growth. The numbers say that at best
vinyl is a tiny niche format and it's been that way since the
early 1990s. The future is in high-definition digital audio.
>
> 3. Make audio more social. Generation Y communicates very
differently than past generations. It's normal for them to tweet
from a movie a mere ten minutes into the film to their entire
network. They will sit in a group at a coffee shop with their
devices out (phone, tablet, laptop) and enjoy media,
communicating with the world at the same time they talk face to
face with their friends in the room. This might seem odd to us
old farts, but it's how they do it. It's how they like it and
there little to nothing we can do to change it, so we'd better
embrace it. Could dealers create live events hosted over social
networks like Twitter that involve the best bands of today and
an audio experience that could only happen in a 7.1 audio HD
playback system? If so, how many dealers are man enough to host
the event? Here's a hint: don't forget to bring the Starbucks.
>
> 4. Don't pressure the close. It takes time to earn a sale and
Generation Y has problems like student loan debt and/of
affording real estate some day that more than likely come before
audio. It's important to plant sales seeds now that will grow
into mighty oaks someday in the future. Traditional dealers must
put aside the stereotypical audiophile aloof attitudes and do
some meaningful demos for some younger people at all costs.
Older audiophiles who love audio need to invite younger ones to
go shopping with them at top stores. Take them to hear live
music (where they want to go to hear the music they like) and
compare that to the best that the world of audiophila has to
offer. As Generation Y's buying power increases, watch the
audiophile hobby grow in kind.
>
> Many major names in the audiophile business are worried about
the future and they have good reason to be scared right now.
Historically, audiophiles have been quirky, non-showering,
live-in-the-basement-of-your-Mom's-house guys that tinker with
equipment with a zest for some kind of audio truth that can be
best compared to a cult-like fringe religion. The good news is
that Generation Y loves music first, which is the key to
creating a truly excellent audio customer, not a buy-it-used
stereotypical audiophile. The challenge is to show the kids the
WOW factor today, so that when they grow into having the money
to buy true high-end a few years down the road, they'll do so.
Noel Lee and Jimmy Iovine proved that it can be done, but they
were thinking out of the box. Can the audiophile world become
focused on their future clients? Bet your bottom dollar that the
future of this hobby/business depends on it.
>
>
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